The Implementation Project End in Sight

 

The last five weeks have flown. After my arrival in Musoma, I started work the day after, meeting with the Management Team of the Church and explaining what I would be doing. I meet them again on Tuesday 5 March to outline the activities undertaken and hand to them responsibility for ongoing monitoring and ongoing implementation.

Since that initial meeting I have held 21 meetings with groups and individuals. I have met with sixty nine individuals, including senior staff who have been in meetings with their staff so I have met them at least twice. I have completed sixty nine documents, comprising plans for each senior leader's area, plus for heads of schools and other units across the diocese. I have also assisted the General Secretary in drafting new position descriptions for most staff across the area. I will finalise any that are not done in September when I expect to return.

I have also visited Bunda where I have spent two Saturdays with the faculty, outlining a distance education course from Sydney which will be provided on site by them for rural pastors, many of whom have worked as pastors with minimal training. The material requires reading and on the second visit staff indicated that for many of the target group, literacy would be  difficult as many have only a primary school ecucation.

Visits to two schools resulted in prearation of school plans with the two heads. Isenye is a former government school, handed over to the church in 1993 to be run as a secondary school as the government was unable due to its isolation to do so. Originally constructed in the 1960s, it would have been a day's journey on tracks, not roads back then. The sealed road goes withing 30kms of the school, which borders the Serengeti National Park and occasionally has elephants chomping on favoured trees on the school grounds.

A reminder to staff at Isenye School

The foundation stone recognises the opening of a
 thirty year old school after being
 transferred to the Anglican Church

Sange and Mary Wangoya

Bunda Girls School was my second school visit where I  saw the completed staff housing, the almost completed principal's residence and spent two hours with the builder going through the final fitout of the guesthouse which will receive 15 students from a girls' school in July for one week. The guesthouse is planned for visitors to the school and the hope is many will come.

It was the girls' lunch so I served a few girls

BGSS has started a small piggery

The head of Bunda Secondary Girls School
Tupone Mwamasage and I discussing the Education Plan
and developing the School Plan

These dorms at BGSS
were weretiled over
the 2023 Christmas break
and it is transformative

The education system in Tanzania is changing significantly. Primary schools which currently have ten classes (Baby, Pre Primary 1 and 2 and grades 1-7) will drop a pre-primary class and grade 7. All students will progress to secondary school. Currently there is a barrier at grade 7 and students who fail national exams finish their education at that juncture. Most significantly is that English will be taught in primary schools to prepare all Tanzanian children to be able to speak English as well as Swahili.

Secondary school will have two streams - in addition to the academic stream, a vocational stream is an option. This means bigs changes for all schools and the diocesan schools will need to do lots of planning. Secondary is forms one to four and high school is currently 5-6 but an additional year will mean seven years of high school.

The final full week was spent with various individuals and the Archdeacons, developing plans for them, the Youth Coordinator, IT and Communications Manager. I also met with the Mothers' Union secretary who wanted to discuss a business proposition buying and storing grain then selling when prices increase. I had done this with the BBC principal and he is purchaing 100 bags (100kg) of maize. Capital light but very profitable. All institutions apart from their core business also need to raise funds. There are no P&Cs or fundraising groups here so principals need to look at opportunities.

My final assignment is handing the implementation to the Diocesan Management Team on 5 March (I am finalising this blog on 10 March in Dar Es Salaam).