Training of Informal School Teachers

As we come out of Covid and life returns to some kind of normality the opportunity to get back to a fully operational organisation is paramount. Immediately after getting the recent marks for KCSE secondary exams we had a new cohort of Form 4 (Yr.13 in UK terms) leavers asking to become Trainee Supervisors before going off to University. There is a driving momentum by these individuals to "give back" as they realise that many would propably not have been able to progress to University if it wasn't for the Schools of Hope.These extra Trainees are also essential as the numbers of students has grown now to alsmost 4,000 students requiring more supervisors and coaches. So not only are we contiuing to train our original cohort of Volunteer Supervisors but we are also starting the process again with the new cohort. Much of the training therefore has become ongoing with a mixture of starter & refresher courses. Certificates for the equivalent of CRB/DBS can be obtained in Kenya at a fee but it is often suggested that the check is not always as important as the fee. For this reason all our Volunteer Supervisors are known to the Community in which they work and known personally by the SoH organising Committee.Thereafter the training in Due Diligence and Child Protection as well the disciplines of roles and expectations of volunteer supervisors goes a long way to create a safe and secure environment for the supervisors and students to operate. Life skills, Girls Empowerment programmes and Expectations and Responsibilities for boys along with Good Citizenship courses as well as sports coaching courses creates a firm framework for our Schools of Hope to prosper. The fact that we continue to have Form 4 leavers wanting to act as Supervisors allows ChallengeAid to have a secure and sustainable future with most of our Supervisors having come through the system and knowing how we operate and the expectations that they are taking on.

In this most difficult of times with the COVID19 pandemic - many of our Schools of Hope had been shut down as have all Government Schools in Kenya for much of last year. The good news is that everything is back on track in the next few weeks.Though schools are starting back people in the slums pupils have taken their exams and are currently expecting to receive their results.

Most people do not have savings so the idea of not working ultimately means starving so the past year has been a real problem for most families.. This is the situation in which hundreds of thousands have to exist - this is their reality.Restrictions are relaxing but but civil society is still not back to normal yet.

The Supervisors are in communication with ChallengeAid and we are currently motivating our volunteer supervisors. Many of our Form 4 leavers who are hoping to move on to Higher Education are already volunteering to become our next generation of leaders for the SoH's.The monthly meetings with the new supervisors is now occurring again and the training proccess is back to normal.at the moment.What does emerge from the situation is the need to get this training fully back on track as soon as we are able to cascade the learning to the young people who rely on the SoH's to fulfil their aspirations and turn them into a reality.Our ChallengeAid staff is iniating this process.

The one really positive story to tell is that because of school closures over the best part of last year ChallengeAid was able able to create online lessons for Form 4 students (equivalent of Yr13 A Level) in Maths, Physics, Chemistry & Biology. Over the past months students living in some of the most impoverished parts of Nairobi have been having online lessons from experienced volunteers in the UK. There have been at least one lesson of each subject each week with usually two Maths lessons. We have been teaching over 100 children with a total week's attendance of approximately 200. These lessons have been screened into 6 SoH's with the best wi-fi connectivity.The lessons have been projected from a laptop onto a white plain wall screen.These pupils who are currently benefitting will now have more chance of doing well in their KCSE exams with a greater liklihood of going on to University or vocational training and consequently returning back to the SoH's as better qualified supervisors.

So we are now working with the Association of Informal Schools in the slums of which the are approximately 100 and will be looking to provide Inset training for the teachers in those slums. The more funding we receive the better the chance we have of doing a top quality job. Many teachers have to teach at least two subjects so the need to upskill is really important for the pupils to receive quality learning.

In other words the need is occurring right now and we would love to progress with this project which just next year will have a direct effect on 2000 Form 4 Learners - please help us to help them !