Minutes:
TRUSTS FOR AFRICAN
SCHOOLS
MINUTES OF MEETING OF
TRUSTEES ON MONDAY 15 JANUARY AT 6 KINGLEY STREET
Present: Lissa Campbell, Guy Cowley, Luke Morris, Gill Marshall-Andrews
Apologies: Norma Empringham, Ben Howland, Steve James,Will Jones, Tom Marshall-Andrews, Johnnie Morris, Douglas Pinto,
Ben Taylor.
1. Minutes
of meeting on 9 October 2017 were agreed.
2. Schools update: Report from Stephen Kameti (previously circulated)
was discussed.
3. Possible new school – Kora Secondary School
The formal letter requesting support from TAS for a new
secondary school to be named Kora Secondary School on the site of Asako Primary
School was discussed. The new school has
been established by the Ministry of Education in that location because TAS built
a girls dormitory for Asako Primary School and it was felt that the facility
could be shared with older girls moving to secondary education.
Stephen sent a story about Idris Gaya who was one of the first students to go from
Asako to Madogo Secondary School – sponsored by TAS 8 years ago – who then was the first student
from the village to go to university and who has now returned as a teacher in
the new secondary school.
Those present agreed to support the secondary school to
the extent that we can, subject to Gill writing to all trustees to get
agreement on this.
4. Funding
The application to Property Race Day was discussed. Thanks were expressed to Luke for his
initiative in this matter and to Will for offering an amazing safari as an
auction prize.
We will hear the result in March.
KWS have still not re-imbursed the 730,000 Kes we agreed
but are still saying its coming!
Lissa has offered very generously to do some applications
to trusts for funding when specific projects come in.
The Waterloo Foundation may consider an extension of
Stephen’s funding and also proposals for environmental projects eg fencing, fruit trees, afforestation etc. Gill will pursue this.
Tom H has indicated that he would be willing to make
another donation in Feb.
5. Proposals
for funding
The poor standard of some proposals was discussed. Gill often has to return them for more
detail and Lissa also has many queries
when putting them up on the website. She
has offered to give some guidance on this.
It was agreed that Gill will try to set up a meeting with
Headteachers in Mwingi to go through the process and explain what is needed.
Proposals to the value of around £14k were discussed and
agreed for provisional or definite funding.
Some projects require further detail before funds can be sent.
6. Debate Mate
This is an NGO that runs debating training and
competitions in disadvantaged schools in UK and more recently abroard. They use university students as trainers and
facilitators. Last year they ran a two
week programme at a group of schools on the coast in Kenya. They have agreed in principle to run a one
week programme based in Mwingi in August 2018.
The deal would be that TAS would fund the school children’s costs,
possibly with KWS assistance with accommodation. Debate Mate would fund all the university
students’ costs – flights, accommodation, transport, conference facilities etc. Gill is following this up. Debate mate are trying to raise funds for the
project and will come back to us in March.
7. Conservation Days and posters
GMA is working with an Australian designer on a
conservation poster to be printed and put in every classroom in schools we
support. There is a big push to save
Kora National Park from further degradation and more conservation education is
seen as an important contribution to this effort.
Two Conservation Days are being organised by Stephen in
conjuction with Mitamysi and Boka Schools – one for communities on the West
side of Kora and the other on the East.
The draft posters
were circulated. George Adamson Wildlife
Preservation Trust have agreed to fund the printing of 150 posters which
hopefully will be done in Nairobi in time for the Conservation Days in early
March.
8. Exam results
Guy circulated an update on recent exam results and
trends. Some results in 2017 were
disappointing particularly in the Secondary schools. This may be due to the new Minister of
Education’s reforms of the exam system.
Gill will investigate national trends so as to get a proper comparison.
Post meeting
note: there have been calls for the
Minister of Education to resign after the KCSE
(Secondary School) results nationally fell dramatically. University qualifiers fell by 50% and 90%
‘failed’ the exam. So our schools
performance does not look so bad!
Tom will be asked to put the results up on the website in
pdf format rather than the bar charts currently in place.
9. Next meeting
Many thanks to Luke for the wonderful meeting room and refreshments
at Fladgate.
The next meeting
will be at Ben T’s office Ernst and Young on a date to be arranged.
