The Imago Foundation will build and run a nursery and primary school in the village of Namaso in Mangochi, Malawi which will provide education to around 350 children once complete. The school will deliver a tailored curriculum comprised of theoretical and practical knowledge for the best chance of understanding the world we live in.
Curriculum &Teaching Style: Malawi government schools deliver a curriculum from universal subject books. So each day, nationwide, each class of pupils in each subject will be learning the exact same lesson at the exact same time; mostly likely dictated and copied from a chalk board. This style of 'teaching' leaves no room for creativity and flexibility. It also means that more often than not, students are not understanding what they are even writing, they are merely copying a pattern of letters.
The Imago foundation will implement their own tailored curriculum that encourages independent thinking, imagination and creativity, both in pupils and staff, and allows pupils to explore concepts and themes to understand the world around them. It will include all of the necessary content from the Malawi national curriculum for pupils to pass their exams. The school will run also alongside permaculture to enable pupils to farm sustainably and have a food supply all year round.
By passing the Malawian exams - and actually understanding the knowledge they have to pass their exams, rather than reciting/memorising certain phrases - pupils will have an advantage at being selected for high school and progressing into the job market. By practising permaculture, children will also have better prospects at a healthier life and will hold the skills to utilize water and make their own compost etc rather than relying on outside sources ie buying compost annually at a high cost.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).