Learning, power and literacy

This is more Elimu-related than it is about the charity specifically. Whilst attempting to find something that I had recently misplaced, always the way, I instead came across some lecture notes that I made a few years ago after taking a course on Teachers, Teaching and Learning in the Context of Education for All as part of my Masters. These notes do not seem to have featured in an essay but they are relevant to Elimu and to the schools we work with, both in Kenya and in the UK.

Some of those thoughts and comments I have put together here:

-          There is no historical context for where good governance has led to good education; it is normally the other way round, starting with grassroots movements.

-          Historically and now, at least since human beings began to keep written records, the written word has dominated.

-          If literacy is so fundamental to other areas of life – i.e. skills and accessibility – why is so little money spent on it? Is it perhaps because it is not generally seen as a separate programme within basic primary education? (And secondary education, for that matter).

-          Different conceptions of literacy. Access to something is prioritised, but competency is not – what outcomes should there be? Can it be pre-judged when it is down to an individual’s ability to understand? How should it be judged? There is, for example, a clear gauge within banking – literacy is harder. Measurable benefits, beyond the reach of a school, can take a generation. Timescales though are important for policymakers.

-          To have literacy, and to be literate, is to articulate with the state.

-          Literacy is the foundation to education. Decoding and understanding = access, in real terms.

-          Chinese example of dyslexia affecting other side of the brain to that of someone in a western country because Chinese languages are based in symbols. Is being literate the same as acquiring a language? Does one concern understanding while the other is more of a technical function? Should we not have a holistic understanding of both these things?

-          Education is not a guarantee, but it is an opportunity. Education works with other domains i.e. law, human rights, society, and policy.

-          Education is a project of engagement but there is complexity surrounding it. The timescale for effective change is long, but it has to start somewhere.

-          In former colonies, which have changed beyond recognition due to Imperialism, it is too late to go back and undo what has been done. Have to listen and engage and help give options. It is important to pause, consider and involve before going forward in the most morally responsible way.

-          EFA (Education for All) goal is antagonistic towards nomadic values and cultures where individual rights are subordinate to the welfare and survival of the unit.

-          There is a tendency especially within former colonies to defer to what or who is perceived to be the best – some governments are unsure of how to proceed in implementing global policies, so they wait for outside ‘experts’ to come in even though they do not know the context.

-          Missing element in educational policy is teachers.

-          Communication of global and national policies tends to go from the top to the bottom. Development has become a business. Are we at risk of simply going round in circles?

And yet, I concluded at the end of my notes that there was hope. The implementation, development and acquirement of education, I felt then as now, is a process that is never finished. It is always improving, and when we look back on what there was before we should hopefully see that for all the things we may have got wrong, there is usually some improvement, some heightened awareness and understanding, somewhere.

The same is true I hope for Elimu

Jo

Countryside walk coming up!

As we speed towards our next sixth form Kenya trip, departing from London Heathrow on 28 June, a few updates in the world of Elimu.

Our recent African themed fundraiser was a lovely occasion (photos from Lucy to follow in due course) and we are very grateful to everyone who came along to support us and helped make the event possible. The Mayor of Bromley attended with his consort, Marianne Chambers, and took the time to write a very throughful note afterwards saying how much he and Marianne had enjoyed it.

Special thanks goes to Kevin French again for supplying the food and to Katy Hughes, head of Art at The Priory, who allowed us to host the evening in the Art block (she, in fact, suggested it!) and donated two of her paintings for the auction. She had been working on them both - one a giraffe and the other a Malachite Kingfisher, a bird commonly found on Lake Naivasha, Kenya - for a while.

The evening raised nearly £400 for Elimu, which has risen, and is still rising, to over £600 thanks to the generous donations of absentee supporters.

With the summer holidays in sight, Elimu's focus for the next few months is to build on this and raise as much as possible for the charity, particularly our development project, Stalion nursery school. This will be through grant applications as well as further fundraising ventures. As mentioned previously, we have been offered a conditional grant of £5,000 from the AV Foundation which will be released in two parts once we have raised half of that amount ourselves.

It is a tough time for any charity to be raising funds, especially one as small and relatively new as Elimu, but we are determined.

In view of this, we are organising a countryside sponsored walk to take place on Sunday, 15 July, starting in Borough Green and ending in Sevenoaks via Ightham, apple orchards and a nice pub lunch, Knole Park and an afternoon tea stop. The walk is 9.6 miles and rated 4/10 for difficulty according to Time Out magazine. Having completed a reki last week, I can confirm it is a beautiful walk suitable for both regular and non-walkers.

We are hoping for warmth and sunshine and encourage as many people as possible to join us!

Please email joanne@elimufoundation.org.uk for a sponsor form and exact details.

More about the route can be found here http://www.walkingclub.org.uk/book_1/walk_36/index.shtml

In other news... Elimu is now a member of the Small Charities Coalition, which brings together small charities with experts in the sector and provides opportunities for networking, skills sharing and mentoring www.smallcharities.org.uk

We are also excited to report that we have joined The Big Give, part of the Reed Foundation, which offers a free and intelligent way for philanthropists to support charities and projects of interest, and for charities to engage with donors. The Big Give showcases the work of its member charities and runs a variety of programmes and events to help them raise funds and further their income. Elimu's profile - which took several hours to set-up and contains extensive information on the Stalion project, including aims, impacts, risks, background and who is involved - can be viewed here http://new.thebiggive.org.uk/charity/view/10498

More on this to come!

Don't forget to make contact if you would like to breathe in some country air and take part in our walk on 15 July.

With thanks and best wishes,

Jo

FCO map and update 28 May

Elimu would like to acknowledge news reports of an explosion at a shopping centre in Nairobi earlier today. The cause of the blast is not yet known; Kenyan police stated this afternoon that it may be due to an electrical fault in the building rather than an act of terrorism.

Foreign Office advice on travel to Kenya remains the same. The FCO said on 28 May:

The overall level of the advice has not changed.  We advise against all but essential travel to within 60km of the Somali border (including Kiwayu and coastal areas north of Pate Island), to Garissa district and to low income areas of Nairobi, including all township or slum areas.

The Foreign Office website now includes a map of Kenya highlighting exactly which parts of the country it advises against travelling to; our trips are not affected by this. Please click on the map below to enlarge:

With best wishes,

Jo

Saturday's menu!

Saturday is fast approaching - and here is a glimpse of our menu for the evening:

*Fruit punch served on arrival*

*Morroccan style meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce
*Rice
*Cous cous
*Hommous
*Pitta/breads/breadsticks
*Olives

*Fresh fruit on tables

A very big thank you to the excellent Kevin French who is kindly donating the food, his time and his culinary skills.

Jo

*please bring own drinks; glasses will be provided.

1 month, 29 days and counting...

With precisely one month and 29 days to go until our next school trip departs for Africa, a round-up of Elimu news.

March was our 18 mile sponsored walk to the Kenyan Embassy with this year's sixth formers. They were raising funds for their trip and were a pleasure to spend time with. We were blessed all day with blue skies and sunshine. Well done to all of them and thank you very much to those who gave up their Saturday to come along and support.

April, meanwhile, has been both a busy and a contemplative month. There has been much to think about regarding Elimu's future plans and fundraising, details of which will be reported soon, and also final preparations to make for Kenya.

This will be the trip that builds on the last two years, both pre- Elimu and the one that took place at the very start of it, to not only offer further opportunities for schools from both countries to come together but to also explore more fully the role of teachers and teacher development in our work.

We have seen already how the sharing and practice of different teaching styles and ideas can have a positive effect on teacher morale and student learning.

In Kipsamo School, the presence of one UK teacher last year has led to an early review of the way poetry is taught. There has been a growing emphasis on poetry for meaning and as a forum in which to develop analytical skills. This is something that is usually done at secondary level, but as one district education officer in Nandi Hills observed, in Kenya, children are aged 14 or older by that time. As such, they do not have as much of a chance to develop those skills even though they are the ones that are needed the most and that will feature in their exams.

Once, a long time ago, I had a conversation with another volunteer about why I was teaching my classes quotes from Shakespeare and showing them some of my favourite poems. He wondered if those things were important when faced with low literacy rates. I wondered if perhaps he was right. It is all too easy, then and now, to take the wrong approach and do the wrong thing. But my students had begun to tell me what they thought those quotes and poems might mean, and bit by bit, to analyse them.

Through Elimu's school link programme, we want to support literacy in African schools (the results of which we are also beginning to now see) whilst enabling them to consider teaching and learning in different ways, to the benefit of their teachers as well as their students. One cannot exist without the other.

In July Kipsamo will host its second teacher conference involving our visting UK schools, The Priory and Bishop Justus, as well as three other local schools.

Last week's Times Educational Supplement carries an article on Elimu that I wrote to highlight the impact of these visits on our students here. http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6210950

Interestingly, Clare Deacon who is on our advisory board recently came across this video about being both an NGO and a tour operator, and finding a balance between the two. Recommended.

http://lessonsilearned.org/2012/04/meet-pepy-tours/

In other news, Happy Birthday to Elimu advisor Andy Cooper who celebrates the end of one decade and the start of another - and a special mention to our web designer, Bob Jones. Bob very kindly developed the website on a voluntary basis and continues to maintain it on the charity's behalf. He is currently working on a major revamp of the site which will see this blog incorporated onto the homepage. We are extremely grateful to Bob for his patience and hardwork. For anyone looking for a reliable, skilled website designer, Bob can be found here http://www.mynameisbobby.co.uk/

This Saturday is our African themed fundraising evening which is being held in the Art Department at The Priory School. We are delighted to announce that the Bromley Mayor has accepted our invitation and will be in attendance along with staff, parents, students and friends of both ours and the school's.

A short film of our most recent trips to Kenya will be screened. There will be an auction of special prizes and a photographic display featuring 40 of the photographs our almost-resident photographer, Lucy Strutt, took of the people and places we work with when she visited Kenya last October. These photos will also be up for auction. Here is a quick preview:

The event is primarily to support the long awaited re-construction of Stalion nursery and infants school.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible!

With thanks,

Jo

Invitation to African Themed Evening fundraiser

We would like to invite all our supporters to the following fundraising event (please click to enlarge):

The evening promises good company, fun and laugher, and a nice atmosphere. For directions on how to get to The Priory School, which is kindly allowing us to hold the event in its Art Department, please visit www.priory.bromley.sch.uk or email joanne@elimufoundation.org.uk

The view from Nairobi: report from Elimu advisor Andy Cooper

Elimu advisor Andy Cooper has been in Kenya recently for his day job - and sent this reassuring report back to the trustees and to the headteachers of our UK schools on the current security situation there:

While in Kenya, I took the time to just have a look round Nairobi (and particularly places like the airport where our school trips will have to spend time) to look at the security measures in places. This was mainly just for reassurance - Elimu trips spend very little time in Nairobi.

Overall I have to say I was very impressed. The Kenyan government are aware of the potential adverse effects on tourism and travel and are being proactive. There are rigorous road blocks on the way to the airport, bags are scanned as you enter the terminal building and again as you go through security. You can't get anywhere near the airport without having had both you and everything you're traveling with checked.

I also took the opportunity to meet with the drivers we use for airport transfers. Again, I was very impressed. Sammy (the main man) and his team have actually added two new vehicles to their fleet of already well maintained cars. They're also well up to speed on the current political stand off in the north of Kenya. While they're quite keen to stress how safe Nairobi is they will also err on the side of caution if in doubt.

We all saw the recent Foreign Office warning about Nairobi but I can happily report that the Kenya I've seen over the past few months has been much as it always is; beautiful, vibrant, welcoming, hilarious, infuriating.

Andy