Category: News

Early Year Education (EYE) – (Pre-Primary & Lower Primary (Grades 1-3)) teaches basic skills to the learners who enter the education system at a minimum age of 4 years.

Subjects for lower primary
Literacy
Kiswahili Language Activities/Kenya Sign Language for learners who are deaf
English Language Activities
Indigenous Language Activities
Mathematical Activities
Environmental Activities
Hygiene and Nutrition Activities
Religious Education Activities
Movement and Creative Activities

Middle School

Upper primary is part of middle school (together with lower secondary). It is a three year programme where learners are exposed to a broad curriculum and given an opportunity for exploration and experimentation.
Subjects for Upper Primary

English
Kiswahili or Kenya Sign Language (for learners who are deaf)
Home Science
Agriculture
Science and Technology
Mathematics
Religious Education (CRE/IRE/HRE)
Creative Arts
Physical and Health Education
Social Studies

Optional:
Foreign Languages (Arabic, French, German, Mandarin)

NB: ICT will be a learning tool in all areas.
Pertinent and contemporary issues will be mainstreamed in all Subjects.

At the end of grades 3, 6, 9 and 12, the Kenya National Examination Council  will provide assessment, which together with a combination of class-based assessment will determine if a learner is fit to proceed to the next level.

All the 4 Kanzi linked schools have started teaching this new curriculum. Only Gifted Hands has a class in the final year so they are still doing the old 844 curriculum. The final KCPE examination will be at the end of 2022.

In 2016, Cana fell victim to arson. The school lost so much; chairs melted, books burnt, but thank God no children were hurt. Following the fire, a little church in the neighbourhood took them in. Together they raised funds and created a church space on the ground floor and built 7 small classrooms and an office upstairs.

Shortly after settling down in their new building, government officials judged it as unsafe, so further work was undertaken. Even though they have been using the building for several years, they were always looking over their shoulders, half expecting further government interference.

In December 2020, the government returned, this time, to say that a third of the school building was on a road reserve. Fortunately, they were given time to do their own demolition so they were able to store and recycle some of the materials. Usually, when the government undertakes demolitions, books and desks are destroyed because they give people very short notice. When schools closed at the end of March, Cana was already fundraising as they demolished their building. And now that they have been given the official road markings, they can start building a permanent structure.

Cana are hoping to open their doors to children on 10th May. However, so far, they have only managed to raise enough to build the foundation and the initial structural walls of the ground floor. The total cost of the build will be £18,790. Our aim is to try and raise half of the costs, which we appreciate is an ambitious target. To make the target more manageable, we have broken down some of the costs to represent ways in which our individual Friends can help. All donations are gratefully received and will be passed on in a timely way to support this venture. The sooner we can get the children back into their school building, the sooner they can continue their education.

Bag of cement ……………………………….. £5.50

Half a tonne of sand or ballast …………. £7.70

A quarter of all nails needed ……………. £9.30

A quarter of a lorry of stone ………………  £46

Half a lorry of machine cut stone ………  £95

Water costs …………………………………… £205

Total of timber needed …………………… £880

Half the steel needed ……………………. £1625

The JustGiving link to this campaign is https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/help-rebuild-Cana

 

Against all odds

The children attending informal schools in the slums of Kibera face a huge uphill task in attempting to graduate from primary school to secondary school. The resources provided by the state for their education are so meager, whereas the KCPE exams are graded the same; regardless of the schools’ resources.
2021 is an exceptional year for Kanzi supported students with the Giftedhands Educational Center providing some excellent results. The other schools we support did not submit any students for the exam this year, but a number of students are preparing for next year.

Achievements At Giftedhands

One of the students at the Giftedhands Educational Center achieved a very impressive score of 377 out of 500 in the KCPE examinations, which means that 75% of the answers were correct. Thirteen other students achieved more than 50% leaving only two of the supported candidates scoring less than 50%.

Kanzi-Kibera Friends has worked with Giftedhands over the years to ensure that the children have every opportunity that we can provide for them to develop their talents. Class Eight at Giftedhands recently sat for the KCPE exams, the fifth year in a row that the school has entered pupils for these national examinations. The whole class achieved exceptional results with 3 pupils scoring 350 and above, 7 scoring between 300 and 349, 4 scoring between 250 and 299 and only 2 scoring below 250; which was due to even more difficult family circumstances than the rest of the class are having to endure.

Why we celebrate their success

All these children have taken a significant step on life’s journey by sitting these examinations at such a challenging time. Our prayer is that they will all go on to secondary school where they will achieve the next step in the difficult journey out of Kibera. The children and their parents were invited to school to celebrate their success with the director, staff and Kanzi volunteers; we celebrate their success with them!

With your support, we can provide even more encouragement for the next group of students ready to face this challenge.

At Gifted Hands, there is ample space for their new stove; however, they currently don’t have food preparation surfaces, which they have been advised to add. They were also advised, during the training session, to create a designated safe storage space for their firewood. Fruitful also has plenty of space for the new stove in the kitchen, and they too have been asked to also consider adding food preparation surfaces. If you would like to make a donation towards food preparation surfaces for these two schools, please let us know.

At Cana, a section of the school building has recently been demolished to allow for road construction by the government. Therefore, the stoves have been fitted into a temporary space until the new facilities are rebuilt. Sanjo’s staff have promised to come back when the building is complete, to help with relocation. At Linda Care, kitchen space is very tight. However, because the walls are not permanent, they intend to move one of the partitions to create enough room around the stove for easier movement while cooking.

A huge thank you, from the staff and children of all four schools, to Denbigh Rotary Club and to our other Friends for their kind donations, without which the new stoves would not have been possible.