Every year from Aug through to December, St Jude's school open's it's gates every Friday to the children of Arusha to sit exams for their chance to gain entry to the school. St Jude's promotes the opportunity on local radio stations and of course its a very very popular and busy day at the school.
Local families who get the opportunity to send one of their children to the school will be very lucky as this will be a great help to not only the child's job prospects but also the income that they can bring in to support the family - it's different in Africa to Western countries - the family unit works together to put food on the table, pay for bills and family occassions like weddings, births and deaths.
So I was very excited to be a part of one of the Friday entrance testing days at St Jude's. There's alot to be organised amongst not only the admin staff but our security, teachers and gardeners who help chaperone and translate on the day. Buses need to be moved off site, security stepped up and processes organised. On the day I was to do primarily the photography of the day unfolding and then once things quietened to help monitor the children sitting their exams to help with questions, prevent cheating and accompany children to the toilet.
At around 12.30pm I went to the main gate and the crowd of mothers and children was already 200 strong at least! The parents waiting area in the main driveway was roped off and only children were allowed through to the waiting area. The gardeners and security staff did a great job chaperoning the children who obviously get restless, need water, toilets and often have a little cry as they want their mum's. All children are told to bring their own pencil so we check that before they enter they have a sharp pencil to complete their exam with. It might sound crazy that we cant supply pencils, but you must realise we have a few hundred children every Friday between August and December which would equate to too much money that the school as a charity cannot afford. Often we find ourselves sharpening pencils for the children who must press down on those things real hard!
It was a mass of colour outside the school gates. The children patiently sitting in the shade waving their pencils in the air and occassionally at their hopeful mum's in the crowd beside them. The mama's are beautiful - many in their best clothes and their children too as this is a big event for them and if their child is accepted today there will be great celebrations. The variety of kanga prints (African material that the women wear with bold African patterns) is amazing and eye candy for me. I absolutely adore the women who wrap the kanga around their heads - they look so elegant.
As th children start to move in lines with the hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them its just adorable, mums are waving and I imagine saying good luck, some of the children are proud and you can tell they are not sure what exactly all the fuss is about but they have their mum's attention and in a big family that's what counts. Some children see me - the only "muzungu" outside at that point and use it as their opportunity to practise their English. There is one little boy in particular with a gorgeous smile and I can see he is determined to talk to me, he's in his best clothes and only a tiny frame of maybe 8 years and with a huge smile as he walks in his line past me he says "Good morning madam, how are you today?" I can tell he's been practising this phrase and he decides since he did so well the first time why not say it a few more times to me since I'm smiling back at him and asking how he is. He melted my heart but I must continue with the photos and not show any preference by talking with them.
Some of the children are just too young to do the exam, let alone the reading test which is part one of the day. One girl was so cute and maybe 3 years - how was she going to read?? We tell the parents the minimum age, but they ignore trying their luck, so we give them the chance since they have travelled all the way but this little girl just stares at the paper and sweetly smiles at the testing teacher - she melts our heart and I take her photo as she is too cute. One little boy is in his probably only suit - it's beige and linen and makes us all smile.
Not only was it a fashion parade of kanga's that day with the mothers, but the other eye candy was the fantastic hair-do's on the children. I find myself going crazy taking photo after photo of these amazing hair-do's - I never imagine hair braids could have so many variations, I wonder if they have a menu card at the salon or does everyone know the name of each style?!
Most of the children are in the gate and still more pour through. Parents are outside now and can only see the sea of heads that contains their little one. We continue to keep the children in lines and based on height our gardeners place the children in lines according to approximate class levels. All the children have short attention spans and within moments of being in perfect lines they are in awe of the children's playground and the huge grounds of the school and the lines go astray along with children wanting to play. We all have a giggle as we try to keep them in lines and get them to focus on what they are here to do - but it's so adorable as they are in a zombie-like state looking at this playground equipment the majority have probably never seen.
Further ahead in the lines one by one the children are given a passage written in swahili and asked to read it to the teacher - this helps us do a fast cull as the children must be able to read Swahili to be considered for the exam. We would love to take all the children, but the fact is that each child needs several sponsors to be able to afford to attend the school and have their education paid for - and since this is a big investment of both money and resources, the school needs to be sure that the child has some promise of being able to apply themselves to their studies successfully.
The written exam which for obvious reasons I cant detail here, but I will say its very basic and things that children should know at the ages we are testing. Again it was interesting to observe the children in these conditions, because we and their parents understand how critical this exam is for their future - if they get through they have a very promising future ahead of them. But the number of children who sit there in a daze staring out to the playground or at just a fly going past was amazing and my heart sank that they were not focused. I found myself tapping on their papers to get their attention, smiling and pointing to parts of the exam to encourage them to keep going. Some children would get stuck on one part and they would just sit there staring at it, so I would encourage them to move onto other parts and come back at the end.
Of course some children are cheating and trying to copy off the person next to them - this is obviously not permitted and they will loose their opportunity straight away so we try to avoid temptation and keep them apart. Once they complete this exam in the allocated time frame we take and mark the papers and double check them. Those children who are not successful are sent out with a thank you note and welcoming them to try again next week and those that are successful are gathered together and brought outside doing a little song and dance celebration for the parents to join in!
Unfortunately though, the process is not over and these children and their families are now subject to house checks to ensure that the children really are in need and deserving of a free education as we have found many people who can afford to pay for tuition trying to send their children to the exam to get entry to the school. Again I cant detail exactly how we worm these families out but we do thankfully and provide a seat in class for a child in much need.
Being apart of the testing is absolutely amazing, I realised yet again just how important St Jude's is to the future of these children. One of my colleagues fought back tears as she had to accompany the children who were not successful and it was breaking her heart - it was breaking all our hearts but we knew why we had to say no and we knew that some of these children would be a yes.
If you have been reading my blogs and thinking about sponsoring a child I hope this has helped you consider or even action it. As you can hear there are alot of people involved behind the scenes at St Jude's and without sponsorship funds we would have to close the school, which means closing the futures of 1300+ children and the loss of incomes for 300+ local Tanzanian staff. Please consider sponsoring a child, teacher, bus or boarding room today and make a world of difference to not just one child but their community and the future of their country. Thanks for reading x
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