Uru Community Pre and Primary School
After seeing the lack of quality primary education in Tanzania and absence of any education institution for children under seven, Neema International had to take action.
Uru Community Pre and Primary School (Uru Academy) is more than a school, it is a community-based poverty alleviation project that aims to break the cycle of unemployment, poor health, high fertility, and crime by providing crucial educational and health resources to children and their families.
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The Need
Uru is home to over 7000 people who live on less than a dollar a day, with no access to running water or electricity nor proper healthcare. Children are not eligible to attend government school until seven, where they are victims of atrocious teacher-student ratios and poor-quality curriculum. Corporal punishment is practiced in the vast majority of these classrooms, further hindering them from success. Delivering poor English instruction in the early years that translates to high drop-out rates in secondary school.
These problems are exacerbated by the high birth rates of the community, with mother’s averaging more than five children each. These rates leave many children orphaned, without the healthcare, education or positive support they need to escape the cycle.
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Our Solution
Uru Community Pre and Primary School is a sustainable, full-service early childhood facility that responds to the needs of the community. Neema International designed Uru Community Pre and Primary School to stop the cycle of poverty before it begins, by providing for babies as young as six months to children of ten years. The school consists of seven classrooms, currently educating more than one hundred and sixty children.
‘Full-service’ describes the many services beyond education we provide to the community, including healthcare, food and water, clothing and social work services.
Multi-Lateral Approach
Components of Nurture
Uru Community Pre and Primary School serves as a sanctuary for the children of Uru, allowing them a safe place to escape the environment of violence, alcohol and neglect that affects the community. They develop positive relationships with teachers and peers that set their foundation for positive social-emotional growth.
Parental Involvement
Knowing that children exist in the context of families, we take care to communicate with caregivers. Children as young as three walking to school alone is normalized in Tanzania. Yet, at our school parents are required to sign their children in and out everyday. This guarantees parental involvement and child safety as well as updates us of any change in children’s living situations.
Parents are required to sign a contract of cooperation before enrolling their children at our school. Parents contribute to our bio-gas stove by collecting cow manure. In return for their commitment and contributions, their children recieve all services of Uru Academy at no cost to them.
Quality Teachers
While a typical class size in Tanzania exceeds forty or fifty, our classes have an average ratio of 1:13. Our teachers are fluent in English and attended local Montessori schools. We have volunteer educators and local international school teacher’s mentor our teachers to further develop their teaching skills.
Teachers are educated on the importance of serve-and-return relationships, socio-emotional development and early literacy. They practice positive discipline methods with children, refraining from any form of shaming or corporal punishment.
Innovative Curriculum
The Neema International team and local teachers came together to create a curriculum that fuses Tanzanian educational standards with a creative-based international curriculum. We practice English immersion, building children’s vocabulary through every day interactions.
Core subjects are taught through creative learning, which focuses on the use of group work, projects, play and art. Teachers are encouraged to integrate art and music into daily routines. Children also enjoy movement learning throughout the day and receive regular gym class.
Technology
In 2015, Arrow Electronics donated computers and iPads to Neema International with the DigiTruck. We utilize these resources at Uru Academy, where young children are able to watch educational video content and interact with early learning apps through iPads. Older children participate in computer classes, gaining a foundational proficiency in technology.