Uraki Secondary School

Last week, I went to visit the music program at a government school on the other side of town. Uraki has had a link with Makumira University Music Department for two years now, and three students and an university tutor deliver classes there every other day. The school is a secondary school with students in Form I-IV and roughly ages 11 to 16 years. At the end of Form IV they take their O-Level exams, and like most secondary schools in Tanzania, there is no provision to progress to A-Level.

In fact, they are now in the midst of the end of year exams and many students were busy cleaning the classrooms ready for exam week, and even the District Educational Officer was visiting. She was especially interested in the science laboratory which had been equipped with donations from the UK, and another lab was also being constructed. As part of the Secondary Education Development Plan, the government has ordered that each secondary school build a laboratory, without providing the resources to do so.

We had a chat first with the Headmaster who is very eager to have musical provision in the school. The music students are hoping to give a music class for the teachers, but they had already left the school leaving just a few staff around including the Teacher On Duty who walks around with a stick!

The bell was rung for assembly, and all the students lined up in their separate forms with different colour jumpers for each form. I introduced myself and then the students were given the choice to clean or take part in a music activity. The session I saw was interesting - they didn't seem quite into learning new material at this point in the afternoon, and some just walked away. However, at the end, they sang a well-known song from their early music classes (see video above) and were having a great time.

In addition to the practical ensemble classes, the students are receiving music theory lessons which enables them to take the predominantly theoretical national exams in music (NECTA). Throughout the school, pass rates are very low, but they are started to excel in their music exams. The university tutor remarked that their goal is to show how music can change a school, and with the best pass marks in music, the students can begin to gain a sense of what they can achieve!