By Jones Obiria, School Founder
In Kenya, the school year runs from January to December. January 25 marked our first official day of school and EVERYONE – 80 students – showed up excited and ready to learn!
The last two years have been tough. Just in 2022, NTS and schools nationwide were shut down for:
- Covid
- Nation-wide electrical failures – main towers in Nairobi fell down due to vandalism
- Malaria
- Presidential elections – to prevent a repetition of the violence that rocked the country in 2016
- Ebola threat
Our new Kenyan government has announced its intention to keep school in session this year. The learning deficit from 2 years of constant opening and closing is profound. Remember, the poor in Kenya (who number 50%+ of the population) do not have electricity in their homes which means no technology, television, and lights after dark to read. Most poor homes do not have easy access to reading material even when they do have light, so there has been an immeasurable loss of literacy.
This year, rather than adding new students and increasing our size, we will focus on preparing our current 80 students for their annual professional exams administered through the National Industrial Training Administration (NITA). Students must pass to be promoted to the next grade level and to graduate and receive their professional certification. Traditionally, these exams are held in December, but due to the 2022 education disruptions, were postponed until April 2023.
Our students have little history of test-taking and are terrified. With Covid, it’s been over 2 years since the last NITA exam so, to our teens this looms as a monstrous undertaking. The solution – we’ve created a mock exam that mirrors the NITA. It’s a 2-day exam. The first day is a 2-hour written theory exam testing all aspects of trade knowledge. The second day is a 5 – 8- hour practical exam, where students are given a physical trade task such as building a 2×2 meter wall or sewing a pair of shorts, and must accomplish it to a professional standard.
The results will help our teachers to identify how to use the weeks ahead to prepare students for the April exam. We can evaluate areas of common strength and weakness as well as where individual students may need extra help, providing the support needed for everyone to be successful.
Our goal? We hope to report back that EVERY NTS student has passed with top marks.