Karagwe Secondary School (KARASECO)

Administration Building (Photo: Annika Henkel)
KARASECO is a co-education boarding school which is owned and run by the ELCT - Karagwe Diocese. The school was opened in 1977 at Lukajange. Due to the shortage of land and lack of tap water, the school was shifted in 1990 to Kishojo village at Kituntu District. The school is located in the rural area, where, like most rural areas in Tanzania, there is lack of access to reliable communication systems. Nevertheless the school is connected to the internet and offers the pupils courses computer education.

At the first intake in 1977, KARASECO started with 80 boys. Today there are 600 pupils studying – 240 girls and 360 boys. Every morning they get up at 5:00 a.m. and study about one hour before their breakfast. Because of the school’s philosophy ‘The mind 100 percent fresh in the early morning’, headmaster Joseph Kabalimu explains the concentrated studies in the morning.

(Photo: Annika Henkel)
26 Teachers teach the pupils in the subjects Agricultural Science, Bible Knowledge, Biology, Chemistry, Civics, Economics, English, French, Geography, History, Information Technology, Kiswahili, Mathematics and Physics. KARASECO offers study courses for the A-Level, form one to four, and also the O-Level, form five and six. And the school is doing well: KARASECO is the second best out of 155 Secondary Schools at Kagera Region, according to the examination results of form four in 2010. Form two reached number 7 out of 218 schools. Both forms reached the best results at Karagwe District.

Financially, the school depends entirely on school fees. A very small amount comes from our self-reliance projects.

Goals

  • To have a school, which is exemplary for a moral and academical education in our society.
  • To provide knowledge that will contribute towards recipients’ self-advancement economically and socially so as to enable them participate fully in the national building activities.
  • To prepare children physically and spiritually who would later serve the Diocese and the ELCT at large in various activities.

Achievements

  • (Photo: Annika Henkel)
    The subject Agricultural Science has been established and a specialized teacher for Agriculture Knowledge support the staff.
  • Four dormitories for girls have been built and also the number of female pupils has been increased.
  • According to the increasing number of female students, we also focus on recruiting female teachers. With three new ones in the last year, there are currently five female teachers.
  • Since this year a new and in total the tenth combination for the O-Level focusing on the subjects Chemistry, Biology and Agricultural Science is offered. Besides there are the arts’ combinations as HKL (History, Kiswahili, Language), HGL (History, Geography, Language) and HGK (History, Geography, Kiswahili). The economical combination possibilities consist of HGE (History, Geography, Economics) and EGM (Economics, Geography, Advanced Mathematics). PCB (Physics, Chemistry, Biology), PCM (Physics, Chemistry, Advanced Mathematics), PGM (Physics, Geography, Advanced Mathematics) and CBG (Chemistry, Biology, Geography) are part of the sciences’ combinations.

Opinions

Student of form six at KARASECO (Photo: Oscar Samwel)
Innocent Aniceth, 20 years, is student of form six and studies since form one at KARASECO. He is completely confident: “The studying here is very good because the environment is constructive for learning. The teachers and administration cares well about the education’s quality and student’s life.” After passing Secondary School at KARASECO in the next year, he wants to attend a university and become an administrator or a lawyer.

Student of form two at KARASECO (Photo: Oscar Samwel)
Anitha Ishengoma, 16 years, attends form two. She started also at form one and says: ”The school life at KARASECO is good and enjoyable. There is enough food for all students and there are enough teachers who are every time available for us students.” Anitha wants to become a ‘doctor for bones’ or a pilot after attending the O-Level and university.

Twinomjuni Nkamuhabwa Kaungya is head of IT department and teaches the subjects Information and Computer Sciences, Mathematics and Physics at KARASECO, for 15 years. “In comparison to other schools, we have very motivated students and our environment is very good for learning: The teachers are available for questions because they live in the near surrounding of the school. And we have many good learning facilities, for example, we have internet access and enough computers to educate the students”, he explains why he has stayed this long time at KARASECO.

Challenges

  • To establish farming activities and teach pupils farming knowledge
  • To create a gender sensitive Secondary School and equal the number of female and male students
  • To recruit more female teachers
  • To finish the library’s construction and begin with constructing a new laboratory
  • To construct further water tanks for the school’s water supply
  • To grew some of the students’ food at the school fields, maintain animals like cattles, establishing a coffee farm and selling coffee

Contacts

More information through Joseph Kabalimu, Headmaster by Email: jmkabalimu@yahoo.com.

KARASECO, P.O. Box 87, Karagwe, Tanzania
Email: karaseco@kad.or.tz
Website: http://karaseco.tripod.com/index.html


Text: Joseph Kabalimu