This week the temperatures have been low and we have received some rains. Thus we have moved on to plant all our seedlings and all our plots are full. Thanks to Dr.Robinah Sonko who has provided the seedlings and the technical expertise. The children are regaining their hope for a reasonable harvest now that they can see some false rains. We hope to get more rains such that our newly planted seedlings grow. Otherwise the first plants are growing with the cucumber and carrots looking good and we have reduced on some plants from the gardens for a great harvest.
We started paying visits to the homes of our children to see the small gardens that they opened up. In the few homes we have been to it is encouraging to see that what has been learnt at the community garden has been replicated at home. Of course the challenge of the chicken eating up the plants has been a major blow but this is where learning starts from and as such we learn how to protect the gardens. The family members literally told us all the stories of the activities as they unfolded at our camp and the parents are very happy. These stories have given us more motivation to continue improving on our programme and to engage the children in more action oriented activities because they seem to remember all that they are taught. This is confirmation to us that our schools need to become more practical so that what is taught at school is straight away replicated at home. I am more than sure a mathematics lesson in the topic of “fractions” taught through farming and making different fractions of the garden will stick more than that taught through the chalk and talk method.
The discussion about why children drop out of school and the effects is ongoing and we have been shooting several videos both from our own stories and from those children who dropped out of school. We hope our advocacy video will be completed soon.
You are right. In the school, the student-centered approaches are more useful than teacher-centered ones; students are involved in their learning and put hands-on in practices that in the future they will easily remember. Theory is good and adding practice is much better.