Chipulukusu School

Chipulukusu - We reluctantly said good-by to our new friends in Kasompe and headed for the Chipulukusu Young Peacemakers School two hours down the road in Ndola. We were again warmly received by over 50 caregivers and 150+ children. Unlike Kasompe, there are no individual classrooms in the Chipulukusu church. Everything occurs in the one room church. The chatter of 100 children in two simultaneous classes along with an enthusiastic caregiver’s class and a lively soccer game being played just outside made for lively acoustics. The church benches are much too high for the little ones feet to reach the floor. In addition there are no desks to work on so students frequently sit on mats on the floor and write in their exercise books on the floor in front of them. The school has only one textbook for each class (K-3rd) so the teachers laboriously write lessons on the chalk boards for students to copy. This is not only time consuming, it also greatly limits the amount of content that can be covered. The goal is to add a grade each year until the oldest students reach grade 7. At that point the students are eligible to sit for the government standardized exams and, if successful, proceed to grade 8 in the government schools. Children currently enrolled in the K-3rd grade classes range in age from 5 to 17. This is the first opportunity many of the older children have had to learn to read and write.