A series of four schools in Kenya of which the first is now operating.


To promote quality education pre-primary and primary school education and ensure that pupils competitively graduate from the school to the best secondary schools and vocational training institutions in the country.


1. To provide formal education to the child geared towards developing the child’s mental capabilities.
2. To provide continuous in-service training to teachers to enable them cope with changing educational trends and technology.
3. To provide informal education enabling the child to build good habits and live as an acceptable member of the society.
4. To manage a feeding programme, health education and immunization programmes; to promote the rights of children and to protect children from abuse.
5. To provide the necessary books and other learning materials/equipment.
6. To acquire necessary buildings and other facilities.


The immediate beneficiaries of this project are the following, who live in Mukuru kwa Njenga slums:
1. The qualifying disadvantaged children, who will receive quality education to help them cope better with life in future.
2. Parents will indirectly benefit from a successful lunch program, which will ease the pressure to provide for the family.
3. The society in Mukuru kwa Njenga will also benefit from the spill-over of counselling sessions which are bound to follow as parents or guardians are called in to answer to some of the discipline cases arising from problems back home.


Education in Kenya (at all levels, but especially in the earlier stages) has generally been stratified correlating directly with the socio-economic level of the family. This has had a strong negative impact on the economically disadvantaged strata. In the cities and towns this economically disadvantaged sector of the population live in the slums.

In an effort to live to its obligation as a signatory to the universal right of the child to primary education, Kenya declared primary education a free service in all government primary schools in January 2003, a move that was internationally lauded. [Incidentally, pre-primary school education is not free]. Nevertheless, the most immediate impact was to erode the quality of education in most public schools and it is no longer a secret that the better-to-do families send their children to private academies. The traditional annual ritual of publicly ranking all primary schools according to the performance in the KCPE exam, had already been scrapped earlier, a move that was seen by many as a veiled attempt keep under wraps the wide disparity in the quality of education according to socio-economic classes.

What follows is only natural. A poor child who performs poorly in the primary cut-off examination, goes to the less competitive poorer secondary school – if he or she manages to get admitted into a secondary school at all. A downward spiral in life naturally follows. Even if the job-market ground was levelled tomorrow, the poor child will not be able to compete; he or she is already limping. Deny a person education and you deny the person a life.
It is in this kind of environment that Golden Hour Junior School steps in with an intention to give the slum-dweller’s child a fighting chance.


The slum areas in Nairobi have been largely ignored by the country when social amenities are distributed in the cities. And where these are provided, a half-hearted attempt is made whereby a public relations aim supersedes the actual utility or quality of the service being provided. One such service is education.

The need for quality education in the slum areas cannot be overstated. In a highly competitive environment that Kenya has become, denying a child quality education is tantamount to destroying the child. To this end, Golden Hour Junior School has stepped in to provide quality education to the children of Mukuru kwa Njenga slums.

A properly educated child grows up into self-reliant adult with the ability to continue with life with minimum resources at his or her disposal. A properly educated child sees self education as an enjoyable lifetime quest and does not degenerate into a “semi-literate” person a few years after leaving formal school. This fits into Golden Hour Junior School’s overall mission - “to foster each child’s full academic potential; build each child’s self esteem; and empower each child to become a responsible, respectful, and contributing citizen.”


Golden Hour Junior School has been running a one stream institution in Mukuru kwa Njenga since January 2006, and as at December 2008 had the following classes - baby-class (play-group), nursery, pre-unit, Standard 1, Standard 2, Standard 3 and Standard 4. Primary school in Kenya runs from Standard One to Standard Eight. The pre-school classes (baby-class (play-group), nursery and pre-unit, may not mandatory in the Kenya curriculum, but due to the impoverished environment in the slums, it is necessary that children get the right protection and education at the earliest possible stage in life. It is also worth noting that their competitors in the private “academies” already have this head-start among other advantages.

To date, Golden Hour has been a community effort that has tried to operate on a self-sustaining basis. There has been tremendous challenges in trying to achieve its goals and the stakeholders have decided that rather than just letting the project slowly die away, a last ditch effort be made to approach donors to assist in filling in some of the more critical gaps.

Golden Hour has been well-received by the immediate community because it has managed to sustain quality education even at the worst of times and in a most challenging environment.

The most immediate challenge is that the school is operating on rented premises that are basically designed as single room unit for the average slum dweller and not for an institution. The landlord treats it as single-room rentals and there is an ever-looming threat of eviction from all or some of the units. A quarter-acre piece of land has been located nearby and Golden Hour management has had some fruitful talks with the owners with a view of acquiring the piece of land. Once the land is acquired semi-permanent structures could be erected to rescue the children from the pathetic conditions they have to withstand in the current environment.



The overall goal of Golden Hour Junior School is to promote quality education pre-primary and primary school education, and ensure that pupils graduate with competitive grades and good discipline acceptable for entry to the best secondary schools and vocational training institutions in the country.

Objective 1:
To provide formal education to the child geared towards developing the child’s mental capabilities.
Performance Measures:	Means of Verification:
Exam score in a standard exam tested within a standard time.	Scoring at least a 50% - mark per subject tested within a given time-frame
Zonal level reached by school in inter-school intellectual competitions.	Reaching at least the semi-finals in debates, interschool quizzes, etc.
Activities:
Teaching the pupils the normal testable teaching subjects, 5 days a week.
Teaching the pupils non-testable, but important subjects, like French and computer studies, 2 days a week.
Prize-giving for academic achievements, once a year.
Attending or inviting other schools for inter-school debates three times a year.
Enrolling school for activities on TV, e.g. Triple-Challenge.
Sponsoring deserving pupils to join Club Kiboko, a KTN children’s club.
Organizing educational tours for children.

Objective 2:
To provide continuous in-service training to teachers to enable them cope with changing educational trends and technology.
Performance Measures:	Means of Verification:
Percentage attendance of computer studies courses	80% of the teach the ability to use spreadsheets, text manipulation and graphics packages in preparing school-work.
Percentage attendance of counselling course	80% of the teachers having the ability to counsel pupils and parents satisfactorily.
Percentage attendance of proficiency courses in new teaching methods	All the teachers having the ability to adapt to new teaching trends.
Activities:
Teachers to attend introductory computer courses during the year.
Teachers to attend counselling course during the school holidays.
Teachers to attend an in-service course during the school holidays.

Objective 3:
To provide informal education enabling the child to build good habits and live as an acceptable member of the community.
Performance Measures:	Means of Verification:
Percentage of parents reporting an improvement in children’s behaviour.	An 80% percent score in a questionnaire designed to check improvement of behaviour from parents.
Percentage drop in cases involving violent behaviour in school.	50% drop in cases involving violent behaviour in school.
Percentage drop in cases where parents are summoned to school over discipline problems.	50% drop in cases where parents are summoned to school over discipline problems.
Activities:
Continuous involvement of parents in cases of discipline, especially major ones;
Education of parents about rights of children and causes of discipline;
Involvement if professional counsellors in educating parents on matters touching on discipline and child abuse;
Printing and pinning on the wall of every class, a set of school rules;
Continuous monitoring of behaviour with emphasis in rewarding good behaviour;
Prize-giving, once a year, for good-behaviour.

Objective 4:
To manage a feeding programme, health education and immunization programmes, to promote the rights of children and to protect children from abuse.
Performance Measures:	Means of Verification:
No of pupils on the feeding programme.	200 pupils on the on the school lunch programme.
Rate of sick-off absenteeism per term	Reduction of sick-off absenteeism by 50%.
Number of pupils who are up-to-date with their vaccinations programme.	All the pupils being up-to-date with their vaccinations programme as per their immunisation card.
Percentage drop in cases where parents are summoned to school over discipline problems.	50% drop in cases where parents are summoned to school over discipline problems.
Percentage drop in cases where parents are summoned to school over child abuse	80% drop in cases where parents are summoned to school over child abuse.
Activities:
Providing a balanced diet (lunch) to 200 pupils at a cost of Sh 40 per pupil, five times a week.;
Invitation of health personnel to immunise children.
Involvement if professional counsellors in educating parents on matters touching on discipline and child abuse;
Involvement if experts in educating parents on matters touching on children’s rights;

Objective 5:
To provide the necessary books and other learning equipment.
Performance Measures:	Means of Verification:
Number of students per book	Pupils should share books in a ratio of two pupils per book.
Number of pupils sharing other equipment s e.g. toys	Pupils should share equipment in a ratio of two pupils per item.
Activities:
Purchase of an average of 15 copies of each title (of textbook) required per class.
Purchase of adequate equipment so that at least each item is shared between two children.

Objective 6:

To acquire of necessary buildings and other facilities.

Activities:

Purchase of one-acre land in the neighbourhood;

Begin constructing of 15 classes, an office block, a staffroom and washrooms

Purchase of at least 1 mini-van

Purchase 4 computers

Purchase 3 printers

Purchase 1 photocopier

Purchase of furniture – 200 desks, 200 classroom chairs, 12 cupboards for classes, 12 class chairs for teachers, 12 class tables for teachers, 12 teachers chairs, 4 office tables, 4 office chairs

2.3. Beneficiaries

Beneficiaries	Direct	Indirect	Gender	Numbers	Ages
Children of poor parents (& orphans) living in Embakasi-pipeline area.	200 children	- 180 Parents - 10 other persons	M F	80 120	Pre-primary & primary school age 6 –11 years

The beneficiaries will be involved in the implementation of the project as follows:
1. The parents will help point out at potential cheats, people who may compete for the available assistance yet they don’t qualify;
2. The immediate community may provide volunteers and qualified personnel who will provide services when the need arises;
3. The immediate community may assist in occasional fund-raising activities.


2.4. Methods and implementation strategy
The overall goal is:
To promote quality education pre-primary and primary school education, and ensure that pupils graduate with competitive grades and good discipline acceptable for entry to the best secondary schools and vocational training institutions in the country.
The above activities will assist in achieving the aim as follows:

Ø Teaching the pupils the normal testable teaching subjects, 5 days a week.
Ø Teaching the pupils non-testable, but important subjects, like French and computer studies, 2 days a week.
Ø Prize-giving once a year - for academic achievements and good behaviour.
Ø Attending or inviting other schools for inter-school debates three times a year.
Ø Enrolling school for activities on TV, e.g. Triple-Challenge.
Ø Sponsoring deserving pupils to join Club Kiboko, a KTN children’s club.
Ø Organizing educational tours for children.
Ø Teachers to attend introductory computer courses during the year.
Ø Teachers to attend counselling course during the school holidays.
Ø Teachers to attend an in-service course during the school holidays.
Ø Continuous involvement of parents in cases of discipline, especially major ones;
Ø Education of parents about rights of children and causes of discipline;
Ø Involvement if professional counsellors in educating parents on matters touching on discipline and child abuse;
Ø Printing and pinning on the wall of every class, a set of school rules;
Ø Continuous monitoring of behaviour with emphasis in rewarding good behaviour;
Ø Providing a balanced diet (lunch) to 200 pupils at a cost of Sh 40 per pupil, five times a week;
Ø Invitation of health personnel to immunise children.
Ø Involvement if professional counsellors in educating parents on matters touching on discipline and child abuse;
Ø Involvement if experts in educating parents on matters touching on children’s rights;
Ø Purchase of an average of 15 copies of each title (of textbook) required per class.
Ø Purchase of adequate equipment so that at least each item is shared between two children.
Ø Purchase of a quarter-acre land in the neighbourhood;
Ø Begin constructing of 15 classes, an office block, a staffroom and washrooms
Ø Purchase of 1 mini-vans
Ø Purchase 10 computers
Ø Purchase 3 printers
Ø Purchase 1 photocopier
Ø Purchase of furniture – 200 desks, 200 classroom chairs, 12 cupboards for classes, 12 class chairs for teachers, 12 class tables for teachers, 12 teachers chairs, 4 office tables, 4 office chairs

Teaching the pupils both testable and non-testable subjects promotes good quality education, education that is not merely exam-oriented, but creates an all-round person capable of fitting in all environments. Prize-giving not only promotes competitiveness which is the hallmark of quality education, but rewards, thus reinforcing, good behaviour. Getting involved in activities that are outside the normal class environment – activities like games, debates, drama, etc - promotes early socialization with the outside world creating a person who will fit easily in new environments and promotes healthy competitiveness; and harnesses constructively, excess energy which would otherwise be directed towards socially unacceptable activities like violence, sex and drug abuse. Teachers need to adapt in an ever-changing environment and technology which makes the classroom education relevant and competitive nationally and internationally. Purchase of adequate and relevant books need not be overemphasized; books are the primary vehicle of education.

Finally, the school is currently operating in rental premises designed for residential occupancy. If educational objectives are to be achieved, it is important that not only minimal administrative costs and time be wasted towards paying rent, but the premises should reflect an educational face. Two mini-vans are also required because the current mini-van is an old vehicle which is both inadequate and very costly to maintain.

2.5. Human resources requirements

The projects human resource needs are as follows:
1 Headteacher
11 Teachers, currently two are volunteers
2 Cleaners
1 Watchman
2 Drivers
1 Clerk

2.6. Duration, exit strategy and sustainability

The project has been in operation for 3 years and it is expected that it will become sustainable in five years time.”

2.7. Assumptions and Risks


Risk Action (Risk Mitigation)
The presence of a project in a low income area that benefits only a few out of many qualifying possible beneficiaries is likely to bring in ill-feelings from those who will not directly benefit. Competitive transparent entrance interview plus vigilant on-site inspections so that only deserving cases qualify.
The food problem in the country has become acute and the beneficiary population might lose focus and withdraw support in case the food programme is discontinued. There should be continuous enlightening of the community on the primary objective of the project.

2.8. Monitoring and evaluation
The Head-teacher will monitor the progress of objectives against the performance measures, revising administrative school records on a four-month basis. At 9 months the “Nine Month Report” will be submitted and at 12 months the “Annual Report” will be submitted.
An external evaluation is planned for the end of 2009