This one goes out to Shafique, who humorously and lyrically reminded us that we’re doomed to be stuck with the cognitive and emotional intelligence we already have.
Today is a ‘field-trip’ day, my favourite kind of day since Kindergarten. I jump into the white MRC,K van with three other colleagues, including trusty Mr. H, our driver. We bump and bounce along the dusty, potholed road, careening around tuk tuks , matatus, and pedestrians brave enough to cross the street. After a half hour or so, we turn down an even more rudimentary road, one lane wide and packed with red earth.
The scenery is lush with Palms, Baobabs, and Acacia trees. Thatched roof, one-room houses dot the landscape. We stop just past a one-room school house, white walls with a corrugated metal roof, a water pump in front. “Krist...” (Mr.H the driver calls me Krist.) “We have arrived, in the field.” (We have a running joke now, about how I say I love going to ‘the field’, when really we visit schools.) Laughing about frolicking around in the field with the cows, I take my cue to open the van door and climb out onto the dirt path up to the school. As my colleagues give their ‘hellos’, or should I say “Salaam Alaikums” ,to the women outside, I say my ‘hellos’ and get to work as the official MRC,K photographer.
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| Water pump at Ummulqura School. |
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| Entrance to Ummulqura School. |
Here’s a brief history on the Madrasa Preschool Programme:
(No thanks to Greg Mortenson and other discredited sources, the word ‘madrasa’ has been given a bad rap. A ‘madrasa’ is simply a school. It is not necessarily a breeding ground for the world’s most annihilative terrorists).
The Madrasa Preschool Programme , developed with the support of the Aga Khan Development Network and now funded by a number of bilateral and multilateral donors, began as a community need in the early 80’s. The Kenyan coast is home to a significantly large population of Muslims. However the only options for education could be found in the Mosques (for a formal education purely based on the Qur’an) or Christian schools. Muslim communities found they were not happy sending their children to a Christian school, as it became very confusing for the child to attend Christian school, then Mosque on Saturdays. They were also not happy with the formal, purely religious, lecture-style education their children would receive in the mosques. So the madrasas grew out of a local need – apart from most development programmes that are ‘thought up’ by ‘experts’ in a shiny tall building somewhere in Ottawa or Washington D.C. then ‘transferred’ to the local context that the ‘experts’ may or may not have visited or even read about in a newspaper. (I don’t apologize for sounding so cynical - this is how “development” was actually done in the early 80’s). And this local need was voiced to the local religious leaders and eventually to His Highness, the Aga Khan himself. (I’m sorry readers, you may have to Google that one – this blog is already too long).
A holistic and pluralistic Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) programme was piloted through the madrasas in 1986. ECDE focuses on the critical first 8 years of a child’s life (0-8), where the entire foundation of our cognitive, emotional, physical, social, spiritual and moral growth is built. Hence, those of us who are long past grade 3, are doomed to be as we are. As Shafique, our facilitator from Uganda, says “It’s too late”.
Now, for us in the Western world, where our children are spoiled to death with free public education and institutions like Montessori schools, where children are graded with shiny stars and smiley faces, where the Ministry of Education continuously finds danger in the playground equipment (Seriously, whatever happened to merry-go-rounds and tire swings?), where the Ministry of Health installs giant hand sanitizer stations on every wall in the schools.... we seriously have no issues with being up and coming with ECDE. However, in rural Kenya, with thatched one-room houses, roaming cattle, and a lack of basic plumbing – add a per capita GDP of $1,600, an unemployment rate of 40%, malnutrition, and child labour- ECDE is a relatively new undertaking.
I enter the one-room school house. The walls are made of concrete, there are wooden beams holding up the ceiling of corrugated metal. The windows have bars and metal screening. There are three teachers, and therefore three different classes going on at once. I can count about 40 children. Everyone is sitting on the floor, most kids turn to stare at me. After my experience teaching kindergarten at a private school in China, I figured a classroom of 40 4-7 year olds with three separate classes going on at once plus a strange white lady standing at the doorway would be a recipe for disaster. I was quite shocked when the lessons went on, unhinged, while some students quietly turned to stare, but continued on with their teacher. One teacher at one wall was focused on the sounds of the alphabet “aawaa” “ba ba” “ce ce” “da de” , or something to that effect. The second lesson on the next wall was focused on the letter ‘f’ and a song about ‘family’. The third wall was occupied by English phrases, such as “The hen has eggs”, and “The cat has a net”. Each wall had a tiny cut-out of a blackboard. A few other materials in the classroom reminded me of the ‘model classroom’ we have in the office to show teachers and other visitors.
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| Practicing the letter 'F' in Ummulqura classroom. |
Many of the materials for the classroom are home-made using locally available items – such as corn cobs, bottle caps, used water canisters, and coconut shells - to promote sustainability. If everything was bought, such as toys, games, equipment – how can the school sustain itself? The Madrasa Preschool Programme promotes community ownership and accountability. The community - including parents, teachers, school committees, political leaders, and elders - has to own the school . They even come together to literally build the school. The Madrasa Resource Centre, where I work, is simply there to promote ECDE and support the schools. This is not a hand-out business.
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| Free playtime in Music Corner with hand-made drums and costumes. Rahma School. |
The Madrasa Preschool curriculum is taught in English, Swahili, and Arabic. While a holistic education based on active learning, play, numeracy, literacy and creativity is the backbone of the program, so too are the pillars and values of Islamic teachings. Diversity, humility, prayer, morals, and spirituality are key components of the curriculum.
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| Outside playtime at Taqwa Magongo School. |
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| Pretend cooking in Home Corner. Taqwa Magongo School. |
An average Madrasa preschool has themed walls or corners: science, music, home life, health and nutrition, religion, math, language, and creativity. Outside there is a swing set, slide, and something akin to jungle bars. There also may be a ‘water play station’ and a ‘sand play station’ – some of us may remember these from preschool or kindergarten. An average morning at a Madrasa Preschool would go something like this:
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| Snack time at Taqwa Magongo School. |
Arrive: 7:30 am
Language (Usually Arabic or English): 8 – 8:30
Creativity Corner (Drawing, Painting: 8:30-9
Social Corner (Home Life, Diversity): 9-9:30
Outside Play: 9:30-10
Midmorning Snack (Biscuits, bananas, or fried potatoes): 10-10:30
Free Play (Children pick corners to play in): 10:30 -11
Math: 11-11:30
Wrap up and go home: 11:30-12
Another key component of the Madrasa Preschool Curriculum is health and nutrition. Children learn about hand washing before and after meals, dental hygiene, healthy foods, sanitation (use of a proper toilet and keeping the toilet facilities clean), wearing shoes while in the toilet, having a healthy mid-morning snack, drinking clean water, and wearing shoes while outside. The health and nutrition programme is a whole other story that cannot be captured in this post.
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| Outside play at Taqwa Magongo School. I can't help but notice they aren't wearing shoes. |
After snapping my photos, attempting to sneak a few in while the children are not staring blank-eyed at me, I do what I love best – interacting and playing with the children. It starts out with a ‘Hello, how are you’ and next thing you know we are making monkey faces, reading the “Three Little Pigs”, and playing make-believe with an empty teapot and teacups.
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| "And he huffed, and he puffed, and he blew the house down!" |
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| Pretend tea anyone? |
- Which brings me back to Greg Mortensen. (Insert brilliant metaphor about empty teacups and empty schools in the villages of Pakistan). Perhaps he should have done a bit more research on what schools or programming already existed and invested his millions into true community development. He obviously missed out on a holistic, nourishing ECDE experience as a child – sorry Greg it’s just too late.
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| Heading home. Ummulqura School. |
For more information on Kenya’s Madrasa Preschools:
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