Följ förskolans egen blogg för nyheter på svenska!
The women’s own initiative for a pre-school for the children of the village
The women in the village of Nakamtenga, few of whom know how to read and write, understood that there was a need for a pre-school. The children have very limited knowledge about the world outside the village need a solid foundation of theoretical as well as practical knowledge in order to get ready for continued education.
The women decided to create a pre-school and started to collect money and building stones to build it from scratch. Thanks to the vision and will power of these women the pre-school in Nakamtenga is now completing it’s ninth school year. Seven classes of pupils have already completed the pre-school education and are now the best pupils in the nearby elementary school.
Pre-school teachers from Nakamtenga
The basic idea with the school is to educate pre-school teachers from the area to take care of the teaching and management of the school. The education is based on a combination of practical and theoretical topics. Emphasis is places on the development of educational material to support the children’s’ understanding.
The children stay and the pre-school during two to four years and start at the age of three. The school has three groups with 20 children in each group. Classes are mostly in the morning. After the children have left the teachers meet to make an evaluation of the days work. With the actual situation further pedagogic methods are developed. Eva, who is the resource person from Sweden, has the task of accompanying the learning process of those studying to become teachers and facilitate the evaluation of the teachers training program.
A school that is adapted to the needs of the Children and their environment
The idea with the education is that it is adapted directly to the local environment in which the children live. Everything that the children do in the pre-school they are doing for the very first time. They paint, draw, cut, paste, look at books. They are encouraged to learn about the local culture through traditional handicraft, songs and dances. An important part of the education is concerning hygiene and gardening in the schools own garden. There we grow bananas, papaya, pineapple, tomatoes, salad, cucumber and more. These fruits and greens that the children se growing for the first time also contribute to the daily meal cooked at the school.
Within the low walls of local natural stone there are three classrooms, a storage room, two latrines, a kitchen, and a dining area that is covered but has no walls. In the kitchen the food is cooked over an open fire. The children are responsible for bringing firewood. Between two of the school buildings there is a vegetable garden. In the schoolyard we have planted many fruit trees in order to be able watch them grow and to give shade, shelter and wonderfully tasty and nurturing fruits. Since we have access to water most of the time we can water our garden and trees and obtain good harvests.
Our vision for the future
There are still many children in the village that there has not yet been room for in the pre-school. We need to build more classrooms and educate more teachers. There is otherwise a risk that the parents will only send their sons to the school. Everyone, both boys and girls must have the right to education.
