Excellent! - excellentdevelopment.com

When Excellent attended the Geography Association’s Annual Conference in April, our small exhibition stand attracted a huge amount of interest. It was an opportunity for us to gauge teacher's reactions to our education project and we were delighted by the enthusiasm of geography teachers to our model of development and the education resources we were in the midst of producing.

Imagine our surprise when a visiting Kenyan geography teacher, Elizabeth Mueni Mutuku, stops to look at our pictures and the film and recognises the area in which we work...some of the pictures are of her home village and we talk about some of the farming methods her father has been experimenting with! After she had overcome her surprise and nostalgia she was thrilled to learn about the work we support in Kenya and to take a DVD back to Kenya with her to show her pupils at Mumbuni School for boys in Machakos.

Elizabeth was fortunate to be chosen as a Kenyan representative at the GA Conference, by invitation of the International Working Group. She urged us to visit her school to see how geography is taught there, so during a visit to Kenya my colleagues took the opportunity of visiting Elizabeth, and here is Emily’s account of the visit:

Elizabeth could not have been more welcoming when we turned up on Thursday morning, and proceeded not only to take us on a comprehensive tour of the school, but also a brief trip to the neighbouring school, and then to her home in Machakos. Mumbuni Boys School is a boarding school just outside Machakos. It has 1000 boys, aged 13 to 18. Until recently, the school was co-ed, but in 2005, the schools were separated into a girl’s school and a boy’s school, just down the road from each other, which according to Elizabeth has been a great academic success. Classes in both schools normally have about 60 pupils – a terrifying thought, and Elizabeth agreed that this can make them difficult to control, and to reach every member of the class.

After a quick trip round the grounds, taking in the dormitories, the science lab, and stuttering our way through an explanation of what we were doing there, to a rowdy class of 60 teenage lads, we had a quick stop in the staffroom for a cup of tea, before heading for Mumbuni Girls School down the road. Here we were introduced to a friend of Elizabeth’s who had attended the Geographical Association Conference the previous year.

Then we were off again, for a whirlwind tour of Machakos. First we went to see Elizabeth’s Mum, Alice who has a small shop nearby Elizabeth’s home. Then back to Elizabeth’s for more tea, and to watch the Excellent ‘Walking on Water’ DVD, given to her by Susanna. Elizabeth had watched this before, but she was keen to ask questions, and it was good for me to watch it again, now that I could put much of it (and the people in it) in context.

Elizabeth plans to show the DVD in her Environmental Management classes. She will need to bring her DVD player from home as there are no facilities at the school. Environmental Management is the last topic to be covered in the school geography curriculum, and soil and water preservation plays a big part in this. The main topics covered in this class are climate change and deforestation/ reforestation. The planting of trees is encouraged in a big way. Climate change is obviously very real in a place like Kenya, so this is an important topic to be covered. In Machakos, getting enough water is, as elsewhere, a big problem. Elizabeth believes that in recent years the demand has got higher, probably due to more industry and a growing population in the area, and the supply has correspondingly dropped.

After Environmental Management is completed, it is exam time for the top year at Mumbuni. Exams finish in November, and the students get their results in February 2008. According to Elizabeth this will mean they can enter a public university in 2009. Only if they’re very lucky will they get in for October 2008. Further down the school, the geography curriculum covers a wide range of topics. At present, Elizabeth is studying statistical methods with Form 1, earthquakes with Form 2, deserts with Form 3, and settlements with Form 4, concentrating on the port cities of Mombasa and Rotterdam.

School life is hard in Machakos. Elizabeth has two children, a boy of nine, and a girl of twelve. Her son has a long day, usually getting back about 5 pm, after a 6 o’clock start. Her 12 year old daughter leaves the house at the same time to travel to school, and does not get home until 7 pm! There is always homework to do, and on an average night, she does not get to bed until 10pm.

Our final stop, was a visit to meet Elizabeth’s glamorous younger sister. She is also a teacher, at a school not far from Machakos, but she was on a training course for the day, and managed to slip out for a quick photo shoot!

Many thanks to Elizabeth and her family, and Mumbuni Boys School for a very informative and enjoyable visit.