Improving the Odds for Success Through Enriched Education Opportunities Like TEC

You might be able to imagine that getting an education in Tanzania could be a challenge. If you are a girl and if your family has little income, the challenge increases. If you belong to the Maasai tribe, it increases yet again. If you live in a rural area, triple the challenge. As a Canadian-born and educated woman, I can say that those of us living in this part of the world really have no idea what girls and women in Africa go through daily to realize their dreams of being educated.

Education opportunities have changed greatly for these three generations - mother, daughter, grandmother.

Developing countries are doing what the name says - developing. When I visit Tanzania it feels like systems and structures are about 50 years behind what we enjoy in the western world. There are many examples but I am thinking of things like health care, transportation and roads, and education. We can "see" inside so much of the world today thanks to wonders like the internet and smart phones and cable television. Watching news coverage of stories in places like Africa do you sometimes find yourself asking, how can people live like that? or why don't they change? or what's wrong with them?

Well, there is nothing wrong with Africans. They are developing and changing just as other countries have. They are facing enormous challenges and can use all the help they can get from those of us who have progressed through the development phases before them.

These girls thrive when given the opportunities for enriched education Canadian girls have. 

Receiving education is crucial to development and, while any education has the potential to open future possibilities for us, good quality education that provides both learning and confidence makes the greatest difference. Looking at the report cards of many students in Tanzania, some might be prompted to ask, what's wrong with these students? or why aren't they succeeding? We might falsely conclude that Tanzanians are not as smart as we are. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The girls TEMBO sponsors are just like Canadian girls in secondary school. Except for a few differences: they live in rural villages in a country that is still developing, including the education system and teacher preparation; most of their families are economically very poor and secondary school is not free; they belong to the Maasai tribe where formal education has not been part of the culture and, if a family can send a child to school it is usually a boy; there are very few syllabus books for students to share; and all subjects taught in secondary school are taught in English - a third language the students have had very little exposure to - after speaking the Maa language at home and Swahili in primary school. I could go on about the hurdles Tanzanian girls have to face but I think you get the picture.

Mary Laiser does all the on the ground preparations in Tanzania for TEC.

Four years ago I was having a conversation during a project visit with Mary Laiser, one of the TEMBO staff  very involved in the education program. We were concerned about the failing grades of many of the girls and wanted to do something to help them succeed. We decided to offer the girls a chance to receive tutoring during their one month break in June. Mary made arrangements for the girls to be accommodated in Longido and be instructed by one of the teachers. The first week went well then the girls began skipping classes and failing the tests. We ended the program after the second week. The program was not what they needed and too much like what they got during the school year. The girls went back to school after the break and little changed.

I talked with Marian Roks, one of the TEMBO co-founders, and a life long teacher. I knew Marian had coordinated summer camps for many years for deaf students in Ottawa. These camps were both rich learning opportunities and enjoyable experiences her students looked forward to each year. Could something like this ever work in Tanzania? Why not, we concluded, since students are the same everywhere.

Marian Roks and some of the girls dressed in orange to celebrate
the Netherlands success in the 2010 Fifa  World Cup.

You need to know about TEC - the TEMBO English Camp - developed by Marian and Virginia Taylor. Virginia is on the Project TEMBO Board of Directors in Canada and she is also an instructor in the ESL Teacher Training Program at Carleton University in Ottawa. TEC takes place for three weeks in June, half a world away, and I am sure that, if you listen closely, you can hear and feel the joy it exudes right across the Atlantic Ocean. It's a program delivered entirely in English that we believe is really making a difference for the girls TEMBO sponsors. It's part formal instruction shaped around the girls' school curriculum; part informal instruction through activities like the camera club, or cooking, or sports and games; and a whole lot of fun that takes place through interactions and conversations with Marian, Virginia, and the growing number of Canadian volunteers taking part in TEC.

Virginia Taylor with two of the proud TEC graduates in 2010, the inaugural year.

Recently, Marian, Virginia, and I met for coffee at Bridgehead Coffee House in Ottawa to talk about the June 2012 TEC program. The lesson planning has been well under way for a number of weeks with Canadian teachers and volunteers both in university and older. We talked about exciting new ideas to incorporate into the evolving TEC program, including important suggestions from Mary and Paulina in Tanzania. This year student teachers from Mt Meru University and in Teacher Training programs will be involved. It's part of the vision TEMBO has of making this education support program sustainable. Another addition will be including 15 students from Kimokouwa and Longido Primary Schools in a "Pre-TEC" program. This will allow TEMBO to help students become comfortable at reading and speaking English before they get to secondary school.

TEC has grown to the point that it would not be possible without the involvement of so many in Canada and the time, skills, and coordination of Mary Laiser and other TEMBO staff in Tanzania. This year we are especially grateful to the Ontario Teachers' Federation for a $5000.00 donation for TEC program expenses.

The education system in Tanzania is developing. Many feel it is not happening quickly enough. In February students at Ketumbeine Secondary School - where some of TEMBO's sponsored girls attend - "rioted" in protest of the poor quality teaching they were receiving. They publicly drew attention to an important reality: it is very difficult for rural schools in Tanzania to attract well trained teachers. This is not to say there are not good teachers in the countryside - it's just that there are very few of them.

All of us believe that the girls TEMBO sponsors can and will do better academically with help we can provide. We've got a lot to share thanks to the abundant and varied education opportunities we've had. And if some girls in Tanzania can gain confidence - through an enjoyable enriched learning program - that will help them do better in the classroom, then the time and effort running the TEC program is a very good investment.