Haymu Primary School

Haymu Primary School in Karatu is an amazing place. It was built only a few years ago and is already flourishing. The school has 441 students and 16 teachers, and out of 101 primary schools in the Karatu district it is ranked 9th. This is an impressive feat, made even more impressive when you take into account the school’s lack of learning space. 

There are currently only six classrooms at Haymu, which were all funded by the local community. The community has paid to pour the foundation for the remaining two classrooms they require, but they don't have the funds needed to finish the construction of the buildings. Due to the shortage of classrooms, two teachers and two grades share one classroom -- the right side of the room listens to one teacher and the left side listens to another. On top of that, the teachers lack the books they need and the students do not have text books and workbooks. Imagine how difficult it is to teach and learn in that environment! 

In Tanzania, 98% of children enroll in primary school, but many of these students are taught in classrooms under suboptimal conditions, like having more than one grade learning in one classroom, or having one teacher responsible for simultaneously teaching multiple classes. 

In 2015, all of the Haymu students passed their exams to enter secondary education. This is an extraordinary achievement for a school that opened in 2012 and still lacks many of the basic resources that we would expect to see in a classroom. 

The school's number one priority is to finish the construction of the two remaining classrooms so that each Standard (primary school is Standards 1-7 in Tanzania) gets its own classroom instead of having to share. We plan to complete construction on these classrooms in 2017. Haymu is a remarkable school, and we can't wait to see what the students will accomplish in the coming years.