Birunda Primary School
School looking East - July 2014. Notice the bin in the foreground and
new classrooms in the distance all with a fantastic veranda!
Big changes in Birunda.
Birunda Primary School is a great Government school and has the most pupils in the area. The total number of pupils changes year on year but has an average of 1500. From this number there are a team of 36 teachers and a few other support staff such as cooks and watchmen. There are 27 classrooms and each has an average of 60 pupils in each. Out of the 26 there are 5 mud and 22 brick built classrooms (there were 10 mud rooms in 2008). There is a high risk of the mud classrooms collapsing during heavy rainfall.
The children attend school from 8am until 4pm; their day is broken into 8; 35minute lessons with a short morning break, a longer morning break and an hour for lunch. After lessons finish at 3pm the children are allowed an hour of games on the school field, some then leave for home others stay for prep until 5pm. It’s a very long day for the children who in some cases have to walk for over an hour to reach the school.
Primary and now secondary education is free now in Kenya and the government are doing a good job in providing the teachers but the teachers find it difficult to teach due to lack of resources. The school has 33 full time staff members and is run very efficiently by Sylvester Munjalu and his deputy Rhoda.
Sylvester has always been a very forward thinking and fair teacher and now since becoming head teacher at Birunda he has implemented some great changes. His teaching staff work effectively to ensure that all pupils can achieve the best they can when National Exams take place at the end of their 8th year.
Teaching standards and commitment differ hugely between each member of staff and as such some bring a poor image to the school. I’m pleased to say that this is a minority and as the new constitution has now been implemented new powers will be available to Sylvester to ensure all staff work towards the same goal with the same commitment
Below is a photo of Sylvester Munjalu, Head Teacher of Birunda Primary School and Unit for the hearing impaired.
The children attend school from 8am until 4pm; their day is broken into 8; 35minute lessons with a short morning break, a longer morning break and an hour for lunch. After lessons finish at 3pm the children are allowed an hour of games on the school field, some then leave for home others stay for prep until 5pm. It’s a very long day for the children who in some cases have to walk for over an hour to reach the school.
Primary and now secondary education is free now in Kenya and the government are doing a good job in providing the teachers but the teachers find it difficult to teach due to lack of resources. The school has 33 full time staff members and is run very efficiently by Sylvester Munjalu and his deputy Rhoda.
Sylvester has always been a very forward thinking and fair teacher and now since becoming head teacher at Birunda he has implemented some great changes. His teaching staff work effectively to ensure that all pupils can achieve the best they can when National Exams take place at the end of their 8th year.
Teaching standards and commitment differ hugely between each member of staff and as such some bring a poor image to the school. I’m pleased to say that this is a minority and as the new constitution has now been implemented new powers will be available to Sylvester to ensure all staff work towards the same goal with the same commitment
Below is a photo of Sylvester Munjalu, Head Teacher of Birunda Primary School and Unit for the hearing impaired.
The children at Birunda are very fortunate to be educated in such a school, as all are realising from a very early stage that the children being taught in the unit are no different to them and are learning the same material. This has led to friendships being forged between the children from main school and the unit. To further this Sylvester uses total communication, which means that as he speaks to the whole school during assembly he also uses basic signs. The result has been children signing to the deaf children and the whole group working and playing as one. This method is very unusual for Kenya as most of the limited deaf schools are completely separate from the mainstream school and so the children are isolated and cannot practice communication on the same level.
