New School Year

The school year has got off to a good start, with a full enrolment of 150 students in Form 1. This was helped by adding 20 half bursaries to the 40 full bursaries that we had originally planned to finance with donor funds this year.

The bursary programme has demonstrated its worth, as 6 of the 10 students whose Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results in 2011 earned them free entry into universities were bursary holders. It is extraordinary to think that, if the secondary school had not been built and they had not been awarded bursaries, none of these would have ever had a chance of attending university.

The overall KCSE picture for 2011 is most encouraging, with 93 students sitting the exam (94 in 2010). It ranked 10th out of the 25 secondary schools in the District (15th in 2010), coming ahead of 4 “provincial” schools (1 in 2010). Average marks rose from 5152 to 5739. There remains a large gap still between Got Matar and the very top schools, but, considering that this is only the second year in which pupils are taking the KCSE, progress is good.

This year we have decided to extend bursaries to enable 10 graduate bursary holders who scored good marks in the KCSE, but fell slightly short of the grade required for free entry to university, to make a repeat attempt. The school is confident that most of them should be able to succeed this time.

The final stages in the process of officially registering the Institute of Technology, as a community-run college, are at last nearing completion.

Computer classI gather that there is a strong demand from the community for the computer training courses being offered in the Women’s Centre, and Kenya Breweries have donated additional computers to respond to this. The Centre is also the base for the Cooking and Catering training courses being offered by the Institute of Technology, and it is used for short courses – for example in basket making.

Students in the Woodworking and Welding classes have made bunks for the many girls who are over-nighting in the classrooms. They have been designed for eventual transfer into the girls’ dormitory when this is built. Bricks and Cartwheels, the Australian NGO that is sponsoring its construction, has completed designs for the complex, and intends to begin construction this year. They hope to use the construction process for practical training in design and building skills.

A number of contacts have been made by the Community that will hopefully open up fair trade markets for clothes produced by students of the Dressmaking and Tailoring course. Given the very small size of the local market for handmade clothing, it is essential to explore other options, especially to provide outlets for “graduates” who want to set up their own businesses.

For the first time, the Community is to host gap year students. Two Norwegian girls will work at Got Matar for a couple of months, starting in mid April. Hopefully they can write the next progress report, giving their first-hand impression of what is going on!

Several founder donors have stopped contributing to Got Matar, presumably because they feel that the basic objectives of the initiative have now been attained. Once the dormitory has been constructed, further building at the secondary school will include an assembly hall and teachers’ housing. The bursary programme will cost about Euro 30,000 per year.

Beyond this, the main call on funds will be to expand the range of vocational training opportunities offered by the Institute of Technology. If funds permit, the Institute would like to construct purpose-built facilities to replace the rented buildings that it is now using.

Audited accounts will soon be posted on the website.