Tumaini Evangelistic Pre and Primary School has just started our eighty year as a Primary school. Last year was a major milestone here as we had our first class graduate from our school and move on to Secondary School (basically our High School). It is my understanding that five of the eight students who graduated have started Secondary School in Moshi attending two different private boarding schools.

The picture above features our new students for the 2025 school year. 36 students this year all in our Preschool classes.

This picture is our school staff including teachers, director, headmaster, cleaners, guard, cooks and bus drivers.

Just some our students enjoying their first days of the year. Glory is featured with her younger sister. Here when your younger sibling comes to the school you are responsible for them getting to class and taking care of them for the day. We have a lot of students who have had to take on the responsibility of a younger sibling. In fact we have four siblings at our school from Baby Class to Standard Six. It is fun to watch Agape going to check on his younger brother Omega (if I have it right) when Agape has just moved up to Standard1 this year.

The title however implies we met a goal at the start of this year. When I first came here I noticed the government school was only a mile and half away by car (shorter on foot) from our school and I wondered why we needed to build a school there. Three reasons came to mind.

The first was one that would be hard to measure but it was also the most important. Give our students every opportunity to develop a relationship with God and to feel His Love through the school. We do this with morning worship services for about 45 minutes every school day and a Friday Bible class that is actually about 1.5 hours of worship and Bible study. Lastly we show them God’s love every Christmas with their Christmas gifts which include school supplies, health and sanitary supplies, as well as some toys and entertainment. Smaller ways to show them God’s love are greeting as many of our 300 students by name as possible every morning as they arrive either by foot or by bus. I also spend meal times in their play areas so they can spend time with me and I am asking about their day and helping practice their English but also a lot of hugs especially for the younger kids.

The second was also going to be hard to measure. Health and Safety for our students. Opposed to most government schools our students get two meals a day. Part of those Christmas gifts every year are individual water bottles to prevent sharing cups and things like soap and toothpaste/toothbrush combos. Like most schools we serve as a location for vaccinations and distribution of certain medicines by the government. We also serve as distribution of mosquito nets to the students. Last year we started the Reusable Sanitary Pad program and included health classes for those receiving the kits. We have done some eye chart testing and when another group put on a medical mission in our area we got our students down to it to get health check ups and CPR training for some of our staff. This also goes into mental health for children who have to work the entire time they are home so we make sure they have time to be kids and play along with the playground equipment to do so.

The third way to separate our school from local schools was to provide a better education. This was something we could measure and so we set some goals in this area. I have mentioned in the past that the Tanzanian grading scale is very different from what we are used to. 20% correct is a passing grade and all of your subject grades are averaged and 20% of that average would determine if you passed to the next grade. This is the standard through high school and most colleges. My first site in Tanzania frustrated me because they refused to accept that those numbers were a minimum and that we could have higher standards. So when I came to this site it was important that we set higher standards. We set the 60% correct is passing that was common when I grew up. That meant to pass our standard the students had to get all As and Bs using the Tanzanian standard.

Honestly there were some times we got close early on and some times we wondered if we would ever meet it. But in January we got 2024’s Standard 4 NECTA results (that is the government test) and all of our students got As and Bs not only on their average grades but in all subjects as well. Now we know it can be done (I think the teachers may be a bit worried about that) and it has been a strong relief for me personally. In addition to reaching our standard, this class when compared to other schools I have worked with our talked with were less than one point away from the top school performer in our group and that school is from Arusha where most of the students have parents who graduated Primary and Secondary school and they have electricity in their homes to study at night with.

We could not let this pass without showering this group of students with attention and recognition in the form of a party. This party was for both the staff (they worked hard to get them here and the students. In addition to cake and soda they were each given a present.

Everyone has to give a speech at a Tanzania party. Even the cleaners and cooks.