Successful pupils

KIUMA Secondary school Bonita compares favourably with other schools at national level

School-leaving qualifications in South Tanzania are something very special: the Tunduru district is roughly the size of the Netherlands; even though until 2006, there were only two secondary schools, both of which in pitiful condition. They hardly provided the facilities for pupils to gain school-leaving qualifications and were mainly attended by pupils from other parts of the country. In 2006, wortundtat and the Bonita foundation established the KIUMA-Secondary school and in the winter term 2009/2010 the first pupils sat their A-levels. Currently almost 700 pupils attend the school. Half of them are girls and young women, which is unusual for the country and even more for the very backward Tunduru district.

Now we have the first results of the various exams and they give us reason to be pleased:

• All pupils have passed the year exam after Year 2 and are allowed to continue their education at the school. With regard to average grades, the school occupied rank 47 of 387 schools in the south-west of Tanzania.
• The pupils taking the final exams after Year 4 (“GCSEs” or O-levels”) achieved very good grades: 86 % of the pupils passed, one even with “Division 1” (very good). This makes the school the best in the district. It ranks in 11th place of 120 participating schools and in 246th place of all 3,196 schools of the country taking part.
• The final exams of Year 6 (A-Levels) were taken some time ago; however, we received the results only now: 85 % have passed - a very pleasing result. Only 81 schools in the whole of Tanzania have participated in these exams. This will be the first year, which has taken its A-Levels at the KIUMA school.

We now hope that we will be able to welcome some of the young people who have graduated in KIUMA, this time as an employee.