Item

Action Tracking

Who?

By when?

1.  

Meeting was called to order at 1.05 pm

2. 

Consent Agenda..

3. 

Matters arising from minutes of …

•  PTA member appointed to committee: Mrs Juliana Musyimi
•  Bank account opened.
•  SK will send a copy of the trust deed to all trust committee members.

SK

asap

4.

Opening Remarks by Gill Marshall Andrews

GMA noted that TAS is very flexible in its funding.  Items that can be funded include bursaries, school trips, buildings, nursery etc

Where possible TAS would like to deal with cheque rather than cash payments.

5.

Opening Remarks by Committee Chair

The Board of Governors has discussed and approved the association with TAS.  The board has formed a subcommittee to work on TAS issues.  The board is extremely active and has a vision of making Mivukoni a reference point for other schools.

Other school supporters are the Community Development fund (funding borehole and dining room construction), the Mwingi County Council (supporting dining hall construction) and the Ministry of Education (funding new form four classroom).

6.

Proposal for Revision Programme

This proposal has been accepted by TAS.  However GMA noted that in future proposals must be discussed by the local TAS school committee before being forwarded, by the secretary, to TAS.

Mrs Mutinda informed the committee that some activities have already begun. This includes one motivational speaker and visit from school examiners.  Visits to two neighbouring schools are planned for next week.

HM wrote a cheque for 85,000 to Mivukoni school.   The remaining 15,000 will be paid once this money is received in the TAS Mivukoni bank account.

Mrs Mutinda will make a photocopy of the cheque and send it to Harriet.

Mrs Mutinda should inform Harriet if there are any changes to the budget detailed in the proposal.

A completion report will be filled in once the programme is finished.

HM/SK

A Mutinda

A Mutinda

A Mutinda

7.

Discussion of Schools Strengths and Challenges and development opportunities.

These were summarized by the committee chair and the principal, based on analysis carried out by the Board of Governors.

Key strengths:

·         Very strong BOG

·         Have raised money (2.8 million shillings) through ‘harambee’ (fund raising) to pay for the cost of the new dormitories

·         Electric power

·         Large site (20 acres)

·         Community is free of disruptive influences like drugs and TV. Students are well disciplined.

·         Good partners for development (CDF etc)

Challenges

·         School is moving from a one stream to a two stream school and requires increased teaching staff and facilities.

·         Not enough teachers (need 12, and have 11)

·         Facilities don’t meet the needs of the children (need one more classroom for January, dormitories as children are currently sharing beds, and completion of the dining room)

·         Poor school performance (particularly in maths and the science subjects).

·         Lack of water.

·         Community is very poor and have problems raising school fees.

·         Only have quarters for two teachers

Opportunities/Planned Projects

Short term:

·         Academic improvement (revision programme, increased study space)

·         Increase dormitory space (new dormitories funded by harambee)

·         Water development (CDF funded borehole)

Longer term:

·         Class rooms

·         Teachers quarters

·         Library

·         Increase size of science lab.

Other notes

The school has received 6000/- per child from the government as part of the secondary school education support programme. The full amount offered is 10,000/- and the school hope the balance will arrive later in the year.

School fees are charged at 16,000/- per year.

8.

Funding Proposal

The teachers have discussed priorities and have developed a proposal which they believe will strengthen the schools academic performance (currently the top priority).  Currently there is a shortage of classroom space. Teachers often have to teach outside under a tree. Students don’t have anywhere to read or study or for leisure activities after school hours (as remedial teaching is going on in the classrooms).  The proposal (see attached) is for 10 ‘open classrooms’ made of local materials which will provide shelter from sun and rain.   The total cost of these structures would be 161,400 shillings.

HM will forward the proposal to TAS.  GMA will raise the proposal with the UK TAS committee at their next meeting on Sept 23^rd.

HM/GMA

9.

AOB

School leaflet

This will be amended at the board meeting to be held on Friday September 18^th and will email revisions to Gill and Harriet.

Global Schools Partnership

GMA described this programme and suggested Mivukoni school might like to take part.  This will be raised with the BOG on Sept 18^th.  GMA will also discuss the possibility with the UK Department for International Development (DfID) who are the funders.

Eco Schools

HM presented Mrs Mutinda with some information on the Kenyan Eco Schools programme for consideration.

Communication

The committee agreed that in future all correspondence with each other and with TAS UK should be copied to all members who are on email.

Mrs Mutinda will inform us when she gets connected.

School Bank Account for TAS grants

The committee agreed to set up a local bank account for TAS funds.  This is in order to keep them separate from school fees and other income sources.

Next meeting

We agreed that the next meeting should be timed to take place in the week before the next BOG meeting.  FK will contact Harriet when this date is set.

GMA suggested that we invite the area education officer to our next meeting.  The committee agreed that this should be done.

FK

FK/GMA

All

A Mutinda

A Mutinda

FK/HM

SK