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Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1
School mission.................................................................................................................... 6
Factors linked to poor academic performance in poor urban areas (Ushirika School). ..... 7
Be friendly with the people whether inside or outside of the school. .............................. 12
Show confidence............................................................................................................... 13
Motivation ........................................................................................................................ 14
Recommendation .............................................................................................................. 15
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 16
References ........................................................................................................................ 17
Factors linked to poor academic performance in a disadvantaged urban areas.
Introduction
'Where there is a will there is a way’. This proverb helped me to achieve my teaching
practice properly. From this proverb, I have learned that when we are determined to do
something, we must find ways to get, no matter how difficult it may. When I visited the place
for the first time, I wanted to say that I cannot survive in this place. I went back home and
thought on what I should do. I could not even eat and sleep at night. The reason behind this is
because the place is too odds. I was unable to make up my mind, then I called one of my
friends and asked him to help me on what should I do? He told me to open the book of the
prophet Isaiah 6:8 which says, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us. Then I said, here I
am, send me’ he added that they are children of God need your help and love. Since I heard
this inspirational quote, I decided to go and dedicate all my strength and will for them. At the
end of the day, I succeed. The experience has helped me to have perseverance and self-
disadvantaged areas. This is simply because I did my teaching practice at Ushirika girl’s
secondary school in KiberaNairobi which is well known as the second largest slums in
Africa.In this paper, Iwill start by describing in brief paragraphs the location and the
environment in Kibera. Besides, I am going to define some important terms such as School
environment, teaching, and teaching practice. Then I will givethe brief historical background
of theschool where I went for teaching practice. Followed by the school guiding statements
and lastly, I will explain the factors linked to poor academic performance in disadvantaged
areas that is at Ushirika girl’s secondary school Kibera. At the end of the pepper, you can
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Where is Kibera and how does it look like?
Kibera is located in southwest Nairobi, just a few kilometers from the city center.
Much of its southern border is bounded by the Nairobi River and the Nairobi Dam, including
an artificial lake that used to provide drinking water to the residents of the city.
Kibera is well known as one of the largest urban slums in Africa. It is characterized
by different tribes slum dwellers, most of them live in extreme poverty because they are
jobless. Persons living with HIV are many, drugs are available in every corner of the areas.
Therefore, violence and insecurity are common, hence children and young girls are the most
victims.
There are many schools in Kibera, and most of them depend on aid from foreigners.
This is because most people cannot afford education for their children. The environment in
Kibera is quite inappropriate for human beings: clean water is scarce, diseases caused by poor
hygiene are prevalent since many people lack access to basic services such as toiletry,
bathroom, and availability of clean water. These lead them to put their waste along the road
hence dogs and goats come to enjoy themselves and spread those waste of product
As I visited the place for the first time, I was really scared because some of the people
are behaving weirdly. They ask questions and listen carefully to your accent if you do not
speak their vernacular language. Their objective is to identify which country you come from.
After they try to ask you something and when you appear to be difficult for them, they start
shouting at you and even rob you. When you are a foreigner and willing to work in Kibera,
the best solution to overcome the challenges is to make friend with them, give little when
they ask instead of saying I do not have because they cannot believe that you are a foreigner
and walk without money. When you do this,you will realize that Kibera is a safe place like
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any other place in Nairobi. I hadbeen experiencing Kibere for three months and a half,
interacted with the people particularly the students and the parents sometimes with the street
boys, I have come to realize that they are reliable persons, willing to improve their lives and
even they have a dream to get a bright future like any other persons, despite the situation.
Schools in Kibera are undergone different challenges due to this unfavorable life of the
population.
What is a school?
environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Like families, a
school has a unique role in reproducing human societies and in providing the condition which
enables pupils to innovate and change their lives. Ushirika girl ‘secondary school is not far
from this definition, and I want to add that Ushirka school is a home (school) to welcome, a
place to work, and room to acquire knowledge. Since I did my teaching practice in this
school, I discovered that many foreigners come to visit the school, they are from the different
corners in the world such as Italian, German, Chinese and any other students and organization
from various places. They feel at home when they come here and help the disadvantaged
Within the school, there is an organization called NILINDE which helps the parents
and the students who are underprivileged in the society, especially those who are involved in
HIV/ AIDS infections. It is room to acquire knowledge because the main purpose of the
school is more focused on academic performance. The teachers strive to do their best, give
out all the way helping the students to increase their knowledge. Despite the challenges
which diminish the teachers’ willingness and motivation to teach. Those are the absenteeism
of some learners and the complaints about hunger in the morning. Even though, the staff and
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the directorof the school are working day and night to ensure that the school becomes a better
place for learning and living. Therefore I can say that Ushirika at Kibera is more than a
Teaching is the heart of a school and its purpose of the foundation. What is teaching?
Being clear about what a teaching is really matter in school because how a teacher
understands teaching very much affects what she/he actually does in the classroom. As a new
student trained teacher, I used to open my room and my ears to any teachers and any other
persons who can talk to me about teaching. Teaching is the art and science of helping others
to grow in their knowledge and understanding of the world. But more than that, Teaching is
holding the hand of a young one and asking him/her whether she or he has understood the
activity and able to do it by himself/ herself. Teaching is being carefully acknowledge every
single student, put a value on him/her without looking at his/her origin and life quality.
Personally, being an educator is the one who can add value to learner every day particularly
in case he/she is in trouble. Teaching is also about understanding the learner because each
individual student learns differently. That is why understanding is deeper than knowledge.
Most of my fellow teacher reminded me that students are always students but you have to be
flexible and stick on the objective which is to bring meaningful knowledge through
systematic and relevant methods in order to allow them to be able to express themselves
freely and confidently. This is because students learn better when they are free to speak
After being trained for many years in school to be an educator, we can briefly
describe teaching practice as the period of putting into practice all the knowledge and
experience we have acquired throughout the learning process in college. As a novice teacher,
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teaching practice is very important because it provides more times to meet a range of
experience and people with varieties of experience in different environments. We change the
timetable, routine life and meet new environment which prepares us already to enter deeper
into the atmosphere of teaching and learning from the students. In fact, teaching practice
enhances the novice teacher pedagogical competence and professional experience in the
be a successful teacher. It is part of the curriculum program and its position is vital because
through practice the student teacher is required to occupy the actual teaching in the classroom
and solve the problems which arise during the lesson as well as assessing learning outcomes.
All are under the supervision of a more experienced teacher.Teaching practice is also an
opportunity which allows the supervisors to adjust the trainee student to be more effective
and reliable teacher that can fitful the requirement for the award of a certificate in
education.In short, teaching practice is crucial for the trainee students due to the range of the
The official name of the school is known as Ushirika Children Centre. This is because
the first objective of the organization is to help the marginalized children. The center was
founded in the year 2000 by youth inspired project spearheaded by Youth Development
Forum (YDF). Later on, the center collaborates with different organizations from different
places whether outside or inside the country. Besides, the number of the children have been
increasing every year. Hence this enables the members to start a school within the
organization. Actually, the center is mostly known as Ushirika School which inhabits around
500 students.
The population of the school is raising up in numbers. It has around 500 students with
classes from nursery to secondary school, has a number of personal workers. Currently, the
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staff is working hard in order to meet the demands of the learners, especially the girls and
marginalized children. Moreover, the director strives to find found from all generous persons
or organizations to raise money in order that he can increase the number of the classrooms.
At the Ushirika secondary school main entrance, there is a short capturing notice
about the school’s long-term goals which spells out ‘To enhance integration of slum children
School motto
Be the best.
School vision
School mission
Overall goal
the burdens of poverty to become healthy, educated self-sustaining and contributing members
of the society.
teacher and each learner has to identify him/herself with a club. This extra-curricular make
the school alive and help the learners to express theirtalents. It also helps the learners to have
the sense of belongingness. Here are some of the activities going on at Ushirika secondary
school: there is career counselling department; health department; games and sport;
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Language: Journalism, drama and music club; and debate. All these are planned in school in
order to promote the whole growth of the learners and enhance them to identify their talents.
The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes
our life in harmony with all existence (Rabindranath Tagore). The students at Ushirika are
spiritually nurtured. They have prayer every morning from 6:30- 6:50 a.m. In the evening,
they have a short prayer before ending the class. Every Friday afternoon, they are nourished
by a pastor or religious man or woman who usually called by the director of the schools. The
school possessesa variety of students from different religions but the majority of them are
Christians.
Factors linked to poor academic performance in poor urban areas (Ushirika School).
Education is the key to success and it is one of the needs these days for a better life.
Everybody has been craving for this and eventually, some come to succeed. But one thing
that has brought education down is the state at which the children in the poor urban areas
undergo through in order to get it. It is good to mention that exams are one of the tools we
use to measure students’ performance. This leads the teacher to draw up the conclusion
whether the learner is able to achieve the average the teacher has been set for a particular test
or not. In this paper, we are going to evaluate the factors which diminish the performance of
the students in the poor urban area. Ushirika School is one of the schools where I did my
teaching practice, therefore, I would like to focus my reflexion on the challenges and its
factors faced by the teachers and the learners in this school, especially concerning the poor
performance of the learners. Describing below are the causes of the challenges which lead to
Firstly, lack of permanent teachers is one the challenges faced by the school in poor
areas such as Ushirika School. A form one student and a teacher in the school explained that
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one of their big challenges to achieve good performance in school is the change of the teacher
almost every semesters.Many of the trained and the best teachers always opt for the best
school where they can receive a good pay unlike in the underdeveloped school.
Actually, it is true that most of those teachers living in poor areas are experiencing
difficulties in their daily life; hence this leads them to be less motivated in teaching.They are
always in to teach in the schools for their upkeep. There is a great difference between rich
schools and poor ones. The rich schools always have adequate teachers who are trained and
motivated, unlike the poor ones which struggle to find out even a humble background
teacher. In short, this change affects the performance of the learner in a negative way.
The other challenges leading to poor performance is the inefficiency of teaching and
learning resources. During my teaching practice experience, I have encountered that the
students are really willing to study; despite the inadequate textbooks and other resources such
as video recorders. One textbook is shared by three students or two and there is no audio
which can help in teaching pronunciations. This reduces the opportunities for the learners to
finish their assignments being given in school as well as the motivation to study. Hence,
some of them come back for the next class without finishing the assignment. The worst side
of this is that some of the teachers beat the learners badly without taking into consideration
Apart from inadequate resources, hunger also is part of the challenges that the
students from poor family faced in school. In each day, you must find student comes out of
the classroom, she complains that she has not taken even a cup of tea in the morning; some
suffer from stomach pain and eyes problems. All those lead to the inefficiency of the quality
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Literacy among the parents is also another major factors. Most of the parents are
semi-illiterate, and cannot help their children even in doing their homework. The children
have to struggle for themselves in order to get information. Combining with lack of exercise
books for some make learning quite difficult. One exercise book is used for many subjects.
As a result, they have to go for an extra mile to ask their teachers back at school for more
explanation. During the parents meeting, we have discussed this case and the parents
promised that they will try to find out a remedy about this through buying more textbooks for
their children in order to give extra-help which they do not get from the parents.
The environment of the school also really matters because this is the place where the
students learn and live. They spend most of their time at school, not at home. They have to be
in school from 6:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. but the fact is that the school environment in poor urban
areas is not conducive for learning. This is because the classrooms are small and
overcrowded. In addition, the building and the ground of the school itself are not favourable
for health and air quality. All of these can affect the student’s achievement and wellbeing
whether directly or indirectly. Therefore, the learners cannot achieve more due to those
situations.
The other thing which I would like to discuss is the age and the background of
learners. Thoseare another factors which affect the performance of the students in poor urban
areas because the students come from various places and different home environments. Some
start going to school at an adolescent stage making it difficult for them to pick up and at last
always have very low self-esteem. They cannot return to a lower class according to director
of the school’s explanation because the number of ages makes them more frustrated.
Conversely,some students in the same classroom appear to have a better life than the rest.
Hence, this leads them to segregate those who are more underprivileged. In fact, they are not
willing to help them and even form a small group for themselves.
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The widespread of HIV/AIDS is another factor that affects learners’ performance in a
negative way. Kibera slums are characterized by scarce resources, making HIV prevention
efforts extremely challenging. HIV prevalence rate in the area is twice as high as the national
rate. The students believe that everyone is infected unless the doctors have proved that you
are safe. I was scared when I have been told by one of my staff member that some of those
students are already proved as living with HIV/IADS. I could not believe that some of my
students are depressed about such an incurable disease. I tried to talk to them and some said
that we got it in the womb so we do not feel shy or afraid of it because it is our nature. I came
across to those who have told me that they are infected and I tried to find out if they can
perform well in their study or struggle more than the healthy ones. Therefore, I have found
out that those students are struggling to improve their performance. This is because I have
noticed that some of them often complain that they have a headache or stomach problem
everyday while some become absentees during the school day. This situation disables them to
achieve well in school and sometimes creates psychological disorder in the classroom
because it is sometimes difficult to handle. They only last word the principal use to give us as
a teacher is to respect them and show love to them because they are known as special girls.
Parental separation also is another challenge at Kibera School. The children are living
at greater risk and lack of protections. One student told me that she really wants to continue
her study but her mum struggles to ensurethe financial. Some of her relatives drop out of
school due to this situation. Therefore, she has a little hope to achieve her dream.
During the debate class on Tuesday afternoon, our topic was; ‘Does single parent
deserve welfare and education for his/her children?’ I have encountered that nearly half of the
class raised up their hand when I introduced the topic. They confirmed that most of them are
living with the mother only and even some do not know who their fathers are. It was one of
the hottest debate I ever conducted for them and they have proved that one of the reasons that
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prevent them to perform well in school is lack of support from the parents since they are
single. They have psychological conflict and inefficient welfare at home. The director of the
school used to tell me that this school is one of the safest places for them because they can eat
and have fun together. And I have seen that he has said the truth when I listen to the students.
Those are only few reasons which I have highlighted, there are more which maybe I
have not stated. The schools in the poor urban areas have a long way to go and if the
government does not intervene, then we are expecting the worse from what we are even
experiencing now. I am not saying all this because I heard from someone but I myself did my
teaching practice at Kibera which is one of the largest slums areasof Nairobi. In addition, I
interacted with my students and tried to talk to the staff and the personal workers of the
school. As a result, I know some of the challenges faced by our children in this area which
disable them to do well in their study. So let’s bring our hands together and see what we as
teachers and person of good will, especially for the poor, to put what wecan do to improve
was an opportunity for me express myself with different people around the place where I did
different from the one where I was before in my study. I have learned that flexibility is really
mattered in life and we need to adjust ourselves to be familiar with the environment of the
place where we are working with. Although, as a new person, the students and the people
around us expect something new from us. Therefore, we must understand their environment
and introduce to them the best experiences that we have learned during the training at school.
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high school performances. Here are some of the strategies that I used during my teaching
practices.
The first thing I did was to strive to insure that my environment was safe inside or
outside the school. Inside the school, I ensured that all my students know me and I know
them, during the first lesson, we established the class’ rules and gave them all the opportunity
to express themselves about what should be done and should not in this classroom in order to
make teaching fun and productive. After that, I expressed my view about the classroom’s
discipline and explained to them the rules we need to follow during the English class. This
strategy was so helpful because we maintained the order of the class until the end of the
semester hence the performance of the school was increasing from the random assessment
test one, followed by the midterm exam and at the final exam, everyone is satisfied on the big
effort we have done. Personally, I have seen that consistency and readiness is one of the keys
Outside the school, as we know that most Kibera people are jobless. They struggle to
find out their daily bread. As a result, many of them are hanging along the road to trap those
who are a newbie in the areas. Since I know that this is the place assigned to me to work, I
tried to talk to those people because there is no way to run away from them. Sometimes they
ask for some amount of money whatever you have and I gave and explained to them that I am
doing free work at Ushirika School. After that, they stopped asking me or harassing me as
Chinese boy. At the end of the day, they greeted nicely and thanked me on the job that I did
for their students. I become familiar enough to the people around this school and feel save
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Be prepared for everything particularly in the area of teaching.
As we know that preparation is the secret of success. In addition, I know that I am not
very good at English speaking, students are very likely confused on my pronunciation unless
I do prepare well before going to class. I spent a lot of time to prepare my lesson, especially
in oral skills. I used to print at home some of the activities which are not found in the text
book but very helpful for the learner. One of the things make me surprised with my students
was the ability to ask questions. Almost every lesson, they were very active to answer and ask
questions. They do not shame to speak even though some of them are quite bad at speaking.
This is observed when they ask questions then they fail to complete the sentences. I always
encourage them and try to figure out what they are asking for so that I can respond to them
properly. Some of the questions are very confused sometimes but my preparation to tackle
Show confidence
Preparation and repetitionare the keys to get confidence.As a novice teacher, I often
struggle to stand in front of my students to express my though. This was seen on my first day
of conducting a debate for form one. One of my staff told me that I need be confident when
speaking so that the students know that you are telling them the truth and you understand
get rid of stammering when I conduct my teaching or debate. Besides, the staff member has
to attend the debate class every Tuesday and as an English teacher, they assigned me to be in
charge of this activities. It was my joy to conduct this since they helped me and encouraged
me by saying that I am one of the best in their school because even the English teacher who
was there before me never able to conduct a debate like the way I did. In short, confidence is
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crucial in teaching. It helps you to express yourself freely and help the students to believe
you.
Motivation
Motivation is the force that drives our learner to achieve more in their study. Since I
know that my students are from a very poor background. I was tireless to motivate themby
saying few words of motivation before introducing a new topic of the day. I usually tell them
that you can do it, always keep faith that this continuous struggle we have today is the key to
success. Keep your time and study since you have the opportunity. In every situation, I tried
to moralize my students instead of beating them. From this method, I have seen that the
students are quite free and feel comfortable when it was time for English. They always do the
English assignments and feel free to ask me questions in case they do not understand. In
addition, I have liked to teach them due to this good behavior they have developed in a short
period of time.
I always ask and my staff member to feel free to adjust me in case they see something
odds in my methods or manner of teaching. Since I did not have an English head teacher, the
direct helped me a lot on what I should do. I really appreciate what he has done for me. He
student to tell me on the method that I use in class but likely brings confusion or difficult to
The fact is, they commented on my pronunciation and they say that I speak very fast.
Since this time, I worked on those areas and later I learned to speak slowly during thelesson
and keep asking them whether they have understood or not. From my staff member, they
used to attend the debate club and I like the way they comment on me as a new student
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teacher. They enhanced me to get rid of some unreliable strategy and always remind me to be
I took all the comments as a positive reinforcement for me because I am sure that they
help me to make better in the future teaching. This feedback from the staff members and my
students have been helping me to accept criticism and increase my motivation and to get what
contributions to my teaching areas. I look at all the comments you gave me and I have
realized that they are very helpful because I can upgrade my method of teaching and help my
Recommendation
Education liberates human beings from unfortunate phenomena and reaches a level of
self-actualization (Maslow, A.1954). To achieve this ideal, we need to accept ourselves, other
people and the natural world where we are because we cannot teach without knowing who we
are and how the world around us operates. We know that education is one of the ultimate path
to success, real wealth and lamp for desire for the poor.All of our students At Ushirika are
challenging varieties of privation which need to fill full in order to achieve their dream. I
want to say that if you have not lived in poverty, it is very hard to imagine how people
survive there. We may have food to throw for the dogs at home, and yet people do not have
even porridge to sustain their life. We have water to wash our cup after drinking tea but some
people do not have even water to dandle. They are dying of hunger and suffering from
Whenever we want to add value to human beings, we can remember them. Children
and students are living there. They want to achieve their potential in spite of the situation.One
thing that they really need is a teacher who can motivate them and inspire them instead of
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adding their burdens. That is the word of encouragement from you and me. Count them when
you have left over and remember when you wish to help. They are children of God, worth to
In fact, the experience I have seen during this teaching practice has helped me to
reflect more on human suffering. Its relevance enhance my desire to teach especially the most
disadvantaged. Whether inside my country or outside. It is true that education is the most
powerful weapon in any kind of situation. Actually, pen and pencil are stronger than guns and
knives.
Conclusion
thought and my view of teaching and learning. I encountered many challenges but I never
give up. I believe and used to tell my fellow students that this contentious struggle we have
today is the key to success for the future. Where there is a will, there is a way and every
success comes after hard-working. I came up with different strategies to help my students
such motivating them, printing useful exercise from the internet since I know that they are
few. I know that it costs many but I believe money can be taken away from me but the
Ushirka School has taught me how to motivate students and how to deal with
different problems from different poor students within the training I gained at Tangaza
University and the help of the supervisors. Education is our passport to the future, for
tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today (Malcom X). Without education,
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References
Oxfam. (2003). Assessment of the Education Status in Kibera in the Light of Free
Gawel, E., & Educational Resources Information Center. (1997). Herzberg's theory of
Arthur, G., Nduba, V., Forsythe, S., Mutemi, R., Odhiambo, J., Gilks, C. (2007). Behaviour
(http://longmanhomeusa.com/blog/tag/measuring-student-performance/).
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