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Copy of Karen Ross’s email to Mr. Dunford Makala
Commissioner for Social Welfare, Tanzania
31st August 2011
Dear Sir,
My name is Karen Ross and I am a teacher in England. I am writing in partition to the decision made by Mr Wambura conceding the discontinuation of the education of children from the Bethany Family in England.
Before travelling to Tanzania I spent a year teaching the seven students from the Bethany Project who were studying in England in 2008, including Eva Sitta, who has made the allegation concerning the appeal currently being made for further students to extend their education in England. I can confirm that both the care and education provided in England for each of the students is of outstanding quality, unequalled by that of any other non-government organisation I know working in both the East and West of Africa.
In 2009 I travelled to Tanzania where I taught for one year at the Bethany Project, Magu. During my time in Tanzania I observed children who had received prior education to their formal schooling in standard one on site at Bethany begin their formal Tanzanian education in Yitwimila Primary School, Magu. I continued to monitor those children who had begun their formal education in standard one for several months later to review the learning and progress they were making. It was during this time I witnessed what a conflicting influence an educational institution-implementing a professed effective education system-could have on children. I was horrified as I realised through later review of the children’s learning and development sometime into their formal schooling that it was exactly this education that had untaught the children even simple skills such as being able to write their name-a skill that they had each competently achieved before beginning their formal Tanzanian schooling.
Subsequently I decided to observe the same transition only at the latter stage of formal primary schooling in Tanzania from standard seven to form one hoping to find a much improved quality of education. Whilst I fully appreciate the staffing issues and other problems encountered at Sogeska Secondary School, Magu I was disappointed to learn even during the initial stages of my observation of the children’s learning and development in form one that often classes were cancelled or the children returned home before the end of school because there was no one to teach them. Throughout my time in Tanzania I also learnt of the continued lack of resources such as electricity which also hindered the children’s learning, again also influencing the quality and the amount of education the children received at Sogeska Secondary school, often resulting again in children being dismissed from school before the end of the school day. It could be argued that it is clearly evident that neither of these educational institutions, it seems, hold any significant contribution to the effective deliverance of the formal education or the curriculum outlined by the Tanzanian government unlike the services currently being offered to the three of the children from the Bethany Family by Accrington and Rossendale College in England.
As I am aware I know that you also will be very much aware of the benefits offered by the specified educational institution in England yet it is only recently during my time in Ghana, West Africa, that I have become aware of the wider perception of such educational institutions amongst other Africans such as yourself. Initially it was a great surprise to me to find that overseas education, in England, was in fact held in such high regard in Ghana. During my stay in Ghana I observed an education system, unlike what I had previously observed in Tanzania. The Ghanaian system was well established and delivered a quality standard of education which provided a range of educational opportunities to the Ghanaians that defined a high standard of education which could, in part, even equate to the education given in England. All of the students I met from a variety of different educational circumstances however, each had obtained further education in England on a scholarship or international student basis. I do believe that Tanzania encompasses the same potential to develop an education system one day that reflects the education system in Ghana yet; I believe that this will only transpire if people like you rise up and begin to use the authority you have been entrusted against the apparent injustices in the Tanzanian education system. I know that now it is your time to influence the change that will move Tanzania towards an education system that will one day be established in its own right.
For now, I believe that to uphold the potential of such an effective education system it is primarily those who are taught how to lead such change that will see the change happen and it is only by taking such as opportunity as that being offered by Accrington and Rossendale College in England that anyone can gain the vision to direct such a change wisely enough for it to be successful. This opportunity simply offers that chance for each of the three girls: Deborah Benjamin, Mpelwa Juma and Rehema Joseph, to study the principles of effective education within an education system that is quite clearly leading the rest of the world towards continued development and excellence in every aspect of education in order to begin to implement that change that could potentially cause an avalanche within the Tanzanian education system when the girls return to Tanzania after their studies. I do think it is important to note that unlike many organisations, it is not our vision at Bethany that these girls will change England but, that they will in fact become part of the much needed change that evidently needs to be instigated throughout the Tanzanian education system.
Moreover, the education the girls will receive in England will not only be a propeller of change in Tanzania to the current educational system but, it will also be the start of empowering the younger citizens of Tanzania too. As children are taught effectively so, they will begin to possess the same principles and the same vision depicted throughout their education in the early years into further education, in order that Tanzania may raise children to be effective members of society, each laying another block to help Tanzania sustain a brighter future.
Yours Faithfully,
Karen Ross.
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