November 18, 2010
Shaurimoyo ECD was established in 2002 when the parents of the community in the slums of Kalolini met and decided their children needed to have an educational foundation so that they are prepared for primary school. The first structure in which the ECE classroom was taking place in was replaced because the head teacher believed it was too small for all the children. The head teacher and the parents decided to build another structure near the primary school building. A large room was built for three groups of children to learn in. The parents helped build the structure. There is the day care, pre primary I, and pre primary II class. There are 12 children in the day care class, 20 in pre-primary I class and 20 in pre- primary II class, the parents have to pay a fee of 200 shillings for the children to attend school from seven thirty in the morning until noon. In order for the children to stay in the afternoon program that runs from two and three, the parents have to pay an additional fee of 100 shillings. There is also a fee of 100 shillings a month for the children to have porridge during snack time. The children who choose to eat lunch at school pay ten shillings a day.
The classroom is fairly large but not large enough to fit all three groups of children, so they end up bunched into a desk. Although the children are bunched into desk, there are just enough desk in the room for all to squeeze around. In addition, the desks are appropriately built for children who are small. The room is filled with colorful posters and blackboards that allow the teachers to teach from all parts of the classroom. But there are not enough of teaching materials in the class so the teachers compensate by singing songs that help the children to learn.
The teachers are strict with the children not allowing them to speak their mother tongue. The children either have to speak Kiswahili or English. Kiswahili is used throughout the day and English is used during language lessons and when they are singing songs. Many of the younger children have difficulty understanding the lessons of the day but the teachers try to guide them through the use of visuals.
There are three teachers in the room, Esther, Nina and Edwin all are certified. They each teach a group of children but at times join all the children and take turns leading the class. They have all agreed that they do not like to cane the children unless in extreme circumstances (although they continuously tap the children on their head with a cane if they are not listening). The way they prefer to discipline the children is by threatening that God will hate them if they behave badly. The children then begin to listen to the teacher.
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Daily Curriculum
The day begins at seven thirty in the morning when the children have free choice. The teachers do not arrive on time so the children play outside for a couple of minutes. When the teachers arrive the children are instructed to quietly enter the room and take a seat. The children know where they are supposed to be seated because they quickly sit in the group they belong in. Although the daily chart says that the teachers check the children to see if they are healthy and clean the teachers do not do so, they simply begin to sing songs which make the children happy.
The first lesson of the day is language. First the classroom as a whole sing a song. The song is very long because the children use different examples of words for every letter of the alphabet. They also sound out the letters. For example when the teacher says A the children pronounced the letter A and then they say A is for apple, adult, and ant. After all the children have sang together, the teachers separate the children into the three classes so that they can each have a class to lead. The day care class continues to sing about letters, as they say the letter they are shown what it looks like. The middle class writes two letter words and the final class writes three letter words. First, the teachers give the children instructions by writing words on the board that the children copy the words into their notebook, than they do the work on their own. The teachers collect the children’s notebooks one at a time and begin to correct them while some children play around.
The teachers then get the children to be quiet by beginning a song that says ―look at teacher, look at teacher…‖ Once the teacher has the attention of the children the lead teacher begins to sing a song that deals with numbers. This transitions the children into the math lesson. The children begin math by counting and they jump every time they say a number. The children are then split into their groups once more where the teachers teach the children based on their level of knowledge. The blackboard is used to teach the middle and older class. The baby day care class uses cut outs of numbers and allow the babies to trace over the stencils so that they can start to recognize the numbers. The children then use their
notebooks to record their addition and number writing. The teachers correct them one at a time. Once all the notebooks are corrected the teachers allow the children to go outside and play. All the children run out. Edwin, the middle class teacher follows the children and goes out to play with them. They make a circle and take turns going in the center to lead the song. All songs are in Kiswahili. The circle then breaks off as some children want to play jump rope and others want to play ball. The children are then all called inside for snack.
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The children wash their hands before they go into the room. They sit down quietly and close their eyes to pray. All children pray together no matter what religion they are. After prayer all the children receive porridge whether their parents paid or not. The children than say thank you to the teachers for their porridge. They finish up and then begin to sing a song.
After singing, the teachers then begin the science lesson in which they bring the attention of all the children. The teachers take the children outside and get a pile of dirt and a small basin of water. The teachers demonstrate what happens when the dirt and water mix together. The teachers tell the children to describe what happened to the dirt when water was poured on it. They then ask the children what they think the importance of dirt and water is. The older children are attentive while the younger ones just wonder off. The lead teacher then assign all the children to go to their desk and draw what they saw happened. When the children finish, they all pray together as they get prepared to go to lunch.
Some children go home for lunch, others pay to eat at school and few stay at school but do not eat anything. By the time the children arrive back to school for afternoon review classes they all seem tired. The teachers mention how many of them are tired because they just finished their exams and they just want to rest. The teacher decided to let them rest from the lessons. All the children then begin singing together. They sing songs but also recite poems. One poem is about how they do not want to become orphans so they do not want their parents have HIV/AIDS. Once the class recites a poem together, one child is chosen to perform in the middle of the class. When that child completes the poem she is praised with a song in which the child dances to. The children end class with a prayer and then thank the teachers and walk home alone.
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