Blog

By Wafa Khan, NTS blogger 

The times are changing worldwide in ways we could never have predicted.  Today, at Nyamboyo Technical School, we are engaged in a major shift in our thinking and programming as it relates to the welfare and empowerment of girls and women.  In Kenya, this means shifting attitudes and beliefs around female sexual and reproductive health, sometimes in significant ways.

It has been brought to our attention that up to 65% of our female students may be survivors of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) an ancient practice thought to originate in Egypt in the fifth-century BCE.  Our ultimate dream is to see an end to FGM in Kenya.  We recognize this will take time – perhaps generations – but we must start today, crafting solutions in our own community.   However, to fully understand the how and why, we must first frame the problem. 

The practice known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) involves the partial or complete removal of the external part of female genitalia.  FGM is prevalent in many parts of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.  In fact, the World Health Organization estimates that there are 200 million women and girls alive today who have undergone the procedure. In Kenya, it is viewed as a rite of passage into womanhood, directly tied to the concept of purity.  A woman must be “pure” to be fit for marriage.  Often, young women see marriage as the only option for survival.

FGM was outlawed in Kenya in 2011 but making it illegal drove the practice underground, with serious health consequences.  It is commonly done by elderly women who have no medical background.  These “practitioners” are paid per child and often use straight razor blades that aren’t properly sterilized.  Some report that they can cut up to 100 girls a day.  The result is both short and long-term health consequences such as severe pain, excessive bleeding, infection, urinary problems, pain during intercourse, psychological problems, and in extreme cases FGM can even lead to death.   There can be lifelong health problems such as permanent pain when urinating and menstruating, scarring, increased susceptibility to infections including HIV, and infertility.

FGM has commonly been performed around age 12 or older.  However, we know anecdotally that there’s been a shift since 2011.  Teens learned that the practice was illegal and many started to “exercise their rights” not to be cut.  To circumvent this, families started performing the practice on young girls; children too young to understand the concept of legal rights.  So today, it is not uncommon to see girls ages 5-9 recovering from FGM.

Also, FGM has been wrongly linked to religious practices, in particular Islam.  Nowhere in the Koran or other religious texts is FGM mentioned, and the majority of the Islamic world does not condone the practice.  Instead, it is a cultural practice linked to local, regional beliefs.  The African continent has the largest percentage of communities that practice FGM.

So, how can Nyamboyo Technical School combat this practice?  We propose to start with education and individual support programs. It may be too late to prevent this practice for many of our students who are all over the age of 14, but we know all of our students (male and female) are potential future parents to young girls; young girls they can protect from this future trauma.  

To educate, first we must open up discussion and remove any taboos and cultural norms around talking openly about FGM, both among our young women and young men.  We need a proper sex education program that openly discusses the health risks of FGM and gives accurate health information.  We need individual counseling and specific support for any of our female students who are victims of FGM.  Also, because this practice is linked to marriage, we want to connect the idea that a trained, economically independent woman does not need to see marriage as her only option.

Our goal at NTS is to train a new generation of youth who do not have to accept gender-based inequalities.  Our young women are economically independent and empowered.  Their male peers are learning to respect as well as expect gender equality in their families and in their workplaces.  Eradicating FGM is only the tip of the iceberg towards creating a generation of strong empowered women.  But it is a bold first step.

Most of our families are day laborers, only earning enough daily to feed their families.  This means a daily trip to the market to buy food. So, as families remain at home, we anticipate food shortages. What can we do?

Rice and beans are a Kenyan nutritional staple. When eaten together, they make a complete protein with all nine of the essential amino acids found in meat.  They also provide carbohydrates and other nutrients to keep a body healthy.

We have purchased 300 kilos each of rice and beans.  I am working alone (social distancing) to create 2 kilo bags of each (4 kilos per family in total) to give to our students and their families as food becomes scarce.  We anticipate our first distribution within the next 10 days.

I’ll keep you posted.

Kenya, like the rest of the world, is battling the invisible coronavirus with physical and social distancing.  School is cancelled indefinitely and we are frightened.  Rumor has it that there are only 150 ventilators in the entire country.

But I refuse to sit at home and tremble.  This is a time for creativity – solutions that will help our students stay safe and healthy.

In the coming weeks, I will chronicle our work and how we, as a school community, are tackling concrete problems with positive solutions.

As School Director, I often counsel students and their families on the benefits of a vocational education. Frequently there is doubt – does the student have talent and the potential for a successful career. Virtually every day, I will tell one of my students, “I see the hidden potential in you.”  I know that given the right tools, they will surprise themselves.

This can be exhausting work.  So now, it’s Friday, Feb 14th, Valentine’s day, and I’m looking forward to a week-long school vacation.  School ended an hour ago, and I’m alone in my office.  I sit back, put my feet up on my desk, and as I’m sighing with satisfaction, the phone rings.

“How would you like to join a 5-day, government-sponsored training?” the caller, a government official, asks.  His tone is formal …  this is a command, not a request. He continues, explaining the government believes this training will be a “game changer” in how technical school training programs are delivered across Kenya.

I’m stunned. I’ve been asked to join a government-sponsored program when NTS is not a government school.  I have no idea how they found us. Somehow, we’ve been noticed.

I’ve dreamed of being recognized by the Kenyan government.  It means technical support, subsidies, and connections to new colleagues.  This could be a “game changer” for NTS, too!

So, Monday, Feb. 17, I travel 15 kilometers and arrive at the training site where all 150 students/educators are assembled.  I learn the training has been organized by Kenya’s top education departments, the Curriculum Development, Assessment and Certification Council (CDACC) in collaboration with the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVET).  This opportunity is much larger than I imagined.

For the next five days, I did indeed learn a new, game-changing approach, called Competency-Based Education and Training (CBET).  It’s a methodology that looks deeply at how each student learns, both in the classroom and through hands-on experience.  We explored the interrelationship of knowledge (book/classroom learning), hands-on skills (shop and on-site learning), and attitude (professional behavior).  This mixing of approaches allows for deep learning.

Next, we explored how to build our own programs integrating CBET.  We studied curriculum development, student assessment tools, and educational planning.  Perhaps most interesting was the strategic aspect. Each profession in Kenya has national operational standards.  So, how do we integrate these standards into our curriculum ensuring our students graduate with a full array of professional competencies?

On our last day, we, the educators, became students.  First, we sat for a basic exam (more of a pop quiz to prove we’d paid attention).  Then, we were given an assignment:  2.5 hours to develop a one-year vocational curriculum in an area of our expertise, based on everything we had learned.  After a moment of mixed panic and terror, I started on a curriculum for teaching Microsoft Word and its intricacies to students.  

Two hours later I turned in my assignment, honestly unsure of my success.  While I am a sometimes teacher – after all, when I started NTS I was part of the teaching staff – I am more of an educational entrepreneur. On my own, I have acquired a building from our community, recruited volunteer teachers, eased the fears of countless families, mentored countless students and now, during the Covid-19 pandemic, am working with the students to start a mask making business. But, I had never designed a full curriculum, and certainly not in 2 hours. 

Late that day, our exam results were announced.  I finally understand the expression, “you could knock me over with a feather.”  My curriculum was graded as #1 of all 150 educators –  held up as an example of expert academic planning.  I was stunned … by the accolades and by my accomplishment. I’m always on the look-out for hidden potential in my students.  That day I discovered it in myself.

Since then I have fielded many requests from educators at the conference to help with curriculum planning.  While I must turn them down to focus on NTS, I am humbled by their faith in my skills. 

Every day I check the mail, expecting my official certificate of achievement.  It will be framed above my desk and serve as a reminder to everyone at NTS that within each of us resides hidden potential poised for that moment of release into the light of day.

In the Kisii region, there is an annual vocational school skills competition called Bonanza.  All vocational schools in the region are invited to compete.  They come poised to demonstrate their MIGHT in their different trade areas.  The students and teachers look forward to it all year.

This year, the competition was held on the 4^th of October 2019 at Riatirimba School located an hour from Nyamboyo. The venue was chosen as a central location for all schools in the region.  

We arrived to find ourselves competing against 8 schools and 160 students.  NTS was the only non-governmental school, meaning we were not founded using government funding or technical assistance.  NTS was founded in 2016, so as a relative newcomer, we were honored to be invited.

The rules of the competition are straightforward.  Each school is divided into vocational teams and then each team has complete an assigned task from scratch during a specific time period. The teams aren’t told the task in advance.  So, you’re racing against the clock to solve and implement complex problems.

Before the competition began, I gave my students a pep talk: “This is our time to show who we are. We can win those trophies because we are always capable!”

And win we did.  NTS won first place in Computer Design and in Electrical Wiring!  We came in second in Masonry and Carpentry, fourth in Hairdressing and fifth in Tailoring.   We had competed the year before and had not done well.  It was our dry run – we learned how the competition works and what type of practice we need.  This year we took two months to prepare, creating mock situations where we focused on problem-solving and working in cooperative teams.  We created time-sensitive tasks and developed our ability to listen to each other as well as keep a cool head under intense time pressure.

Back to the competition.  Our Electrical Wiring Team had two hours to prepare a live home circuit board demo complete with a consumer unit, bulb, sockets and switches. The Computer Studies Team had to develop a 15-minute animated PowerPoint presentation starting with a storyboard, then develop it into an online design and presentation. 

Every team was graded by a team of judges selected from expert teachers at each of the schools.  No judge is allowed to grade their own school.  The judges award marks for each step of the task, so they are evaluating process as well as product.

Ten, nine, eight – START!  The Electrical Wiring competition was the most pressured and thrilling.

As the second hand raced, our main competitor was the Nyamagesa School Team. Nyamagesa is one of the oldest, most respected and better-funded government schools in our region.  So there we were, a David to their Goliath, each team focused and determined.  The first 45 minutes were breathtaking and agonizing as both teams scored almost identically step-by-step.  Then … with students and teachers cheering us on … we pulled ahead!

It was during the most difficult part, the wire piping segment …  Our opponents lost focus and time. NTS had this down – with heads bent they skillfully mounted the wires on the board, completing the circuits.  We held our breaths and then … YES IT WORKED!

What a thrill for NTS students and teachers alike to see us win. And more importantly, we learned.  In every category, our teams learned.  Each student took home a lesson, whether about technique, focus or teamwork.  Next year, those eight other schools better watch out!!