School Life in Gorfan, Tanzania - Primary School

Visiting the primary school in Gorfan was a very eye-opening experience. While primary education is government mandated and funded, the limited resources are painfully obvious.

I was most surprised by the number of students in each class. The school has so many students and so few teachers that they had to go to a half-day model with half of the students coming in the morning and half in the afternoon. Even with that, each class has around 150 students with 1 or 2 teachers!

Like the secondary school, there are few teaching resources available to primary school teachers. They write their lessons on the blackboard and students copy them to their exercise books.

In primary school, lessons are taught in Swahili and they only teach three core subjects - reading, writing, and math.

Another thing I found interesting is how much outside support it took to make the school a reality. The main buildings had been built by World Vision and the restrooms, which are completely separate buildings, were built by a Canadian man who visited and saw the need.

Of course, some things are the same no matter where you are. Children always love to see their friends at school.

A visitor to a classroom always brings curious looks.

And a child's smile always warms the heart!