Report from January 2014, written by Teacher Margaret
This is yet another year that we are back to school at Happy Day Junior School. We thank God for the far he has brought us. We also thank all our partners, family, friends, parents, teachers and the children for your continued presence and support that you give to us. We appreciate everything that each one of you does for Happy Day junior school. May you all be blessed.
2013
2013 was a year that had many challenges to the education sector in Kenya. This was occasioned by the high political tensions. In the same year, the school syllabus underwent a major change due to the changes in the Kenyan constitution and so some subjects learnt in schools were seriously affected. Mainly social studies became a new thing all together because of the new political structure. Our teachers had to be taken for refresher courses that would enable them to better understand the new constitution. All schools had to get new text books for social studies. The stakeholders in the education sector are currently holding talks with the government to try and change the education system in Kenya. This is because they feel that the system should be able to prepare the children for a better system. We at Happy Day junior school bought the new social studies books though they are few and the children have to share them. Currently we need more text books for all subjects so that our kids can be able to learn well.
December and the start of 2014
2014 began well here at Happy Day Junior School. We thank our Norwegian friends and family for the Christmas token that you gave to us. We appreciate everyone that gave towards Christmas. All teaching and non teaching staff received some cash and foodstuff. We also used the money to put some cement on the floors of the two iron sheet classrooms because they were not in good condition. The remaining money went towards paying the teachers and the other staff. The break down on the school expenditure will appear at the end of this report. First term begun with a low turnout of pupils because most of them were held up upcountry due to the ban by the government on night travel. Right now they are present and learning is ongoing. Some children had to go to other schools to continue with the classes that we do not have. Daniel Muli Kawinzi, Bernard Ndolo Kawinzi and Marianne Aalstad Muli have been very instrumental in improving the management of the school. Through them we have seen the school re introduce
giving the children porridge during break time. Thank you very much for bringing this back. It will help the kids who come without having had breakfast. We also wish to thank Aslak for the big help that he gave to a very needy family of five kids in our school. The kids now have the full
school uniform and through his kind gesture the father to the kids finally showed up and he said that he was very grateful to the person or persons who helped his children. The school had also bought books and pencils for them. When we went to buy the uniforms for that family we also bought school trouser for nine more kids and they are also very happy and they say thank you very much. We also bought wooden chairs for our baby class but they are still at the carpenter. This is after we realized that the plastic chairs were not repairable after they break .We hope that the chairs will be available by next week.
The syllabus set by the government
The school uses the syllabus set by the government. Learning always starts with the theme; MYSELF which has sub themes that include; Name and gender, parts of the body and their uses. The next theme is; FAMILY MEMBERS which is then broken down to sub themes which include; 1. Names of family members; father, mother and children. 2. Roles of family members e.g. the work they do and their responsibilities in the society. 3. Clothes worn by family members. 4. Food we eat. 5. Our relationship with other members of the extended family.
The other theme in the syllabus is OUR SCHOOL which is also divided into sub themes which include; the location of the school, the names of the teachers, items found in a school compound, items found in the classrooms and the importance of taking care of school property.
OUR ENVIRONMENT is the next theme and like the others it too is divided into sub themes which include; our neighbors, the market, the church, the mosque, buying and selling, good co existence with our neighbors and taking care of animals and taking care of the environment.
OUR COUNTRY is a theme which is also divided into sub themes; our flag, our national anthem, our loyalty pledge, our boundaries, our president and different ethnic groups found in Kenya and our history and culture
This are the main themes that we have in our education system and as the learners advance from one class to the next so does the themes. I just outlined the sub themes that are covered by the age groups that we have at Happy Day junior school.
This year 2014 we hope to continue giving quality education to the kids and our school and by doing so we shall be improving their quality of life.
The school management is working on having forms that will be given to all teachers so that they can fill in the details as to how many pupils are in class everyday and also the items that they will be teaching. They will also write the challenges that they are facing in classes. Happy Day welcomes any opinion, encouragement and positive criticism from anyone who has the interest of the school at heart. Thank you Annelene for the guidelines that you have given us. They will help us in our everyday running of the school.
Financial Breakdown
· Salaries for the month of December was: 31,500 ksh
· Christmas token for the staff was: 13,500 ksh
· Foodstuff for Christmas: 13,000 ksh
· Cement for making the floors was: 2,800 ksh
· Sand for the floor was: 5,000 ksh
· Concrete: 3,200 ksh
· Wages for making the floor: 2,500 ksh
· Exercise books: 5,500 ksh
· Pencils: 1,200 ksh
· Chalks: 1,350 ksh
· Textbooks: 10,650 ksh
· Government licence: 15,300 ksh
TOTAL EXPENDITURE FOR DECEMBER: KSH 105,500
This is the breakdown of the money that we received during the month of December and the remaining balance was deducted as the ledger fee for mpesa transactions. Though the money was sent after Christmas was over we made sure that the members of staff received their packages through the mpesa mobile phone money transfer.
BUDGET FOR FIRST TERM(JAN,FEB&MAR).
· Text books: 30,000 ksh
· Exams: 5,000 ksh
· Teaching Aid 15,000 ksh
· Maintenance: 15,000 ksh
· Salaries: 103,500 ksh
· Porridge: 48,000 ksh
TOTAL KSH: 216,500.
N/B This budget excludes the salaries for April vacation which amounts to Ksh 34,500.
