A New Take on Peer Education

We are pleased to report on having successful Peer Education & Mentoring sessions which took place from April 18th to April 28th. During this time we were able to check up on our secondary student’s academic performances and offer aid where needed through the tuition program that EdVillage is generously helping to support. Additionally, our students received much guidance and advice through our afternoon mentoring session focused personal and professional development paired with career skills. We always look forward to this time of year as it’s a great opportunity to reconnect with our secondary school students through fun and interactive lessons, discussions, and games.  

This time around we opted to have Hatua’s Gap Year students conduct small study sessions with our secondary students. Groups of 5-6 secondary students, from the same grade level were paired with one gap year student. Each gap year student lead 3 study group discussions per day in fields which they excelled in academically. Subjects covered included:

Math, Geography, Physics, Business, Kiswahili, History, Chemistry, English, Biology

Since this was the first tuition session of this year, we are hopeful that our students will continue improving throughout the year given this extra academic support and that it will have a positive influence on their study habits.

This program also had the benefit of being an additional leadership opportunity for our gap year students. As peer mentors they’ve been developing their teaching skills. As small study group facilitators they now have the opportunity to exercise these skills in a new setting. This opportunity also provided our older students with a means of connecting and giving back to our youngest students as role models. Our secondary students appreciated the additional tuition support and gained a lot out of the experience as seen below in their testimonies:

“The study group discussions were of great benefit to me. In the areas that I was struggling with like algebra, the peer teachers very skillfully helped me to feel more comfortable solving difficult problems. I enjoyed the tuition program very much and I hope that it will continue in the same way. It’s a great way for us to get to know each other but at the same time improve in our studies together. Thank you to the people who are sponsoring us, it’s a great program and we wish to continue like this!” – Gabriel Othiamoo, 16yrs, Form 1 at Nairobi School “It’s nice and very beneficial to us. As for me, the areas that I did not understand in school I felt very comfortable asking my peer teachers. They showed us what it is like to be confident through their explanations. We understand the way they teach because we are alike. They helped us to know how questions should be answered and the areas in our school books where we can find the answers to difficult questions. I really enjoyed this program and I’d like to say thanks to those that helped give us this opportunity.” – Rose Imami, 17yr, Form 2 at Kingwede Girls School “Hatua’s tuition program helped me to gained more information and also different ideas on how to study well from Hatua beneficiaries at other schools. When everyone participates and gives their ideas you get the voices of people from different places and it makes you better at understanding what you are learning. The peer teachers are helpful because they are our age mates so they understand us better. Talking about our experience at school made learning fun! Thank you for those that helped provide this tuition program!” -Rukia Weche, 17 yrs, Form 3 at Matuga Girls School We are happy to see the students responding so well to this new format. It has helped to create comradery among our students at different schools and has unified them more as a whole.