Minutes:
MEETING ON
12 JANUARY 2021 AT EBURRU PRIMARY SCHOOL
Present:
Mbugua
Kariuki Heaadteacher, Gill
Marshall-Andrews TAS UK.
The IT
teacher James Kanyi joined the meeting for a short time.
Apologies: Nicole Church, Kara Hamblen.
Numbers on roll:
303 boys are
in school, down 12 from March.
265 girls
are in school down 12.
Total 568.
The HT
expects that all these will return with assistance from the chief.
Numbers in
the school are slightly declining – there are fewer in the lower classes. This is felt to be because another state
primary school is growing down the hill, and also a private mission
school. Fewer numbers should mean
smaller classes and higher standards in
the years to come.
Teachers: 17 TSC
teachers and 4 BOM (funded by parents). All are in school.
Classrooms and COVID catch up
With the 3
classrooms newly re-furbished by TAS there are now 18 classrooms in use. There are also 2 more in fairly poor state
used as stores. These could be turned into usable space if there were more
teachers. The HT will now apply to TSC
for additional teachers.
The new
classrooms , with new desks funded by the government, are being used by Class 8 students – 30 to a
class. They take their KCPE in March,
thus making up the two ‘lost’ terms in 2020.
The academic
years 2021 and 2022 will be divided into 4 terms with very short holidays.
The 2021
Class 1 intake will enrol in July, and by 2023 all students will have recovered
the lost time and the terms will revert to normal.
COVID
Government
funding has been received for COVID related items ie handwashing stations ,
thermometers and desks. The school will
use some of this money to replace the 14 taps that have been stolen during
lockdown.
There has
been no known COVID in Eburru but all the staff and children were wearing
masks.
The tree
nursery is in poor shape as no-one has been tending it. Rhino Ark have been to the school and a new
bank account is being opened . This
should ensure that the nursery can operate independently of the school.
School funds: Parents
(263 of them) currently pay 650 per parent per term regardless of how many
children they have at the school. This
is an unusual system but was in place when the HT arrived and so has been
continued.
The school
has cut down some trees that were too close to the latrines and neighbouring
houses. They sold the timber for 50k and
used the funds to pay for the secretary and the caretaker for 6 months.
Water:
There is
some water in the big tank which is now connected to the gutters in the new
classrooms. This tank in turn is
connected to the concrete handwashing station where there are currently 2 taps
instead of 16. See above for HT’s
undertaking to address this.
TV , tablets and internet
The TV is
not in use because it lacks a de-coder.
(This is not necessary for DVDs so maybe the school seek to purchase
some).
The
laptops issued by the government in 2018
are being used by the teachers but the students’ tablets are not in use because
there is no internet. (? The curriculum was originally intended to be put onto
the tablets so internet would not be required)
However,
the IT teacher is keen to get these items into use and will write a proposal
for funding of internet access.
