CAMS - home to
multi-culturalism and bilingualism
By Mary Wright
Recently the primary and secondary sections of this renowned institution, Canon
Andrea Mwaka School CAMS of the Anglican diocese of Central Tanganyika,
re-combined and are to be found together as in the old days, in the pleasant
residential quarter of Dodoma called Kilimani, which rises on a slope above the
town and is remarkable for all its trees, flowering shrubs and bougainvillea.
Palm and fruit trees of various sorts surround many stately mansions. The
school’s low, white-painted buildings are arranged around an open space with
gardens and playground, football field at the side.
I asked Jeremy Horrocks, of Australia, and Peter Prewandowski, of the US, heads
of the upper and the lower school respectively, what, in their opinion, were the
advantages for pupils attending CAMS, or Stockley as it’s still called by the
locals; that was the ancient, pre-independence name. They both answered that an
“international” curriculum gives certain benefits; of course it gives status in
countries other than Tanzania but also has invisible assets in multi-culturalism
and bilingualism.
Regarding the syllabus, in the lower school the materials come chiefly from
Great Britain, maths and reading schemes are the same as in the U.K., the
teachers are all university educated and native English speakers.
Similarly in the upper school, the teachers are graduates and students work
towards the IGCSE (the International General Certificate of Education) O-level
exam, set by University of London. Computer training, music, drama, art and
foreign languages feature on the timetable. Students are prepared for Forms V
and VI and for later studies, maybe business school or university in DSM, maybe
university in Canada, the U.K. or South Africa.
Horrocks told me that 57 per cent of their students continue to Forms V and VI
and university. Two have got straight into a South African University on their
O-level results. He thinks that CAMS is the cheapest international school in the
country. For Tanzanian citizens, per year, the nursery school fees are Tsh.
240,000, the primary Tsh. 450,000 and the secondary Tsh. 570,000.
Sure, we can say that this is an elitist school, but people who can afford to do
so have the right to spend money on education if they particularly value it, and
to make sure that their kids mix with those of other parents of similar home
backgrounds and values. If this type of education isn’t available here they’ll
simply send their kids abroad.
Prewandowski especially wants more Tanzanian children, speaking Swahili at home,
to enter the school. Experts now agree that an environment of multi-culturalism
and bilingualism are of worth to the developing brain, creating new networks and
pathways.
When I asked how he was going to get teachers for all these kids he said he was
going home to West Massachusetts for three weeks to find them: Christians of
course, for this is a Christian school.
I asked if boarding was not a problem for non-residents of Dodoma. The two heads
agreed that parents would have to find accommodation themselves. Perhaps there
could be found a local person to act as sort of accommodation agent?
Old pupils I’ve met have been employees of the United Nations, the Aga Khan
Foundation, pharmacists or computer experts in the US, commercial agents,
journalists, owners of nursery schools in Tanzania ...... dare I say it,
directors of Media Express Ltd., Dar es Salaam.