SMASSE Homepage


Kenya Science T. C.	Opening of New Office	SMASSE Main Office	Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology in Africa @ Karen

SMASSE is a joint venture between the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Kenya and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It was started on 1st July 1998, as a pilot project and expanded to National in July 2003.

The overall goal of the project is to upgrade the capability of young Kenyans in mathematics and science (Physics, Biology and Chemistry).

The project purpose is to strengthen mathematics and science education at secondary school level through INSET (In-Service Education and Training) of serving teachers in Kenya.

Pilot Districts and some statictics
@	Pilot Districts* (1998-2003)	National (2003-2008)
No. of Districts	15	71
Secondary School	ca 850	ca 3,500
Maths/Sci Teachers	ca 3,000	ca 16,500
Students of Form 1-4	ca 180 thousand	ca 855 thousand

SMASSE Academic Staff
Department	Kenyan	Japanese	Total
Administration	1	2	3
Mathematics Education	15	1	16
Physics Education	15	1	16
Chemistry Education	15	0	15
Biology Education	15	0	15
Education Evaluation	0	1	1
Total	61	5	66

17th January to 25th February 2005 / Training for SMASSE National and District Trainers in UP – NISMED

25th to 27th November, 6th to 8th December 2004 / Mathematics and Science Project Formulation Support in Uganda

This is the 2nd Third Country Training. The first one was held for 4 weeks from January to February 2004, and we had 42 participants from 7 countries. This time, on the basis of the experiment of the first one, we improved the quality of the training, invited 85 participants from 15 Countries, which is double the number of the first training, and extended the term to 5 weeks.

1st October, JICA celebrated its first anniversary after reformed to an ‘independent administrative institution’. In the Celebration Ceremony, the recipients of the first JICA Award were announced. JICA Award was established to recognize the JICA projects which achieved excellent accomplishments. For the first Award, 21 projects were selected out of all the JICA projects in the past. Among the 21 projects, SMASSE Project (Phase 1) received this honorable award. Being encouraged and gaining confidence from receiving this award, we will continue our efforts to accomplish the goal of the Phase 2 and spread the ASEI & PDSI approach throughout Africa.

27th September to 15th October 2004 / Monitoring the achievement of Science and mathematics education in secondary schools

We examined the relationship between academic ability, thinking ability, didactics, consciousness, attitude and learning in the secondary schools in Kenya. We picked up 150 schools from the 3,500 in Kenya, and did a survey of 6,000 students (40 from each school) and 600 teachers (4 from each school). According to the result of the survey, we are not only going to improve our training curriculum, but also make proposals to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Kenya.

26th September to 1st October / Workshop to support science and mathematics education in secondary level in Nigeria

The Government of Nigeria is making effort to reform the system of in-service teachers’ training. ASEI & PDSI approach to improve the quality of classes has a lot of possibility to support this effort. 3 Kenyan staffs and 1 Japanese staff visited Nigeria. They had a meeting with the Nigerian side and discussed the way forward.

In Honduras, a country located in Central America, many students fail to pass on to the next grade or even dropout because of the poor performance in mathematics. PROMETAM is a JICA project to improve the teachers’ teaching skill and the students’ performance in mathematics through developing teaching guidebooks and drill exercise materials. The staffs of PROMETAM visited SMASSE. There is a plan to expand projects to strengthen science and mathematics education throughout Central America and Honduras is expected to be in the center. We hope that our experience of SMASSE-WECSA, a regional cooperation project in Africa, will be something helpful for them.

12th to 18th September 2004 / Visiting African countries for pre-orientation of the 2nd Third Country Training 2

We visited Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia. We have already visited South and West African countries. In each country, we discussed with the respective Ministries of Education and JICA offices.

A study team headed by Prof. Sasaoka of GRIPS visited Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Kenya. They examined the present condition of the international cooperation in the developing countries. They also visited SMASSE and we had a fruitful discussion with them. Ms. Takioka, head of the editorial office of the JICA magazine ‘International Cooperation’, visited SMASSE to report the cooperation in the educational sector in Kenya.

22nd August to 3rd September 2004 / Visiting African countries for pre-orientation of the 2nd Third Country Training 1

Mr. Njuguna visited Swaziland, Botswana, Senegal and Niger to explain the outline, policy and necessary procedures of the Third Country Training to the respective Ministries of Education.

Since the start of phase 2, 68 District Training Centers have been built and we are now ready to expand INSET throughout the country. This April, District INSET was carried out in 23 centers and about 5000 math & science teachers participated. In August, about 10,000 teachers are participating in the District INSET in the other 45 centers. At the same time, the Monitoring & Evaluation Team is going to visit the District Centers throughout the country. We separate the team into 5 groups, each group of 3 or 4 members, and each groups take different routs in order to visit as many centers as possible within the 2 weeks.

From 23rd to 25th August, Mr. Sugiyama and Mr. Njuguna visited the Secretariat of NEPAD in South Africa. On the 24th, Prof. Wisemann (NEPAD, Secretary General) and Mr. Njuguna (SMASSE-WECSA, Chairman) signed the memorandum for cooperation. After the signing ceremony, a meeting to discuss the way forward was held and we agreed in the next points;

The 6th Stakeholders Meeting included drawing plans for ASEI/PDSI classes, report on INSET in each District Centers, discussion on related matters.

Mr. Hattori and Mr. Waititu visited Malawi and had a meeting with the staffs of JICA Malawi Office and those of the math and science education project in Malawi.

10th August to 10th October 2004 / Training for National Trainers in Hiroshima University

Kenyan feasibility study team will be dispatched to Rwanda. This is due to an eagerness of Rwanda government, especially Ministry of Education, to invite Kenyan team to their country. It has been long time since JICA withdraw project in Rwanda.

On 12th September 2003, Mr. Njuguna and Mr. Waititu introduced SMASSE Project at London University, Institute of Education. Their presentation title is "Lesson learnt that lead to Ownership and Sustainability". (Presentation slide, 223k) 25 post graduate students, mainly Japanese, attended this seminar. Their presentation was based on a fieldwork. The students were greatly encouraged and asked many and very relevant questions.

7th Oxford International Conference was held at Oxford University. The main conference theme was "The State of Education: Quantity, Quality and Outcome". More than 200 participants such as Researcher, Officers and experts from various organizations attended the conference. From SMASSE project Mr. Njuguna, Mr. Waititu, Mr. Sugiyama and Mr. Hattori made presentations.

Both presentations excited a lot of interest for the project among participants. It was a very good opportunity for us to let others know about SMASEE project and share our experience.


Wiston House	Wilton Park Conference	Oxford Univ.	Seminar for Post graduate students

718th Wilton Park International Conference was held at Wiston house in southern UK. 40 participants attended from Research institute, some African countries and International donor agencies such as UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank and DFID. The conference theme was "Education as a Development Priority" and they discussed about present situation and progress of "Education for All".

Mr. Njuguna and Mr. Hattori represented the SMASSE and Mr. Njuguna made a presentation about SMASSE activities, Ownership and Sustainability. (Down load: Presentation Slide, 815k) (Delivered Document, MS Word 36k) Participants recognized SMASSE, as one of the successful Human Resource Development projects in Africa. Experiences of implementation will be sheared among African countries through SMASSE-WECSA network.

This is the first National INSET since SMASSE Project phase2 started on 1st July 2003. About 150 district trainers from 15 pilot districts who missed the 1st cycle of INSET are participating in this one.

Four JOCV teachers from Makueni, three new volunteers and one teacher from Kyumu secondary school, have joined this programme. Senior volunteer, Mr. Ibuki, successor of Ms. Hazuki Uchiyama, is also attending the session.

In this INSET, lecturers from the Pre-service education, Kenya Science Teachers College (KSTC) and Kagumo Teachers Training College (KTTC), are also attending. Most of them are heads of science departments. The number of participants from Pre-service is sixteen, that is 8 from KSTC and 8 from KTTC. Each of the four subjects (Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics) is represented by two participants.

This is the first trial to have a strong linkage between Pre-service and In-service training. ASEI/PDSI approach will be applied in Pre-service training and this will help the learners to teach at their new station.

New Japanese volunteers (JOCV) sent to Makueni district as mathematics and science teachers in a secondary school have an introduction seminar at SMASSE national office. They will also attend a National INSET in August and this will help them to start their work smoothly.


Courtesy Call to KSTC	From Left, Mr. Terada, Mr. Fujita and Mr. Ooura	Training by Mathematics Staff

A new training facility named 'Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology in Africa' was inaugurated at Karen, Nairobi this day. Assistant minister, MOEST, Dr. Kilemi Mwiria declared an official opening of this facility.

The number of participants was nearly one hundred and this included Government of Kenya, MOEST, Japan Embassy, JICA, Philippine ambassador to Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe High commissioner to Kenya, a representative of the Embassy of Eritrea and SMASSE staffs.

The role of this facility is for in-service training to cover the whole country and to be the centre for technical cooperation among African countries.


New Trainig Facility	Ass. Minister, Minister of EOJ and Mr. Suemori	Tour by the Principal	JICA Team

Philippine ambassador	Zambia High commissioner	Zimbabwe High commissioner	Representative of the Embassy of Eritrea

Japanese delegation, a monitoring committee from the Japanese government, visited SMASSE office. The aim of their visit was to inspect how Japan Official Development Assistance, ODA, was effectively used and monitor project implementation in a recipient country. The delegation, which was eight people and was in Kenya for one week, was to access other Japan-funded projects.

Unfortunately there was no Kenyan staff this day although Japanese experts introduced and explained about the project history, activities and impact, and the delegates were actively involved in the session.


Greeting to KSTC Principal	KSTC Tour	Language Room	Discussion with SMASSE JICA Experts

Mr. Mitsuru Suemori, Managing director in Social Development Cooperation Department in JICA Tokyo headquarter, has visited Kenya for one week. He visited MOEST, ministry of education, science and technology, and paid a courtesy call on Prof. George Saitoti, Education minister on 23 July.

The minister introduced the story of his positive impression about SMASSE project that he got when he visited a school in Makueni district. The minister thanked SMASSE project and noted that lessons in mathematics have improved and the atmosphere in a classroom has become positive. Mr. Suemori responded to the minister's speech and he requested that the project gets more support from the Kenyan government and that Kenya will play an important role in the field of mathematics and science education in African region.

The following day Mr. Suemori visited an INSET centre, Kamahuha Girls Secondary School, in Maragua district and observed a biology ASEI lesson.


Mr. Suemori, MD, JICA HQ	Courtesy Call to the Minister of Education	Observing a biology lesson, Kamahuha Girls Sec. Sch.	MOCK Exam of Chemistry

Prof. Kenneth King, University of Edinburgh and an institute of African study, visited SMASSE office. Mr. Njuguna, Head of SMASSE INSET unit got to know him at an international conference in Manila, Philippine on January 2003.

He has a special interest in SMASSE project and we exchanged views with him on project activities and impact.

He is a convenor of the Oxford International Conference on Education and Development in Oxford, UK on September and SMASSE delegate will attend and read a paper at this conference.

Inspectors' Workshop was held in Nyahururu this week. The number of participants was about one hundred and they were from allover Kenya. This was the first workshop for inspectors since the project went national. It was like an induction seminar for those who came from newly participating districts.

They will work as SMASSE coordinators in their respective districts and were expected to maintain the quality of district INSETS.

The aim of SMASSE project is to go national; that is, to expand its coverage to the nation. We will still be based at KSTC but we have been given a new training facility in Karen making it possible to conduct national training throughout the year at this facility.

It is noted that the number of Kenyan national staff has increased from 29 to 61 and the budget from Kenyan government is also increased. Kenyans have great expectations of SMASSE phase 2 and SMASSE has responsibility to the Kenyan society.

3rd SMASSE WECSA Regional Conference was held in Accra, Ghana. The conference theme was "Mathematics and Science Education: Enhancing Classroom Activities for Quality Teaching and Learning in Africa".

The number of participants was 90 and they were from 18 African countries. (Down Load: WECSA3 Participants.xls, 40kb) Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Namibia and Egypt were new participants and some donors like the World Bank, Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and the Free university of Amsterdam were also invited as observers.

The conference ended successfully, with some outcomes such as sharing successful, innovative and promising experiences from member countries and observing practical oriented Science and Mathematics demonstration lessons in Junior and Senior Secondary School.


Opening Ceremony	Kenynote speech by WB	Country Report from Egypt	91 Paticipants from 18 Countries	Conference Organising Committee Members in Ghana

ASAHI WEEKLY, a Japanese weekly newspaper in English, introduced some Japanese who play an active role in Kenyan society. It also carried a story on SMASSE activities in a feature article.

SEIA stands for Secondary Education in Africa. This meeting was organized by the World Bank and co-sponsored by World Bank Institute (WBI), Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and Academy of Educational Development (AED). It was held in Kampala, Uganda. 160 participants attended from 15 African countries and International donor agencies.

Mr. Njuguna and Mr. Sugiyama represented the SMASSE project and Prof. Karega Mutahi, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, represented the Kenyan government at the conference. The conference theme was to analyze the present situation of educational reform in secondary education in Africa and to share their experiences.

Mr. Njuguna reported about SMASSE activities and emphasized the importance of actualization of good classroom practices in solving the problems in secondary education. He reported that this result was spread to the African region through SMASSE-WECSA network.

Prof. Karega Mutahi, Permanent Secretary MOEST, and Mr. Otsuka, JICA Kenya office Resident Representative, signed a document of SMASSE Project phase 2 and then it has officially approved. SMASSE Project phase 2 will start on 1 July 2003 and be implemented for another five years from that day.

The signing ceremony was followed by the launching ceremony at the Stanley Hotel, attended by educational administrative officials from all over the country. Prof. Karega Mutahi made the keynote address and Mr. Njuguna, the head of SMASSE INSET unit, explained the objectives and meaning of SMASSE Project phase 2.

This attracted a lot of interest from the Kenyan society and was widely covered in the newspapers (Nation and Standard) , television and radio.


SAWA SAWA	Keynote Address by PS	Educational Administrative Officials from All Over the Country

After the National INSET, the Monitoring and Evaluation team has gone to observe INSET being carried out in different Districts. There are four teams covering different parts of the country.

Team 1 is in Western Kenya where they will observe INSET in Gucha, Kisii, Butere-Mumias, Lugari and Kakamega.

Team 2 is in Central Kenya where they will observe INSET in Muranga and Maragua.

Team 3 is covering Eastern and Rift Valley. They will observe INSET in Makueni and Kajiado.

Team 4 is in Central where they will observe INSET in Kiambu. Kiambu is holding Cycle 2 INSET at the District level while the pilot districts are holding Cycle 4 INSET.

SMASSE carried out the 3rd Cycle In-Country INSET. Mr. Spira of Teachers Service Commission officially opened the INSET. The In-Country consists of six districts namely Baringo/Koibatek, Garissa, Kiambu, Kilifi, Meru South, and Taita-Taveta.

The 3rd cycle mainly deals with actualization of the ASEI lessons. The participants had an actualization session in Kikuyu Day Secondary School. The training consisted of general sessions on issues affecting the INSET participants generally and Subject specific sessions. The subject specific sessions dealt with matters related to the content of specific topics. The areas covered are those that were found to be difficult to the students and teachers during the base line studies.

Mr. Nduati, the Deputy Chief Inspector of Schools, MoEST, officially closed the INSET. He challenged the participants to aim at improving the overall performance in Mathematics and Science in their Districts.

Mr. Rutto, a Physics National Trainer, is in Japan for a Masters degree course in Physics. He left for Japan on 2nd April 2003 for the two-year course in Hiroshima University.

SMASSE recently recruited more members of staff to increase the number of National Trainers in readiness for In-Service Training when the Project goes National. There were a large number of applicants for each department. The interviews were carried out from 8th to 9th April. The number of personnel required per subject is:

The new personnel are expected to report as soon as they are released from their respective schools.

A team of SMASSE personnel visited Malawi from 30th March to 5th April. The team consisted of the head of the SMASSE National INSET unit and five National Trainers. They presented the ASEI/PDSI movement and demonstrated ASEI lessons to the Malawi participants and students.

From 11th to 13th March, there is the Principals' workshop. The theme of the workshop is "Effective Resource Management of SMASSE Activities for Sustainable Quality Teaching and Learning". The Heads Association at the district level is the sole financier of the project. However, some Principals are not very cooperative in funding the SMASSE Project. Some heads also require sensitization to encourage teachers to participate in the INSET. The workshop is intended to enlighten all heads in the district through the cascade system. The Principals of SMASSE district centres are in charge of equipment for training and they are the centre coordinators. The workshop is to sensitize them on resource management and care for the equipment.

3 Mar - 6 Mar 2003 / JOINT SMASSE-WECSA / JICA Conference on Capacity Development for Mathematics & Science Education in Africa

The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) is to hold a mini regional workshop from 3rd to 6th March 2003. This is to reach a consensus on how SMASSE-WECSA can "own" the specific targets of the "Capacity Development for Science and Mathematics Education in Africa" initiative and translate its objectives to the Initiative's network. This Initiative was registered during the WSSD held in August 2002.

Once a consensus is reached, an action plan is drawn for the activities with the aim of strengthening and enhancing the regional network. The theme is "Strengthening and Expansion of the Network for Enhancement of Mathematics and Science Education in Africa"


Conference was opend by Prof. Saitoti	Keynote Speech by Vice Minister	Action Plan was discussed

The head of SMASSE INSET unit, Mr. Njuguna and five national trainers visited Ghana. The purpose of the visit was to:

On 24th February 2003 Dr. Ozawa Katsuhiko, Director - Planning Division Regional Department 4 (Africa, Middle- east and Europe), visited SMASSE. He was on an observation tour of JICA projects in Africa.

There was a SMASSE Zambia joint workshop from 27th to 31st Jan 2003. As one of the major activities in the regional collaboration within SMASSE-WECSA, the SMASSE team, comprising the head of INSET Unit and five National trainers, participated in the provincial organisers' workshop held in Lusaka, Zambia.

The workshop was organised by Zambian educationalists, aiming to discuss issues on implementation of INSET in Zambia, exchanging opinions and experiences of SMASSE in improvement of Mathematics and Science education. During the workshop, SMASSE participants made presentations on the activities in Kenya, and also demonstrated ASEI lessons to Zambian students in a secondary school. Lessons based on the ASEI/PDSI approach were quite new for the Zambian educationalists and the ASEI lessons were well received.

Besides participating in the workshop, SMASSE representatives discussed issues related to INSET with the Zambian permanent secretary in Ministry of Education and other education officials.


More than 100 participants	Improvisation in Zambia	ASEI lesson in Zambia	With Zambian Team

14 Jan - 16 Jan 2003 / The International Symposium on Capacity Development and Aid Effectiveness

On 14th January 2003, Mr. Njuguna introduced SMASSE Project at "The International Symposium on Capacity Development and Aid Effectiveness" in Manila, Philippines. There were participants from WB, UNDP, CIDA and JICA.


Participants from WB, UNDP, CIDA and JICA	Mr. Njuguna introduced experience in SMASSE Project.

Mr. Njuguna, the head of SMASSE INSET unit and Mr. Hattori attended a stakeholders' workshop in Malawi. This was from 25th November 2002 to 6th December 2002. The major objective was to advice the Malawi team on how to analyze and report on their needs assessment. The result of the workshop is a report known as, "SMASSE-Malawi Needs Assessment Report". The report indicates that there is shortage of trained Mathematics and Science teachers and facilities. Due to the shortage of trained teachers, it is necessary to employ untrained teachers. The workshop emphasized the need for institutionalization of INSET System. This can be done on a pilot basis once a consensus is reached among the stakeholders and a timetable drawn out for the INSET.

The National Office organized an internal workshop for SMASSE National Trainers from 28th October to 1st November 2002. The workshop was to chart the way forward. During the workshop, the trainers developed ways of connecting theoretical concepts with the experiments. This was necessary since at times it becomes difficult to connect some experiments with theoretical concepts.

SMASSE carried out INSET for the 2nd and 4th cycle at Kenya Science Teachers College from 12th to 23rd August 2002.

The 4th cycle comprised district trainers from the nine pilot districts. From their presentation of ASEI lessons, it was clear that they have benefited from the INSETs. Their achievement from the training will ensure a sustainable and effective district INSET system in the pilot districts.

The 2nd cycle comprised Trainers from Kiambu. Kiambu is one of the new districts offering INSET to Mathematics and Science teachers. Due to the large number of teachers in the District, there was need to increase the number of training centres and the number of trainers. Their session involved emphasis being placed on the learner. Hands-on activities should be encouraged so that learners are involved more in the teaching/learning process. This is because human beings remember more what they "do" than what they hear. Experimental or practical work arouses curiosity in the learner since it makes abstract concepts well understood.

SMASSE National INSET Centre,
P.O.Box 30596-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254-20-573680, 573811, Fax: 573811

info@smasse.org

SMASSE Homepage

Strengthening of Mathematics and Science
in Secondary Education Project, Phase II
@ CEMASTEA

implemented by MoEST Kenya & Japan International Cooperation Agency

SMASSE Homepage

Strengthening of Mathematics and Science in Secondary Education Project, Phase II @ CEMASTEA

implemented by MoEST Kenya & Japan International Cooperation Agency

Strengthening of Mathematics and Science
in Secondary Education Project, Phase II
@ CEMASTEA