Laughs, smiles and chatter filled the Dining Hall at St Jude’s Girls’ Secondary School on October 10, 2020. St Jude’s farewelled the first class of O Level leavers from our girls’ secondary school. Completing Form 4, the equivalent of completing Grade 10, is an educational milestone for students in Tanzania.

Indeed, being the first girls’ secondary school Form 4 Celebration and Awards Day, it was a major milestone for The School of St Jude. St Jude’s Girls’ Secondary School opened in January 2020, enriching our whole school community and enabling free, high quality education for even more Tanzanian females.

Among the grinning girls was Agness, who was thrilled to have reached this important stage of her educational journey.

“Today I’m hoping to win a few awards in Biology and also receive a Leader’s Certificate.” Agness smiled.  

“After my O Level exams, I’ll use my time to volunteer. Teaching is my passion and I would like to come back and help to teach my young peers. I would like to help them with chemistry and biology.”

 “Being selected at St Jude’s has been a blessing and my experience here has been amazing. I got to meet and be friends with a lot of other students. I was exposed to a lot of things such as activities and I went up the student rank and became a level coordinator for the Form 4 students,” Agness shared.

Agness’ mother was ecstatic about her daughter’s completion of Form 4. “I’m so happy... My wish for my daughter is one day for her to become a great leader.”

Also beaming with pride was Mr Elimringi, Headmaster for St Jude’s Girls’ Secondary School. “Today I’m so glad. It’s been a long journey to reach this day and we’ve been anticipating and dreaming about this since the school opened. The celebration is important, but we also expect and encourage our students to perform very well in their upcoming national examinations,” he said.

“Our job is to make sure we are raising our girls so that we can have very strong women leaders in this country and raise the number of students that are going to focus on science subjects.”

“We want our female students to healthily compete with male students. I would also like to help the community understand that St Jude’s gives opportunities to all students regardless of individual differences,” Elimringi reassured.

So, what’s next for our Form 4 students? Soon, they’ll sit exams. National examinations take place annually with strict supervision from the Tanzania National Board of Examinations under the Ministry of Education. These exams can determine whether a student is eligible to proceed to their next level of education; students sit these exams in Standard 4, Standard 7, Form 2, Form 4 and Form 6.

Margaret, grandmother to Hilda, one of our exceptional Form 4s, excitedly recalled Hilda’s Student Selection process – it’s still a raw memory, even though more than 10 years have passed!

 “I remember the first Selection day, it was tough but I was hopeful that Hilda would get an opportunity to study at St Jude’s… but this is only the first step, she still has a long journey ahead of her.”

Hilda has chosen to study business subjects. She’s looking forward to a bright future, helping to improve her community during her study break after exams.

“I’m so excited and feeling fantastic. I will be spending my time volunteering. I would like to teach. But I will also try and get a job so I can support my family during this time,” Hilda said.

Form 4 Celebration and Awards Day is a huge step forward for our students. Completing Form 4 means they are closer to realising their dreams. For their parents and guardians, most of whom didn’t have the chance to attend secondary school, this is a major step in fighting poverty through education.

Our Form 4 male students at Smith Campus will be having their Celebration and Awards Day on November 7 this year.

Standard 5 students, 25 in total, file into the classroom. The walls are covered with posters of facts and grammatical tips.

Despite the heat outside, most of the students are wearing sweaters. This is common among St Jude’s students, who take a great deal of pride in their uniform.

Last in the classroom, behind the students, is Ms Anna. She is about to begin a Kiswahili lesson.

Ms Anna places her bag on the desk and the students stand and sing her a song in Kiswahili, which runs through different categories of nouns. Once they’ve finished, Ms Anna nods in approval.

Kiswahili is Tanzania’s official language. Because St Jude’s is a English Medium school, all subjects are taught in English except Kiswahili. This means English is the medium of communication and instruction to all students and staff at St Jude’s.

To begin the class, Ms Anna turns to the blackboard, standing straight with one hand clasped behind her back, writing in flawless cursive.

“Before we start,” says Ms Anna, “is there any preparation you’d like to go over?”

Six hands shoot up before Ms Anna has even finished asking her question. The students begin making suggestions for the day’s class, speaking with ease and confidence. The feeling in the room is that of comfort and trust.

Ms Anna places importance on building trust with her students. She enjoys working with younger students, and teaching them more than Kiswahili… she also teaches them to strive to be better. Often, she will share parables with her class to teach them life lessons about happiness, setting goals and achieving their dreams.

 “I teach my students to be better than me,” she says. “Don’t just try and be like me, be better than me.”

Ms Anna takes joy and pride in teaching her students, and to encourage and inspire them, Ms Anna  shares her childhood stories with her students.

“My childhood was difficult but happy,” says Ms Anna. “I have a big family with six siblings.”

“My parents were poor and I would cry, I would see my friends with cars and shoes…” Ms Anna adds.

“…But look at me now!” She triumphantly exclaims.

Unusually, for a Tanzanian family of such limited means, all six of Ms Anna’s siblings graduated high school; they would always support each other and work hard.

For her education, Ms Anna went to a government school. Occasionally, her friends who had the money to attend English Medium private schools would poke fun at her because of her inability to pronounce certain words in English. For years, Ms Anna took to sitting under a tree and reading English books, as well as watching movies.

“I would read, even if I couldn’t understand,” says Ms Anna. “I would read out loud to practice my pronunciation.”

By the time she was in Form 6, her final year of secondary school, she was able to speak English confidently to those same private school friends, having worked hard to make up for the shortcomings in her education.

The Kiswahili lesson continues and students approach the front of the room, writing different nouns on the blackboard. Some even clasp their hands behind their back as they write, emulating their teacher.

If a student writes a word correctly, Ms Anna will nod her head and quietly say, “ehe.” If they get it wrong, she will comically contort her face in a grimace, before inviting the class to help.

A steady line of students continues to approach the blackboard, while Ms Anna pads around the room, talking softly, never raising her voice, and smiling, thrilled to have the chance to shape her students’ outlook on education and the future.

Ms Anna counts hard work and encouragement as the two most valuable lessons she learnt from her childhood and the emphasis on securing an education. She believes that the students can reach their goals and break the cycle of poverty regardless of their background.

It’s 6am and thousands of parents and students have come from all over Arusha with hopes that this day will change the future of their child’s education, forever.  The road outside St Jude’s is overflowing with people as everyone eagerly waits for the school gates to burst open. It’s the first Selection Day of the year for Standard 1 and 2 students.

St Jude’s Selection Days are annual enrolment events that invite eligible Standard 1 and 2, Form 1 and Form 5 students to sit tests for an academic scholarship. Students from government schools receive an invitation letter to sit the test, and for Standard 1 and 2, announcements are also made on the local radio.

Around 1,000 prep and primary students attend Standard 1 and 2 Selection Day, hoping to receive an academic scholarship for St Jude’s. And this year the numbers were huge!

“We had more than 1,100 students come for registration. This is a lot more students compared to other years,” said Philip, Head of Community Relations.

A rigorous selection process is put in place to ensure that only the poorest and brightest students in Arusha receive scholarships to St Jude’s. First, students are registered to ensure they were invited, or they are the right age from a surrounding government school. Then, they are taken to do basic reading and writing tests to evaluate their academic skills. Most students are only six years old, so the testing is quite basic. This is followed by document verification to make sure students are the correct ages and match their documents before choosing the first successful batch that will go through the next stage.

“The team managed to reduce 1,127 students to 287 students who will be going through to the next stage, which is a series of house checks to assess their poverty level. After house checks, we aim to lower the number to around 100 students who will sit probation for two weeks to test their academic skills and behaviour further. Finally, we hope to enrol up to 90 new students. That’s the number of places we have available for 2021,” Philip explained.

House checks are an essential part of the selection process. It’s through house checks that poverty assessments are done to ensure that these students truly deserve a place at St Jude’s.

Noah, a St Jude’s graduate, working in the Supporter Relations department, volunteered to help on the day. “Student selection day has always been such a wonderful experience. It is my third time taking part, and each time I do, it reminds me of when I came for Selection Day back in 2006.”

“My role was to take students from the school gate to the dining hall where they were doing exams, and later, I helped in scanning their documents for verification,” Noah explained.

Having gone through the selection process, Noah said, “My Selection Day remains to be one of the most special and memorable days of my life. Being among the selected few out of thousands of students was a day that changed my life. I remember going to meet my parents after being selected, one of the most precious moments in any selection at St Jude’s. Words can’t explain the happiness that my parents and I had on that day.”

During the selection process, parents are not allowed to be part of the procedure and instead, anxiously wait outside the gates to receive their child, hopeful that they made it to the next stage.

“The massive crowd of parents were eager to know how their children's went. We can only take in a certain number of students and therefore, as a facilitator, I needed to put myself in the parent’s shoes. I had to understand their situation and remain creative in helping them cope with any result (good or bad),” explained Focus, Community Development Coordinator.

Focus’ role was to make sure that the parents and guardians understood what was happening as well as disseminate the necessary information about the next stages.

As a new member of staff volunteering on his first Selection Day, Focus said, “The experience was uplifting. It was great to be part of the process to select and support disadvantaged families residing in Arusha.  The response from the parents was great. They were all eager to see their child getting through the various tests.”

He added, “I was super excited to see the students who had passed the testing stage coming out to meet their parents. Both parents and I felt the same intrinsic and extrinsic joy. It was great to watch the parents catching the vibe and rejoicing for their children.”

Selection Day is the first stage in breaking the poverty cycle for students and their families. Once they have successfully passed the rest of the process, these students will have an opportunity to receive the gift of free, quality education at St Jude’s. This is just the beginning of a very hopeful future.

St Jude’s Girls’ Secondary School has a total of nine clubs. Each club is unique and provides a different experience to students.

Irene and Faith, charming and bubbly secondary students took the time to list all the clubs. “We have nine clubs namely Scouts, Journalism, Roots & Shoots, Entrepreneurship, Tembo, Fema, Computer, Youth of Tanzania Association (YOTA) and Art Club,” says Irene. She is the school’s Head Girl and also a leader of Scouts Club.

These clubs allow students to reach beyond academics and participate in activities outside the classroom; promoting character building, developing life skills and expanding students’ interests and passions. With mentorship and guidance from teachers in each club, students receive help in assessing their performance with club projects and acquiring skills they can use after they graduate.

“My favourite club is journalism because I feel like I am myself when I’m in this club. I enjoy it, and it’s so much fun. We have our newsletter that we are still writing. We haven’t posted it, but we will be publishing it soon,” says Faith, who belongs in the Journalism Club. She’s also a chairperson of the Entrepreneurship Club.

Ever since Irene joined her club, she feels like her personality and character has developed. Irene is more confident with herself than she was before.

“Scouts Club is everything to me. 90% of everything I do is all about that. I love it! The club gives me new experiences, more lessons and more skills. For example, before joining the club, I used to be scared of public speaking, but now I can lead the assembly without any stage fright,” says Irene with a bright, confident smile.

Irene and Faith believe that these school clubs can help students achieve more in their lives.

“After I graduate, I wish to become both a chef and a journalist. With the skills I’m learning from the Entrepreneurship and Journalism Club, I know I can work as a chef, open my own business while practising broadcast journalism,” Faith ambitiously says.

Teachers are also heavily involved in these clubs by supervising and assessing the students’ performance. Ms Judith, a librarian at the girls’ secondary school, explains more about the club activities, “We normally have club sessions as extra-curricular activities once a week after school hours. The main objective of introducing club activities in our school is to promote students discovering and experiencing their talents and passion in line with the school values.”

She adds, “Clubs have a huge impact on our girl's education, as it allows them to explore and learn more about their talents. The capability to go beyond academics helps them in their social life and especially to adjust to life after graduation.”

“Some of the skills developed in these clubs are self-reliance, volunteerism, and entrepreneurship, which will help them become responsible people in their communities and good ambassadors for the school.”

At St Jude’s, clubs not only give students the chance to sharpen their interests, hobbies and talents but also develop their leadership and social skills; in turn, creating community-focused leaders who will fight poverty through education.

Due to COVID-19, schools in Tanzania were closed from March to June this year. Since reopening, the Tanzanian Ministry of Education recently announced a new schedule for all national examinations in both primary and secondary schools. The newly introduced academic calendar will see Standard 7 students sit their exams early October, Form 2 in November and Form 4 towards the end of November.

National examinations are taken annually with strict supervision from the Tanzania National Board of Examinations under the Ministry of Education. The board is responsible for all national exams, many of which determine whether a student will be eligible to proceed to their next level of education; students sit these exams in Standard 4, Standard 7, Form 2, Form 4 and Form 6.

Salma and Benson are in Standard 7 at St Jude’s, the last year of primary school. Sitting the Standard 7 National Examinations in October is a new experience for both, as they didn't expect the exams to be so late in the year. But, both students say they’ve been studying hard, preparing and focusing on ensuring they get the best results possible.

“Our teachers are giving us weekly tests so we can get used to as many questions as possible,” says Salma.

Benson also adds that “I ask teachers many questions and request for extra work.” He continues, “In preparing for my national exams, I also like studying in groups with my friends. I find that asking hard questions, and discussing past papers allows me to understand the subjects better.”

At St Jude's, students are motivated to study hard to reach their dreams and become community-focused leaders. Students know very well that the way to achieve their goals and help lift their families and communities out of poverty is through a commitment to their education. And it’s the support of the dedicated and inspiring teachers that help students to do this.

Mr Deo, a mathematics teacher at St Jude’s Primary School, says, as teachers, they use many tactics to make sure that students will perform well in the national exams. “One of the tactics we use is giving the students a lot of questions from the past national examination papers weekly as well as monthly tests.”

“Also, to compensate for the time that students had stayed home due to the shutdown caused by the outbreak of COVID-19, we also have extra classes on Saturdays. We believe this will cover for the lost time, and our students will be able to do well in the national examinations.”

During the school shut down from March to June, students also received four rounds of study packs to help them continue their education while at home. The packs included worksheets, lesson notes, mock exams, an exercise book, and even marking guides. These study packs ensured students were not left behind in their studies upon their return to school.

Last year, St Jude’s ranked in the top 1% in the country for the Standard 7 National Examinations, and 100% of the students achieved A’s and B’s. Thanks to teachers like Mr Deo who are dedicated and passionate about teaching, the school was also the top-performing school in all of Tanzania last year in advanced mathematics.

Although the academic calendar has been adjusted for the rest of the year, students are passionate about their studies, and teachers are highly motivated to ensure students do the best in their exams.

Science subjects are deemed to be too difficult by female students. However, Mr Nzinyangwa Mcharo disputes this notion.

Mr Mcharo is the Academic Manager here at The School of St Jude. He begins the conversation by confirming that the overall number of girls enrolled at St Jude’s is over 60% as of July 2020.

“The enrolment is based on merits and not because of gender selection,” said Mr Mcharo.

Currently, most schools in Tanzania lack science teachers, particularly women, making science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education predominantly dominated by men.

One of Mr Mcharo’s initiatives as Academic Manager is to encourage more female students to opt for science subjects.

“Most of the time, it’s a social stigma that math and physics are hard subjects. However, I can tell you about my own experience; I think history is more difficult than mathematics. I believe that anyone can pass mathematics when they focus.”

“I believe that science is very easy, and it’s also about your life. When you study biology, you study about health. You study physics, you study about machines. You study chemistry, you study about chemicals, some of them used in our daily life like in the kitchen. So it really depends on how those subjects get taught and the student’s passions.”

Mr Mcharo also emphasised on the best way these science subjects are taught. “If you teach science only to get grades, students will get upset because they don’t see any relevance of the subject. However, if you link science with every-day life, there will be no reason why a student won’t opt for science subjects.”

Mr Mcharo and St Jude’s academic staff have been at the forefront of promoting female teachers in STEM education to increase the number of female staff and ultimately have role models for girls in science subjects.

“So, the first thing is to have role models, and this can only be done if we create them to influence female students to focus on STEM. In our approach to science, we have made some initiatives such as opening a girls’ school with fully-equipped science labs and providing full university scholarships through the Beyond St Jude’s program in the field of science with education.”

To Mr Mcharo, STEM defines the future for successful female students.

“If we can get our girls into these STEM careers – science, technology, engineering and mathematics, we will get role models. This will remove the bias and improve the wellbeing of our society.”

Herieth, a Class of 2018 alum, is a true inspiration to her fellow female students who would like to pursue science studies. Her academic achievements at St Jude’s earned her a full scholarship through the Beyond St Jude’s program to study Bachelor of Science with Education at the University Dar es Salaam - Mkwawa Campus in Iringa, Tanzania. She is the first St Jude’s graduate to be offered this scholarship, and after completion of her degree, there is a possibility that Herieth will be offered a job, here, at St Jude’s.

Since opening the girls’ secondary school, St Jude’s has seen a significant increase in the number of female students interested in studying science.

Aloyce, a Form 3 student at St Jude’s Girls’ Secondary School, is one of the students with a passion for science studies. She says her favourite subject is physics, "When I graduate, I want to become a medical scientist.” She adds that; “Science subjects are not as hard as most people portray them to be. I encourage girls to study science because anyone can do it.”