ARK’s education emphasis is mostly on two key areas: pre-school development and secondary/high school education. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have introduced universal primary education free to all children but it does not include preschool education. Preschool and secondary education has become too expensive for poor families. Both are critical in breaking the cycle of generational poverty, illiteracy and premature marriages among teenage girls. 

 

ARK believes that investing in preschool and secondary education is the most effective way not only to break the cycle of poverty but also to control the spread of HIV/AIDS infections, human trafficking, and other serious forms of abuse.

 

For over 17 years, ARK has been designing and implementing successful education programs in East Africa that serve the most vulnerable children, their families and communities. In the past 12 years, our work has focused on comprehensive care for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and their caretakers – an overlooked population of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. ARK has programs that are successful and thriving, and we are eager to share our successes.

 

 

Preschool Enrichment Activities

ARK establishes pre-school programs in resource challenged communities mostly in remote areas and very poor inner city communities. Programs are designed to be comprehensive enough to allow young children to grow and thrive. Activities focus on enhancing parenting skills, primary school readiness and time to play and make friends. Children are provided with a daily healthy meal that many do not receive at home.  We create activities that provide a safe learning environment making it a community-wide learning experience. 

 

In this capacity, ARK focuses on the following:

It is a proven factor that children who participate in structured preschool educational activities are better prepared to start formal education and show higher verbal and intellectual development during early childhood than children who have no access to such programs. Structured preschool activities are a vital investment in a country's future workforce. ARK understands the extreme importance of developing and maintaining quality indicators to assess the progress made by community based preschool programs. Access to structured preschool program is a necessity especially in rural areas. These programs allow mothers the opportunity to work. They allow older siblings, who are normally denied their right to education because they have to stay home to care for their younger siblings, to go to school.  

 

Secondary/High School Education 
Challenges: Less than 15% of Eastern Africans have access to secondary education. Children who enjoy secondary school education are mostly children from higher income groups and urban families according to a report published in 2006 by Development and Education Research. The cost of secondary/high school education in Uganda is the highest among the three East African countries.  ARK believes that school fees assistance is necessary to enable poor children and rural families which form the bulk of the population to have access to secondary school education. A survey done by the Ark Foundation local staff indicates that many children who pass Primary Leaving Examination fail to attend secondary school due to lack of support, financially and academically.

 

School Fees Assistance
ARK provides secondary/high school scholarships to underprivileged children in our target countries who have completed primary education. Priority is given to girls, orphans and the most vulnerable children, and those who are physically challenged. Scholarships are provided to children to attend both government and private schools since the region does not have enough government schools to accommodate all qualified students. ARK scholarship recipients are matched with mentors who guide them through the academic process. ARK has several scholarship types, partial and full scholarships depending on student need and economical status. Partial scholarship may pay some of the school fees if the family is able to meet the rest, or pay school fees and the family meets other school requirements.

 

Full scholarships are normally provided to orphans and vulnerable children; they involve tuition and other school requirements. Again, not all orphans and vulnerable children qualify for full scholarships because some have family members or other organizations that support some of the school needs. ARK pays school fees directly to the schools where the children attend working through our local staff or volunteers and mentors. Applicants for school fees assistance go through a thorough screening which includes but not limited to the following: home and school visit, academic records review, review of recommendations, and verification of parental status, etc.

 

The Academic Mentor Program is part of our comprehensive care for OVC families. The mentor program matches vulnerable children with an ARK recruited, screened, and trained responsible adult, to encourage them to stay in school, develop good study habits, focus on their future and help them with real life-skills to avoid risky behavior and unhealthy lifestyles.

 

Cost of Secondary School Education
ARK pays an average of USD$1,000 per year per child in an average government or private secondary/high school in Uganda. Kenya is about the same as Uganda. However, the Tanzanian government has drastically reduced secondary/high school fees in government aided schools to give all poor families the opportunity to afford an education. But at the same time, the government has few secondary schools to accommodate the children that qualify to join secondary school education. The amount does not include other necessities such as uniform, books, etc.  

 

In Tanzania, a student pays about USD$20 for day students and USD$40 for boarding government aided schools. The majority of poor children don’t qualify for government aided schools because of poor academic performance due to a variety of challenges at home and sometimes at school. However, private schools are also expensive in Tanzania yet slightly lower than Kenya and Tanzania. 

 

ARK Established Schools
Schools established and run by ARK are generally free; some requiring a minimal registration fee. If a student is accepted and cannot afford to pay the registration fee, we have several ways to work with families and students to include a variety of work-study opportunities. As governments continue to lose their educated, middle class population to AIDS, the need for free secondary education is greater than ever. Such a loss, if not addressed, will continue to degrade the local community development and economic growth. 

 

Children’s Education Cared for by the Elderly
Vulnerable children especially those living with grandparents must receive financial assistance to pay school fees and other school needs otherwise they will not participate in post-primary education. Statistically, children living with older grandparents continue to perform poorly in school due to hardship and lack of academic support at home. Additionally our years of working with children from very poor families show that paying school fees alone is not enough; vulnerable children need and must have academic support to remain in school.

ARK's academic mentor program has been very successful in helping participants improve their academic performance and to help them become responsible young adults. Approximately 95% of our students who have been partnered with mentors have improved their academic performance, remained in school, and perform on national exams comparable to children that are living with their parents. Additionally, the program has multiple benefits on girls: they are empowered to stand up to peer pressure; their chances to make informed decisions regarding safe sexual relations and delay marriage are improved, and when they become mothers they are more likely to educate their own children. Some of the duties of mentors include, but are not limited to: meeting with school officials, attending PTA meetings, settling teen conflicts, and settling conflicts with family members.