Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1

Where is Kibera and how does it look like?........................................................................... 2

What is a school? ................................................................................................................ 3

What is a teaching practice? ............................................................................................... 4

Historical background of Ushirika Girls Secondary school in Kibera ............................... 5

The guiding statements of the school ................................................................................. 6

School motto ....................................................................................................................... 6

School vision ...................................................................................................................... 6

School mission.................................................................................................................... 6

Overall goal ........................................................................................................................ 6

Factors linked to poor academic performance in poor urban areas (Ushirika School). ..... 7

Positive experiences from my teaching practice experiences. ......................................... 11

Be friendly with the people whether inside or outside of the school. .............................. 12

Be prepared for everything particularly in the area of teaching. ...................................... 13

Show confidence............................................................................................................... 13

Motivation ........................................................................................................................ 14

Evaluation from the students and the staff. ...................................................................... 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-

confidence towards challenges.

My topic is mostly based on the factors linked to poor academic performance in

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

suggest solutions to overcome those challenges.

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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

everywhere along the road.

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?

A school is an institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning

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

children to achieve their dreams.

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

3
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

school due to its multifunction on human caring.

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

his/her opinion toward a given topic.

What is a teaching practice?

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

career of teaching.Teaching practice is an inevitable program in school if one is prepared to

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

experience she/ he meets in the field of teaching.(Haertel and Walberg, 1993)

Historical background of Ushirika Girls Secondary school in Kibera

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.

The guiding statements of the school

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

in community development by providing quality education.’

School motto

Be the best.

School vision

To be the pillar of familyfocused and child cantered.

School mission

To prepare every child for school, career, and life.

Overall goal

As a community-based organization, we strive to help children around in Kibera overcome

the burdens of poverty to become healthy, educated self-sustaining and contributing members

of the society.

The school has a variety of co-curriculum activities. Each activity is heading by a

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;

6
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

poor performance in this school.

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

the situation affecting challenging the learners.

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

of the education in the school. Consequently, low performance is there.

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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.

9
 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

10
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

the education in the least advantaged place.

Positive experiences from my teaching practice experiences.

As a student teacher, I encountered many advantages during my teaching practice. It

was an opportunity for me express myself with different people around the place where I did

my teaching practice. It allowed me to meet different environment which is completely

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.

This is where I implemented different strategies to promote a favourable environment and

11
high school performances. Here are some of the strategies that I used during my teaching

practices.

Be friendly with the people whether inside or outside of the school.

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

that enhances the students ‘quality performance.

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

unlike the first month of my teaching practice experiences.

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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

their questions guide me to get the answer.

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

what you are talking.

This encouragement helped me to stand up and conduct my teaching in a professional way. I

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

13
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.

Evaluation from the students and the staff.

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

used to adjust me and give me feedback on my teaching, in addition to that, I asked my

student to tell me on the method that I use in class but likely brings confusion or difficult to

understand for them.

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

14
teacher. They enhanced me to get rid of some unreliable strategy and always remind me to be

clear on the use of language.

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

I want to improve in my teaching. In addition to this, my supervisors have made a great

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

students more than before.

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

different misfortunate life.

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

15
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

live in peace and harmony.

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

Teaching practice has changed my experience to be self-confident in expressing my

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

knowledge I give them is forever.

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,

there is no hope and the world would be much darker.

16
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Oxfam. (2003). Assessment of the Education Status in Kibera in the Light of Free

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Gawel, E., & Educational Resources Information Center. (1997). Herzberg's theory of

motivation and Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse

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Arthur, G., Nduba, V., Forsythe, S., Mutemi, R., Odhiambo, J., Gilks, C. (2007). Behaviour

change in clients of health centre-based voluntary HIV counselling and testing

services in Kenya. Sexually Transmitted Infections.

(http://longmanhomeusa.com/blog/tag/measuring-student-performance/).

Glossary of education term.com. Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School

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