“You can change your life for the better and you can learn from every experience and setback.” That’s the view of Gasica, the young teacher in Zanzibar who is about to see his dream of opening a primary school become a reality. In January 2020 The Winners Community Academy opens its doors to 30 children aged up to 6 years old. Since 2015, Gasica’s organisation Zanzibar Learning 4 Life Foundation (ZL4LF) has been running after school classes in English, Maths and Computer studies as well as offering young people apprenticeships in bicycle repair, micro businesses and chicken farming. Some of those businesses some have been more successful than others. Zanzibar Bicycles 4 Life brings in a steady income and has given more than 60 students the opportunity to learn bicycle repair skills. They recently launched Sully Mobile Service, which imports and reconditions mobile phones for resale in Zanzibar.
In 2015 ZL4LF set up a chicken farm with the help of the Daraja Foundation (Canada) on land near the main road that runs across the island, between Fuoni and Unguja Ukuu. But in spite of their assistance and that of CoCo’s Foundation (from the UK) ZL4LF encountered insurmountable setbacks in chicken farming. The main problem is the prevalence of Newcastle disease which is an acute, rapidly spreading viral disease of the respiratory system that causes high mortality, and impedes egg laying in mild cases. Although there’s a vaccine, it must be repeated every two months and it isn’t always effective. There are also many other diseases that affect local chickens so the decision was taken to shut the chicken farm.
So Gasica decided to learn from the setback and to refocus on the core offering of education and convert the chicken farm buildings into classrooms. Due to an excellent reputation in teaching English, Maths and Computers, there’s demand from parents for ZL4LF to provide nursery and primary education. Gasica is grateful to Rotary Clubs in the UK and Zanzibar as well as the Goodall Foundation, for supporting his further education in the UK and in Tanzania. These experiences and qualifications enabled him to secure a provisional licence from the Zanzibar Department of Education to open the school.
The Winners Community Academy has support from schools in Canada, Australia and Germany to provide ongoing funding which will enable them to offer scholarships to deserving children. And local parents are prepared to pay small fees to help cover our teaching costs.
School Objectives
The main objective is to improve the quality and effectiveness of primary education offering in this area of Zanzibar. ZL4LF hopes to raise the quality of education so that students will be able to develop their life skills and realize their potential as citizens. The organisation is also dedicated to improving the education and training of teachers. The school will give equal opportunities to girls and vulnerable groups such as children with special educational needs and will offer a safe and child friendly school environment that’s free from discrimination, abuse and harassment.
School students and curriculum
The school will start with 50 students (25 students per class). Each year there will be an intake of at least 50 students until all year groups are full at which point 25 students will join each year. Ultimately the school will take children up to the final year of primary school (aged 13). The objective is to enrol 150 children in 6 classes from Kindergarten to Standard VI (end of Primary school). Better nursery and primary education will improve children’s chances at secondary school level and subsequently enable some to enter tertiary education. The core offering of the school will be the government proscribed primary school curriculum which includes English, Maths, Geography, Science, ICT, History (all taught in English), Kiswahili, Religion (taught in Kiswahili) and Arabic (taught in Arabic). In addition, the school will ensure the children; especially girls have the opportunity to participate in sports such as swimming, football and netball.
Teaching staff
The academy aims to be well run with adequate funding of teacher salaries and professional development. The teachers will be well-trained in modern teaching methods and will be encouraged to use them. The school is only recruiting teachers who are Upper Intermediate in English and they will be expected to commit to 1.5 hours of English language lessons per week to improve their language skills. All teachers will be qualified according to Zanzibar Department of Education standards. The first 4 recruits are at the top end of the skill scale and offer expertise in English and Maths. As a community school the organisation is permitted to supplement well-qualified local teachers with International volunteers to enhance the curriculum, for example in offering art, music and drama as well as providing additional opportunity to practice spoken English.
Long term plans
The Winners Community Academy is planning to develop a sister school in Unguja Ukuu to serve the local community at primary and secondary level. Plans for this site were delayed due to problems with establishing land ownership, but this has now been resolved. It’s anticipate that the first phase of this development will start in 2021 and will include accommodation for volunteers and some of the money generated by this will help support the schools. Long term both schools will encourage small business development within the immediate community contributing towards transforming Fuoni and its neighbourhood into a society able to meet the challenges of the changing environment. The local community will benefit by having access to equipment and computers. The school has funding from “Tools for Reliance” (a UK charity) to purchase equipment (https://www.twam.uk) and already has 4 sewing machines that are used by young women who are starting to earn a living making clothes and selling them in the community. The school will provide education and support to these young business people with the aim of launching their careers and as they move on, new youngsters can come in and take their places.
Notes on school facilities, construction and maintenance
The school will be relatively low maintenance as it’s been built from robust local materials. The school has 3 classrooms (equipped with chairs, tables and benches), a staff room, a computer classroom, a library and an office. There is a planned donation of computer equipment (from St James in Canada) and SALT (a company in Dubai) which will be maintained by a specially recruited and trained computer technician. Parts are readily available in Zanzibar and are not expensive. All computers will be serviced every 6 months. The computer equipment will be kept in a specially-designed classroom which has a tiled (sealed) floor and with glass windows to minimize damage from dust and humidity. In the library we have reading books, text books and dictionaries.