PACE Concept Paper

Introduction

PACE is an initiative that seeks to bridge the performance gap between the public and private primary schools. We will do so by engaging Kenya’s most brilliant high school graduates as teaching assistants (TAs) and mentors in these underserved public schools. We select academically gifted scholars fresh from secondary school, train them, link them to the schools that need them and support them through out the volunteer process.  This will help engage the youth to positively impact education in Kenya and promote community development.
 Founded in 2012, by Peggy Mativo, the PACE program seeks to simultaneously solve two problems that plague the Kenyan educational system:

1)  The shortage of structured, productive community engagement opportunities for young people. This lack of meaningful activity promotes idleness, violence, drugs and sexual experimentation among the youth.

2)     The educational inequity due to cripplingly high student to teacher ratio in public primary schools. Due to the additional work that comes with large classrooms, teachers in these schools are unable to give the students the individual attention they need to reach their full potentials compared to their counterparts in well-resourced, adequately staffed schools.

The TAs will be deployed to the public primary schools existing within less than 50km radius from their residence. They will be trained to handle young scholars and the importance of community service among other important aspects of life during their induction into the program.

The people we intend to partner with

The secondary school administrations will help the team to select qualified teaching assistants from their schools before they sit their final form four exams. The primary school administrations will advise PACE on strategies of integrating the TAs into the school routine and give important feedback on TA performance.

The selection of teaching assistants (TAs)

The selection process will involve 3 parts: a short written application, transcript evaluation (to be done at school) and an interview of shortlisted candidates (in December). We will select TAs based on academic ability, motivation, behaviour, passion for community service and proximity of their residential areas to partner public primary schools.

Role of Teaching Assistants (TAs)

The teaching assistant will supplement, not replace, the teachers within the schools. They will guide students on matters of academics, social matters through practical methods such as grading, teaching aid preparation, guidance and extracurricular activity management

The future of PACE in brief

After learning from this pilot program, PACE will gradually increase the number of volunteers and schools that we establish our volunteer program in. We hope to one-day send volunteers to every county in Kenya, to involve our alumni in the leadership of the program and the mentoring of incoming volunteers.  

Through our network of alumni and volunteers, we hope to establish a culture of community engagement, awareness and leadership. We believe that there is a generation of young leaders who will develop their skills and ability by engaging with the root causes and real impact of education inequity.