Q: What is the school fee you charge?
A: We charge 2,600 Egp per year, but that does not cover the expenses. The total costs are around 7,500 EgP per student per month.
Q: Is the demand higher than the places offered?
A: Of course, the school is full, and we already do shifts. Since COVID-19 we have not accepted new students except brothers or sisters from previous students and all of them need to pass an entrance test. The entrance test would basically be a sort of placement test, that students would have to pass the final examination for the grade they are wanting to enter.
Q: Did you try to obtain Ministry of Education recognition?
A: No, we have not tried to get recognition from the Ministry of Education. There are a number of reasons for that, first, the curriculum would be in Arabic and we teach in English, secondly this is a Christian school, and getting recognition would make us have to teach Islam, and if we do that, we lose all our donors. We have been increasing the school fees since the very beginning. I think we are still the school with the lowest school fees other than StARS.
Q: StARS is for free?
A: Well, they only charge 1000 EgP/year. StARS has big donors. But among all the other refugee learning centers, we are the lowest fee school. The others are around four, five, and even six thousand and a half. We want to make sure that every kid has an education. Everyone deserves primary education. What we want is to make sure that every student has the opportunity and the ability to go to school, and if they just understand and speak English very well, that already opens the door to a lot of opportunities. You know, every refugee thinks he is going to the West, and maybe 5 or 8% go to the West. But it does not matter where they go, as long as they have English, they can find a job anywhere, and here the kids finish primary school with very good English.
Q: What about the teachers?
A: Most of the teachers are South Sudanese. We also have teachers from Congo and Zimbabwe. You know they are from Africa, few of them are native English speakers, just a teacher from Nigeria. But definitely, it is a must to know English for teaching in school. We wish our teachers could be native English speakers but since we are here, it has been almost impossible to find native English speakers that are willing to work with us.
Q: Do you include Arabic as a subject?
A: Yes, there is an Arabic exam that they need to pass at the Sudanese exam in grade 8 for entering Secondary Education. Years ago we were not doing a great job with Arabic, we are now making every effort to make a better job in that, because we look at the scores that students in grade 8 are getting in Arabic, and they are lower than the other subjects. But the thing is that they have to want it. Some of them do not want it, they face a lot of racism. So I understand when we have students that do not want to learn Arabic, and they fail it. But for those who want it, we give them the opportunity to learn it.
We did not use to have KG but then we had children in G1 where the teachers were teaching in English and the student did not understand English. Some KG students came here speaking only their native language, most others were speaking Arabic so we started KG to introduce the students to English before they enter grade 1.
Q: How do the parents know about African Hope and why do they decide to bring them here?
A: We do not advertise, they know it from the community. Before COVID-19 we had 448 students. The schoolbuilding is not big. There is not enough space, this is why we do two shifts, between 7:30 am and 18.00 in the evening. A lot of the staff do both shifts. We have KG in the morning and in the afternoon, in the morning grades K, 1, 2, 3, 4, and in the afternoon K, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
Q: Do you offer any transportation to the kids going back home in the afternoon shift? You know it is dark and maybe not so safe…
A: We wish, but there are no resources. The families know it and it is up to them to provide company in going to school. But in the afternoon what we try to do is to try to get the teachers going with them. We encourage the kids to go with the teachers because the teachers live in the same area that the kids do, on the other side of the metro. Security is important for us. We hire Police to make sure that our students arrive at school and back home safely. The school has fences, cameras, and a guard. It is very important that he is Egyptian.
Q: Do you know where the majority of your students live?
A: Yes in Maadi, the other side of the tracks, some live on this side. This area is relatively safe for refugees, and there aren’t any Sudanese gangs in this area, from time to time we get Sudanese gangs from other areas that trouble our students. In Ain Shams, there are a number of Sudanese refugee gangs and they are abusing other refugees, not Egyptians, as this would cause them trouble with the police.
In this school, we are also trying to stop this phenomenon from happening. We want them to create a sense of belonging, and to grow up in a safe space without violence. You know, we just had a one-week break, and the kids came back to school on Monday, and you know, they were so happy.
Q: But for them, in comparison to where they live, the school is cleaner, they have friends around, no Egyptians bother them, it is a safe space for them. Why do the kids wear uniforms, why do you think it is important?
A: My wife and I have been here for eight years. When we came the kids were already wearing uniforms, and we wanted to keep that. It creates a sense of community and belonging. They buy the uniforms. It is cheap, around 70EgP per uniform.
Q: Do the children have textbooks?
A: Each student has his own book and workbook. They buy them. In the first year we spent around 200EgP on textbooks and workbooks. Parents were complaining a lot, so in the end, we were like, okay we are not going to do that. You know some parents would pay but others wouldn’t pay, and then you would have some students with the books and others not. We cannot handle that so we needed to give them the textbooks and workbooks. So we changed and the next year we just added the price to the tuition fee.
Q: Do you know how many of them have access to the internet and information?
A: A lot, especially in the upper grades, during grade 6 or 7 they start to have smartphones. We always say no phones in class, we do not want to take them and keep their phones until school is over, so we always say that if we see someone using his or her phone they will lose it for five days. I mean it is never for so long, but that is the rule of the school.
Q: Do you teach them computers?
A: Yes, we definitely do. We believe that if the children know about computers, technology, and English, that is the future. They already have a lot with that. We have also recently implemented some tablets with headphones so they can improve their English listening.
Q: Do you offer them the Sudanese curriculum? Have you thought about another type of curriculum?
A: Yes of course, but you know the Sudanese curriculum is quite simple in some ways. We use mostly the British curriculum. We, for example, give them textbooks that are following the British curriculum, but then when they are in higher grades we try to combine it with the Sudanese curriculum to prepare them for taking the Sudanese final exams that will allow them to access secondary education.
