Links with Niassa
(linked with Edward Betham School, Greenford)
[Source: Goodwin Mnyawa, All Saints Anglican School, Nacala. June 2009 (see footnote)]
(There is a gallery of pictures of the school, and an account of the development project there elsewhere on this site.)
The school is situated in the northern part of Mozambique in the Province of Nampula.
Nacala is a port east of the Nampula provincial headquarters that serves northern part of Mozambique, which has a population of about 3 million. This school is within the city limit of Nacala.
Nacala Todos Santos Primary School was created through initiative of the Anglican Diocese of Niassa whose headquarters is in Lichinga.
There was a necessity to serve the local community whose pupils were commuting long distances to go and acquire basic education around this area.
The local congregation in liaison with the clergy, then Reverend Damião Jackson created the initiative to request the Right Reverend Bishop Dom Mark Van Koevering to see if he could assist in acquiring funds for the construction of a primary school.
The foot works manifested from 2003 whereby during the routine visits of the Bishop Dom Mark Van Koevering to Nacala, he instructed the congregation to look for a place to purchase for the purpose of school construction. It took not more than a month negotiating for a plot just adjacent to the Nacala Todos Santos Anglican Church and finally the place was bought from funds sent by the Diocese.
The area covering the school premises is about 150.000 square metres.
From 2005, the work of school construction began & it took 1 year to complete the work. After this the school started with 424 pupils who were got from a nearby school which was operating from small buildings/open area within the location.
The Reverend Bishop took the initiative to officially inaugurate the school on 4th Feb 2007. By then, the school had 5 teachers with 3 classes ie 1,2,3 (two streams each), and 324 pupils.
From this year, the school began to expand up to the present situation whereby there are 9 teachers with 520 pupils and 5 classes ie 1,2,3,4,5 with two streams each.
Nacala Todos Santos School schedule usually commences at 06:30Hrs starting with Assembly where they sing a National Anthem followed by a prayer and some announcements.
Normal classes begin from 06:40Hrs with school periods of 35 minutes durations followed by a break in between. The morning schedule terminates at 12:00Hrs.
Due to shortage of classrooms, some classes take place in the afternoon whereby pupils arrive at 1100 up to 1700Hrs. Pupils who frequent the school have age ranges beginning from 5 years old up to 10 years depending on the class.
Apart from the normal curriculum activities that take place at school, the Anglican congregation, teachers in liaison with the clergy took initiative to create small funds to support some of Orphan pupils studying at the school. From this funding, orphan pupils are supplied with some clothing and materials for the school like writing pencils and pens, exercise books etc. However, the materials are not enough to support especially this group of orphans.
It is also worth pointing out that our brethren of Ray Of Hope under the auspices of Don Mc Burney assisted the orphans with some materials in 200 , a gesture of which it would be a great remiss if we do not reckon & appreciate for same.
As the school began a few years ago, with some difficulties, there are a number of school requirement that are lacking at school for pupils enjoyment/use
Among others, the community/congregation feels that the school could be well equipped with basic pupil play and learning aids with equipment like:
It is also worth pointing out that up to now, the school does not have a small library where pupils can study and/or acquire basic computer literacy.
It is the ambition of the community/congregation to see that the school acquires means of sustaining itself financially.
It is in this vein that the congregation in liaison with the clergy (Currently Revd Mateus Ntiko and at large the Right Reverend Bishop) have ventured to look for assistance from sister schools and other stakeholders who can assist to see if the school & church can acquire.
Goodwin Mnyawa died unexpectedly in February 2010. An appreciation is elsewhere on this site.
