Minutes:
LOLDIA PRIMARY SCHOOL IN 2020 AND HEADING FOR 2021.
NOTES OF MEETINGS BETWEEN TRUSTEES ON THE 6TH
OF NOVEMBER 2020 AND GMA’S MEETING WITH HEADTEACHER AT THE SCHOOL ON THE 8THOF
JANUARY 2021
Country update:
Kenya
schools closed from the 27th of March till the 12th of October
2020, when they partially re-opened for exam classes ie Class 4 (278 pupils) and
8 (222 pupils) in primary schools. These classes were split into groups of between
25 and 30per classroom to achieve social distancing (Covid measures). This
resulted in 9 class 4 groups and 9 class 8 groups.
These
classes were in school till 21 December and then went on a break till 4 Jan
when the whole school was re-opened.
During this
period, the teachers provided by the TSC have been paid their salaries as per
normal. Since March however, the BOM (Board of Management – Parents of the
students) have not contributed towards the teachers sponsored by them, the same
sad story for the teachers sponsored by Bilashaka, despite all continuing
working. The teachers sponsored by Loldia, Tas and Grace Gray received their
salaries. HT claims he paid for the teachers from BOM for March and April.
The schools
grounds man (Ruben), 4 security staff (night watching) and grounds lady, have
not been paid since May 2020.
During this
period of partial school closure, the project to provide puberty girl students
with sanitary towels, has continued.
There will
be 4 terms this year 2021. The first terms
(4 Jan - 19 March) will be a
continuation of the 2020 academic year in order to catch up the education of
the exam class of 2020. They will take their KCPE in March.
The
following 3 terms (10 May to 16 July. 29
July – 1 October. 11 October – 21 December) will be the academic year for 2021.
So the new
class 1 of 2021 will not be enrolled till May and the 2021 KCPE will take place
in December 2021.
School update:
During
school closure the HT has been busy fundraising.
In 2020,
deputy President Ruto attended a fund raising event to launch the new bus for
St Andrews Secondary school and he also visited Loldia Primary School.
He and his
friends then donated 1.5 million towards a kitchen to prepare meals for the
students. The building of the kitchen was supervised by a Constituency Development
Fund (CDF) engineer. The CDF provided 2 million for the building of a dining
hall and Community Centre, which was sufficient for the completion of the
foundations and outside walls up to one metre high. An estimated additional 2.5m Ksh is still
needed to complete the walls and roofing for this project.
CDF have
also completed a set of 4 toilets for ladies plus one urinal and provided funds
for 40 desks. The HT managed to negotiate with local suppliers to get 60 desks
instead made for the money provided by CDF.
A new
showers and toilet building was built for the teachers, the old one being
obsolete and a marbati fence was built to separate the teachers homes from the
school grounds.
The Board
of Management (BOM - Parents of the students) have funded 15 hand washing
stations and 10 thermal guns – 2 of which are already going wrong! ? The
government has also funded this sort of thing so there is obvious potential
double funding.
All the
children were wearing masks and are temperature-tested daily.
Numbers on
roll – total 2086, down from 2114 in November.
ECD – Class 8
(201,229,228,258,281,238,206,206,219)
Class 8
have suffered only 4 leavers- 2 pregnant and 2 moved away.
The current
number of teachers stands at 46, up from 38 in November. 34 TSC (up from 27 last
year. The HT went to the new TSC Director (Mr Chege) personally and acquired 8
new ones).The number of TSC teachers is confusing but the best estimate is 34.
The BOM pay
for 3, Loldia 1 (Beatrice), Bilashaka 5,
TAS 1 (Jamie the football teacher) and Grace Gray 1 (Pauline).
The HT stressed
that the football academy runs as a separate entity, allowing for students from
other schools to participate. The academy is run by Jimmy from Loldia Primary
School and two others (Sammy and Bernard), also sponsored by Bilashaka.
School
feeding programme – this is a particular project of the HT who believes it will
enhance learning and prevent students from leaving school at lunch time,
getting pregnant and causing trouble.
Parents are also very much in favour of it and 1200 of them attended a
meeting yesterday at which they agreed a budget for this programme. The cost
will be 10/- per child per day ie around 750/- per term.
They aim to
start at the beginning of Feb. Food
will be cooked in the new kitchen and eaten in the classrooms for now.
Splitting
the school is not a priority as there are other Naivasha primary schools with
more than 3000 children.
School fees
are set at 390/- per term. This is for
exams, 3 teachers and games.
BOM funds
are apparently audited annually by the Ministry of Education.
There is
plenty of water although Shalimar pumps only sporadically.
Future projects:
The HT’s
priorities are to finish building the dining hall at Ksh2.5million, build 3
teachers houses ( no quote yet), build 8 classrooms (no quote yet).
Currently
there are 34 classrooms and 46 teachers!
The two
additional classrooms built by Bilashaka in early 2020, still need finalising
their rain water collection efforts.
Post
meeting note: The HT had said that
teachers were finding it hard to get accommodation in Kasarani but initial enquiries
do not support this view.
