Nelson Mandela Academy, located in the Ngando Village in Dagoretti, is one of our main focus schools for primary day students, with about 75 students attending. With this large presence we have been working with the administration to establish an excellent school.The classrooms at Nelson Mandela are somewhat cramped, but the students seem to adapt immediately. Importantly, the teachers are very engaged and the children are thriving.
We have learned that the most important factor in the quality of the school is the administration. The headmaster of this school is well known to us and has an excellent history of running schools. In a very short amount of time he has established the school, hired excellent and motivated teachers and moved into new facilities. The buildings are of tin and wood and crammed into a very small area. However, all of the classrooms have electricity, there is running water on site and cooking facilities for our breakfast and lunch program. (We have moved our main kitchen to Nelson Mandela).
The school is located across Ngong Road from our offices. It is close enough that classes of kids can cross the road to take daily computer classes at the computer lab in our offices. The children also frequent the library after school.