# Education – Radical action
This was our Glory our first baby at Wamba. How could she possibly do well in this situation?
Look at the photograph of Glory and Moses sitting on the bonnet of our pick-up. Can you imagine Glory just gone into P2 (class 2) at primary being surrounded by 109 other children, cramped on too few desks and with one teacher – sometimes absent?
The reality of Kenyan public primary education hit us like a bolt in February this year. This was our Glory our first baby at Wamba. How could she possibly do well in this situation? All our input in her life to date was in danger of being negated. As we reflected on this, and the situation of our other 57 children in the primary system, we began to appreciate why a number of our middle ability children were beginning to show signs of poor behaviour. We had to do something radical.
It is not that we had been doing nothing. We had tutors helping with studies at night, although with a 5.30 am start the brains were exhausted in the evenings. We had supported two of the local primary schools with a classroom assistant but this was a drop in the bucket.
In October last we had sent 4 of our P7 girls to a private school at Wamba having sent 2 up from Ngaremara. The teachers strike had been on for 4 weeks and these girls would be sitting their end of primary exam in October 2016. We could not leave them to the mercy of the system. By February this year the change in those 4 girls could be seen clearly and within a month their term exam results had shown a 25% improvement. However, it was their disposition, self-esteem, deportment and ability to hold a conversation in English which impressed and contrasted with some of our other kids who at the extreme were starting to play truant.
We had the accommodation in classrooms at *Wamba and Ngaremara. Only running costs to consider (teachers, books, furniture, computers etc). Our Board when they considered the problem on 9th April wholeheartedly agreed that a Private School was the answer so at the beginning of second term in May we have a two campus private school in operation. Classes 1 to 4 at Wamba and 5 to 7 at Ngaremara (we have not disrupted the 4 girls in Std 8 keeping them at an independent private school in Wamba). The children have gone boarding as the younger ones at Ngaremara moved to Wamba and the older at Wamba moved to Ngaremara for term time.
We were fortunate to be able to recruit a young qualified teacher to manage the school and 4 Secondary School leavers who have the qualifications to go on to teacher training giving us a pupil teacher ratio of 14:1. Each teacher will be responsible for two very small classes which will share a large classroom.
We need your prayers and we need your help to make a success of this. If you are prompted in any way to help please get in touch. We have a newly qualified teacher from N Ireland going out in June for 3 weeks and several of the teachers who have previously visited us in Kenya and who met the children in 2014 have expressed an interest in helping. Whether a teacher or not hold this in your prayer and consider if you would like to help financially.
*Our Wamba, Samburu and Ngaremara, Isiolo homes are 85 kms apart (two and a half hours)
Pray for the teachers and children in our new primary school
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