Tbt# School Culture and Resources Back in the ‘80s
The schoolyard of Sergoit primary school (UG) in the 1980s was always alive with the shuffle of bare feet and the chatter of children arriving from distant villages of Kapnyangi, Chembulet, Kaptuli, Kaplogoi, Chemanywes... Some had walked seven, even ten kilometers, their faces flushed from the morning cold, their clothes thin against the biting wind. We carried our lunches (mostly mkarangoo ) in tin containers, hanging them on the branches of a great tree outside the classroom. By midday, goats would sometimes wander in, tearing down the tins and feasting on our food, leaving us to laugh bitterly or walk home hungry. Inside, the classrooms were little more than shells. At Sergoit Upper, three brick-walled rooms stood side by side, their floors dusty and uneven. The headteacher’s office was squeezed between Standards Five and Six, a cramped space where books were marked and milk packets distributed. Every Tuesday and Friday, the Nyayo School Milk program transformed the atmosphere. C...