Interview with

Mr. Cannings

Good afternoon Mr. Cannings.

Good afternoon.

I’m just going to ask you some questions about your experiences with the Second Chance Education Centre. So how many times have you been there?

I've been there three times.

When you went to visit the school did you have a particular goal or aim?

Yes. With the first couple of times it was related to the CAS (community and service) program that the kids in 11th and 12th grade do. They actually help to build there. Last time I actually did a little bit of teaching there. Last February that was actually. We also taught with Mama Lucie whos the founder of the second chance about the website you guys have created and what we could do to help them.

In what way, or ways, did your visit help the school?

I think one of the things that helped us was to understand what sort of resources we could provide the school with. That’s very important. From over here you have some ideas of what might be good and some of those things you realize when you get there might not actually work. One of the things we found out when we got there was that there were no posters on the walls, they were all bare, and so the grade 11 students from last year went to make some posters with Doctor KB about e
English language terms and some science things and they actually had written stories.

Was the school and life there how you expected it to be?

I think it’s always a bit of a culture shot when you go to a much poorer place. You can really see the different sort of living conditions when you see girls of your age. Basically they have mainly two or three pieces of clothing. One of the things I still remember was that Mrs. Marchetti collected bits and bobs of women’s underwear; bras, panties those sort of things. When we bought those up there was almost a fight for them. Also, seeing what they had to eat for lunchtime. The kids got bananas, cut them up, put them in a fire and that was their lunch. So that’s really different. A bit of a culture shot.

And how has the school changed over time?

It’s gotten much bigger; it started with about 5 people but now has around 50. In the time, there has been 5 classrooms built.

How much and in what way has ICS helped the Second Chance Education Centre?

Students have been visiting for the past 5 years and during that time we have helped to build three classrooms. And what we’ve done is basically paid for the walls to be build. The walls are made out of stones and a bit of concrete, and our students have helped to build this. Without our help they wouldn’t have had the money to build it.

Does ICS currently have any events planned to help the school?

Yes, this summer they will build a science laboratory and all there is at the moment is four walls a roof and a floor. It’s Mr Murray Ms Hirsch and Ms Blocklinger going and Mrs Murray going.

How is ICS different to SCEC?

Well I don’t know where I begin there. Firstly the facilities that are here are just incredible. I’ll give you an example. When did you learn how to save a document?

Probably when I was 6.

And you?

Same. (Pauline Gavelle, camerawoman)

Well kids that are 13 or 14 can’t even do that. So that gives you an example of the big differences. Are you an English native speaker?

Yeah.

And you?

Yes. (Pauline Gavelle, camerawoman)

Well there are kids in your class that aren’t. Well all the kids at second chance, English is there second language. They all speak Swahili and English is their second language. But all there exams are in English. So it’s hard.

Do they have extra English lessons?

Well they have a lot of help from visitors. When I was there, there was an American and an Irish woman teaching.

And what are the similarities between our school and SCEC?

Just that both school want to provide their students with better direction in life
 
How can ICS learn from the second chance education centre?

I think that what things are important to us are different. For example none of the kids at SCEC have ipods or phones but it’s not important to them. What’s important to them is having an education and creating a better life for themselves which can be hard. What you need to realize is that the kids at this school would not have a chance to learn if it wasn’t for this school. One of the things I was explaining to Sonja last night was that girls of your age would have to leave school after primary education because of school fees. So if they stayed in their village there would be two possibilities. Firstly, they would end up being married at 14, 15, the second which is perhaps an even worse situation is that there is a belief in Tanzania and many other African countries that having sex with a young woman who hasn’t had sex before is a way of curing AIDS. That is a big way that AIDS has spread and it’s a very big problem. So there are a lot of students at the school that are girls and the main reason that they are there is that they won’t end up at 18 with either 8 children or AIDS. This is obviously a big concern. The school makes a big difference to what they face in reality.

Do the teachers over there have a different teaching style than here at ICS?

Yeah, in the primary schools particularly the classes sometimes have 70 to 80 kids in one class, so you can’t teach the way you do here. You just have to tell the kids what to do. They are more used to telling the kids what to do than allowing them to do exercises. There is no way the kids at that school would have a chance to do a project like this, a project like this where you can up with some of the ideas and solutions. There are some set exams they have to pass. Each year, at the end of each year of high school, they have to pass an exam to go to the next grade.

Okay the last questions have more or less been answered. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.