|
600 pupils share two classrooms in Arumeru
2006-02-16 09:09:24
By Adam Ihucha, Arusha
Ngejusosia Primary School in Arumeru District, Arusha Region, has only two classrooms that are shared by 600 pupils.
The situation at the public school located in King’ori Ward, 25 kilometres east of Arusha City, is so dire that it is not unusual for two teachers to conduct lessons to different classes simultaneously in the same classroom.
A team of journalists made a surprise visit to the school earlier this week and witnessed Standard One and Four pupils struggling to concentrate as two teachers taught them simultaneously at opposite ends of the same classroom.
Ngejusosia Village Chairman Akundaeli Ndelekwa Mafie said the school was established in 2003 and had 600 pupils studying in eight streams in standards one up to four.
However, the school has just two classrooms and this means that pupils in different classes either have to use the rooms in turns or share them at the same time.
He said the school was housed in a building that was originally meant to serve as the village warehouse, adding that plans were afoot to build more classrooms.
Mafie said 4.5m/- had been raised for the construction of a third classroom scheduled to begin in the near future.
A teacher, Genoveve Kimaryo, said the area was very windy and that this made it impossible for pupils to learn in the open.
’Winds in this area are very strong.
It is also extremely hot outside. We are thus not able to conduct classes outside and have to make do with the two classrooms that are currently available,’ she said.
Another teacher, Hezekiel Shemzigwa, said it was difficult for teachers to teach well and pupils to easily grasp what they were taught in such an environment.
’The conditions are far from being ideal. It is virtually impossible for us to perform our duties efficiently as it is equally impossible for pupils to concentrate, but there is nothing we can do,’ he said.
Two female teachers who were recently posted to the school sleep in the makeshift staffroom for lack of teachers’ quarters.
The school’s head teacher, Suraeli Lesiyo Nanyaro, was not available for comment as she was away when the journalists visited the school.
However, Arumeru District Schools Inspector Frank Mwambashi reacted with shock when the reporters informed him of the situation at the school, saying he found it difficult to believe what they told him.
’That is impossible…there are no such schools in Tanzania today,’ he said, and promised to urgently follow up the matter.
|
