Tanzania: Lone teacher in school to get official accommodation
What you need to know:
- Bosco Chilumba, who is the only teacher at a Primary School with 99 pupils, has been living in a rented house.
Mtwara. The sole teacher at Chikotwa Primary School in Mtwara Region is set to get official accommodation after construction of the building started this week.
This comes three weeks after the media reported that the teacher, Bosco Chilumba, was living in a dilapidated rented house in the village.
Chikotwa Primary located in in Nanyumbu District has a total of 99 pupils from nursery to Standard 5 but has only one classroom.
The Nanyumbu District Commissioner, Mr Moses Machali, told MCL Digital on Wednesday that the house being built will be able to accommodate three teachers.
“Construction we will be completed in three weeks. We are building a quality house but at a terrific speed and our goal is to send two more teachers to the school,” he said.
The plan is also to build another classroom.
Mr Chilumba could not hide his happiness upon seeing the house being constructed:
“Things are now working. I am happy to see actual construction being done. They are building at a good pace. I hope they will live by their pledge of bringing more teachers here,” he told MCL Digital.
Mr Chilumba has done a good job so far so much that all pupils pass the 2018 Standard Four National Assessment (SFNA). SFNA assesses pupils’ literacy skills.
Mr Chilumba, 33, joined the school in 2015 and became the only teacher for classes one and two.
He went on to establish new classes during his time at the school.
“At first, I could put all the pupils – from nursery to class 5 – in a single classroom but then I came to realize that it was becoming difficult to handle them because when you teach one class, you will hear others making noise. Then I decided to change system whereby classes get into the classroom in turns,” he said noting that he puts more emphasis on standards one two and four.
“In classes one and two, my approach is to ensure that they are able to read and write while class in class four, the focus is to ensure that they do well during the SFNA,” he told MCL Digital.
Mr Chilumba attained his primary education at Chiwale Primary School in Masasi before proceeding to Lukuledi Secondary and later to Nachingwea Teachers’ Training College in Lindi. He was employed 2009.
