2 Bits of Great News!

News 1:

That's right!  I just heard that the 2016 scholarship recipient has been selected!!  I'm so proud and excited to help these students continue their educations and achieve their dreams.  Last year's recipient is still in school, so we will be supporting TWO students this year.

News 2:

We're having a fundraiser!
Tuesday, September 8th
Thomas Foolery (near Dupont Circle in Washington, DC)
6-8pm

Have a drink and play some games to ease back into the work week after a long weekend. I will be your bartender for the evening! All tips go directly to the Itiso Scholarship Fund through Friends of Tanzania/ Marafiki wa Tanzania, which supports Form V-VI high school students from Tanzania's Itiso Ward. So if you can't stay to drink, at least come, check it out, and stuff the tip jar!

With only 30 minutes of bartending training before I begin, I'm confident in promising that it will at least be entertaining!  Karibuni wote!

RSVP on Facebook here.
If you can't come, but would like to donate, you can find instructions here.

The Role of English in Tanzanian Education

I want to share this video created by Tanzanian secondary school students in Zanzibar discussing the challenges around English medium education at the secondary level.

English medium education (where all classes except for Swahili are taught in English) has been standard in Tanzania for many years.  Many of the teachers themselves lack mastery of the language, and as a result students are unable to gain sufficient fluency at the primary school level before entering secondary school.  Most of my own students frequently failed every course in Form I due to their inability to understand the classroom lectures or textbooks.

Recently the Tanzanian Parliament has passed a law to make Swahili the language of instruction to replace English in secondary schools (Swahili is already the language of instruction for primary schools), but this has yet to be implemented.  Proper education in English is one of the many challenges faced by Tanzanian students in the educational system.