Karibuni Choba! Welcome to Choba!
Children of Choba was registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales in 2010 (Reg. no. 1138096) to help the many bright and beautiful children in Choba and the surrounding villages have a better start in life. Our main task is to subsidise and run Choba English Medium Primary and Nursery Schools where we aim to provide the highest possible standards of teaching and facilities. Unlike most Tanzanian primary schools which teach in Swahili, we teach in English. All Tanzanian secondary schools teach in English from the very first day, and consequently many bright students drop out early on because they just don’t understand the language. The aim of our school is to provide the best possible primary education in English so the children are in a position to fulfill their academic potential when they get to secondary school. We find sponsors to enable the most academically gifted Choba graduates from low income households to attend some of the top secondary schools in Tanzania. We also try to help as many of our O level leavers as we can to gain vocational training at college if they are not selected for A levels.
Location
Choba is a small hamlet on the coast of northern Tanzania in Pangani District, Tanga Region. It has an adult population of just over 300 with the majority struggling to survive way below the poverty line by subsistence farming and fishing. This area is at least 50 years, in development terms, behind the better known parts of Tanzania such as Arusha and Dar es Salaam.
Children of Choba Primary and Nursery School - Impact
Choba Nursery School opened in 2008 and Class 1 of our primary school started a year later. We added a classroom every year until our final seventh classroom opened in January 2015. We are now firmly established in the top 5% of all primary schools in Tanzania despite doing the exams in English (which is obviously much harder for the children) and being in one of the least developed districts. Our students are now consistently being selected for Tanzanian Special Schools such as Ilboru and Msalato. These are government schools only for the very brightest students in the country.
The aim of our school is already being fulfilled. Many of our founder members who started at Choba Nursery School in 2008 and at Choba Primary School in 2009 (under a tree!) will graduate from university this year! Previously, no one from the hamlet of Choba had obtained good enough O level results to go on to A level, so this is a huge achievement. A total of 32 Choba graduates from our first 3 years are now at university, 13 boys and 19 girls. This is especially pleasing, as without education most of these girls would have been teenage mothers. Children of Choba sponsored 20 of them at various private secondary schools, and all of them benefitted enormously from their quality primary education in English. They are reading a variety of subjects such as medicine, engineering, computer science, accountancy, law, education, journalism and Chinese language. Many more Choba graduates have chosen to study for certificates or diplomas instead of A levels, and we are delighted that 4 with certificates in primary or nursery education have now become Choba teachers! Within a very short time, we expect to see many more translate their excellent educational achievements into jobs.
At Children of Choba Primary and Nursery School we are offering a very high class education at minimal cost to the parents. Just 25% of the students at Choba Primary School pay full fees of TZS 520,000 (£170) a year, mostly children of government workers from Pangani Town. Parents from the villages pay half of this, depending on their ability to pay. Orphans, those who are HIV positive and those with extremely challenging home lives pay nothing. The shortfall is met by Children of Choba.
Choba village