TEA gives smiles to Msalato Girls School

NELLY MTEMA in Dodoma

THE Tanzania Education Authority (TEA) has given smiles to Msalato Girls Secondary School after carrying out a thorough renovation to the old educational institution.

With such a facelift students will no longer pass sleepless nights in fear of the falling roofs and insects bites due to dilapidated dormitories. The students have also been waking up early in the morning everyday in search for water due to unavailability of the precious resource near their school.

Ms Dativa Cyriacus, a Form Six student at the school, thanked the Tanzania Education Authority (TEA) for their programme to renovate infrastructure of the old public schools. She said when she reported at the school for the first time from her home place in Bukoba, Kagera Region, she nearly decided to make Uturn in fear of the dilapidated dormitories.

“We were spending sleepless nights as the falling roofs was an order of the day, let alone the insects biting. It only took one with heavy sleep to close her eyes,” she said, recalling the ordeal she had been going through.

Ms Dativa said she had to wake up at 4.00 am to queue for water and bathroom shift so that she could make it at the dining hall at 6.00 am. Ms Dativa said, with the renovation carried out by TEA, students will now have ample time to concentrate on studies, hence improving their performance.

Her sentiments were also shared by the school headmistress, Ms Lina Chenafi, who said the renovation will add value for the school performance as the psychological and mental torture the students were going through was now over.

“Before renovation, life for students here was indeed bad and the situation was even worse during the rainy season due to the leaking roofs,” she said. “During the rainy season, students would spend the nights shifting their beds from one corner of the dormitory to the other instead of sleeping, losing concentration during studies,” Ms Chenafi added.

Ms Chenafi said during the just ended midterm break some students chose to remain at school for remedial studies, something that was not experienced before the renovation of the structures.

The Headmistress said the renovation has been a morale booster to students, given the fact that their dormitories were fully furnished; reliable water brought to their toilets and laundries as well electricity systems installed afresh.

She was optimistic that the parents would now be comfortable taking their children to the school, which is among the special public schools for talented students in the country. She said before renovation, parents were either avoiding taking their children to the school or were transferring them to other areas.

Ms Chenafi gave an example of last year whereby 122 high school students were selected to join the school, but only 32 reported as other parents were of observation that the environment was not conducive for learning.

“With this new good environment, I believe we will make to top ten in the next few years, after securing the 14th position in Advanced Secondary examination last year,” Ms Chenafi confidently said.

Tanzania Education Authority (TEA) Public Relations and Communications Manager, Ms Sylvia Lupembe, said during the first phase they planned to renovate 17 old public schools with each getting almost 1bn/-.