Gatoto's Achievements

The community formed Gatoto in 1994 because they understood that their children would not receive education without their action. However, as could be expected, the lack of funds and experience meant that the academic and co-curricular standards were fairly low. Today, the school has changed dramatically. Gatoto competes alongside well-funded private and public schools in many areas, from standardised test scores to sports competitions.

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Even with its very limited resources, Gatoto manages to score extremely well in standardised tests. In 1994, Gatoto scored dead last in its Division in academic results. Today, the school is ranked in the top 10% of schools in Nairobi (out of approx 1,500) by academic results. Furthermore, the amount of children sitting the Kenya Certificate Of Primary Education (KCPE) has steadily increased since the school began. In 2001, 50 students sat the KCPE. This compares with 41 candidates in 2000 and 36 in 1999. The school has collected the award for the best results in the KCPE exams of a community school in its Division (out of 18 schools).

Additionally, the school has made significant advances the retention of students. Here are the dropout rates since 1994 - notice the trend down!

1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
26.2%	20.1%	14.4%	10.3%	8.9%	6.9%	5.1%	4.2%

Three significant reasons for the vast improvement in academic results are the food program, improvements in the qualifications of the teachers, and a donation of basic school text books.

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Gatoto believes in providing holistic education for the students. About three-quarters of the children participate in extra-curricular activities, including drama, athletics, music, and ball games. They do very well in competitions in each area. In athletics and ballgames, Gatoto consistently places 2-5 children on the Provincial teams for football, netball, volleyball, and handball. Moreover, 1-3 of these children are chosen for the national teams. Considering that this group is chosen from a pool of 8 districts (with about 40 schools in each district), this is quite an amazing achievement. Gatoto consistently sends 10-14 groups to the Provincial music and poetry competitions and 5-7 groups to the National music and poetry competitions. Notably, the school came first in the country in two categories in 2001. Over 100,000 people attended this Festival, including teams from all of the top schools across the country.

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The community of Mukuru kwa Rueben started Gatoto because they knew that their children would not receive an education if they did not act. While the community knew that something needed to be done, they did not have the funds or experience to provide the quality of education they wanted. In 1994, 5 untrained teachers taught 370 students in one four-roomed wooden building. The school finished dead last in the division academically and did not provide facilities for co-curricular activities. However, after hard work and with help from outside sources, the school has grown significantly. Over the years, multiple new classrooms, an assembly hall, an office block, pit latrines (and later flush toilets), and sports pitches have been built. The school now has 23 teachers and 7 support staff, who care for 900 students. Click on the picture to the left to see a graphical representation of the physical growth of the school. Furthermore, the quality of academic and co-curricular opportunities has increased. The students have smaller class sizes with more-qualified teachers, as well as a number of choices of co-curricular activities, from sports to drama. The food program and a recent donation of schoolbooks have also increased the performance of the students.

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While Gatoto receives consultation and training from outside sources, it is still fully run by the administration and a parent's committee. This is a rare, but extremely important, step in successful sustainable development. Nonetheless, long-term financial sustainability remains a key challenge for the school. The school has achieved considerable success in securing capital funding and donations-in-kind. However, core running costs remain the top priority and are the most difficult monies to raise. The school is currently working to increase its fundraising capability, to broaden its funding base and to secure longer-term commitments of support. The long-term goal is that the school is not dependant on one person or organisation for its survival. For details on how you can support Gatoto, click here.

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In the developing world, woman are often not given the same opportunities as men, both in education and the job market. This is not the case at Gatoto. Girls account for 50% of the students and they attend the same classes as the boys. Furthermore, girls generally hold a representative number of the top academic places in the school. They also participate in as many sporting and co-curricular activities as the boys. The majority of the teachers are women. The Head Teacher, Betty Nyagaho, who has been a major reason for Gatoto's survival and success, provides a strong, positive female role model. Gatoto believes that gender equality in the school creates opportunities for women, as well as teaching children to treat everyone with respect, regardless of gender.