Tara Getty Secondary School situated approximately 460km south of Lake Manyara National Park, opened its doors in January 2021 in response to the need raised by the community. With the help of funding and resources from Tara Getty Foundation and other generous donors, Africa Foundation have successfully completed two phases of construction at the school. Phase 1 begun in 2020 and was ready for the first cluster of students in January 2021, it consisted of 4 classrooms, 12 ablutions and housing for 4 teachers.
Before the construction of Tara Getty Secondary School, Moya and Mayoka communities and their primary schools estimate that only 65% of their grade 7 learners continue into secondary education and rest drop out and fall into work. Together with the schools and the community leaders, they believed that if there was a more accessible high school, child labour and marriage would significantly decrease.
Access to education in rural communities in Tanzania is a real challenge. With classes of up to 80 students, insufficient chairs, classrooms and equipment, no electricity or running water, lack of funds to buy textbooks, and some parents encouraging their children to fail exams so they don’t have to continue going to school and can help run the family farms. Girls are sometimes encouraged not to go to school as they would be more useful helping with housework and then given away in marriage . Child travel an average of 15km to school.
Tanzania has a population of over 60 million, nearly seventy percent of the population lives in rural areas, and approximately one-third of the rural population lives in poverty. Tanzania’s economy is predominantly supported by agriculture, mining, telecommunications, and strong tourism. Mayoka is a rural community in the Manyara region of Tanzania, just close to Lake Manyara. Mayoka community has approximately a population of approx. 8,200 residents and just under 900 households. Mayoka community is dependent on subsistence farming and rearing livestock. Because of its proximity to Lake Manyara, tourism provides the only formal employment to the community. Mayoka does not have a village ‘centre’ but rather consists of widely dispersed homesteads, serviced by a clinic and a primary school. Children had to travel 12km to access secondary level education but, thanks to Africa Foundation donors, Tara Getty Secondary School was opened in Mayoka in 2021. Within the Mayoka community, Africa Foundation has supported infrastructure development at the clinic and schools, as well as providing tertiary level bursaries and delivering school-based Environmental Education lessons.
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