School Visits

First of all, I plan to use more pictures than words, the pictures will have to be self-explanatory.

1. Jolly Nyiratunga – ASEF’s Community Outreach Director talks about her experience with school visits. “I have been doing school visits for about 5 years now and it is among my favourite activities within ASEF, I enjoy the travels, learning a lot of things about different schools but the most exciting part of these visits is the joy it brings to our students”.

   

2. Students’ reaction during the visits: Most of our students study very far from their home which becomes difficult for their vulnerable parents to visit them so often. They have appreciated ASEF so much and consider it as their second parent because even if they know parents won’t make it, but they are sure that ASEF can visit them anytime. It is hard to see a sad student during our visits to schools; they mean a lot to our beneficiaries.

   

3. The purpose of the visits:

• Building a strong relationship with school administration: It is very important for the school to meet representatives of an organization that supports students in their school. We explain our activities and the school asks necessary questions and gets answers.

It is also a good time for us to explore everything about the school and available teaching and recreation like the computer labs, science labs, playgrounds, history of the schools among others. We also make sure to resolve any issue that may be between our students and the school or the general feedback to the school.

4. Activities:

• Our students are involved in different extra-curricular activities which they proudly share during our visits, some are class representatives, dormitory captains, heads of clubs and movements, to mention but a few. Listening to them is really amazing, there are some schools we visit, and the activities are unique.
• They combine those activities with studies and make sure they are not affected.

5. Advice to students:

• All the students are reminded of the importance of education. ASEF representatives do deep follow up on students with poor performance and involve the school if necessary.
• Immediate action is taken about student’s behaviour at school, if a student disobeys the school, ASEF involves the person in charge of discipline to ensure that the students make tangible changes over their behaviours
• Students feel free to share their personal issues and concerns during visits. It is always easier to talk to a small number of students than a large group.
• Ordinary level students are given advice on the options and available opportunities once they reach S4.

However, 2020 Academic year wasn’t favourable to us concerning school visits, term 1 was short and there followed the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, we were able to visit only 3 schools in term 1, but we normally do more than 100 school visits in one year. Therefore, we are planning to increase our efforts in the next academic year that is scheduled to start this September.