Teen 5 class addition

I chatted with Fiona Chivers this morning for some time on gmail. Fiona is the new Children's Education Program Director for St. Andrews.  It was so great to catch up with her and hear about the developments at St. Andrews.

In addition to a library and teacher's lounge renovation, there is some great news about the Teen program.  In an earlier blog I mentioned that most of the Teen 4 class failed at the end of term because they didn't want to leave school.  Fiona, Dick, Yohannes, Elizabeth and others put their brains together to devise a new plan.  As of this fall, St. Andrews will enroll students in a Teen 5 class. It will be structured differently than other Teen classes.  The boys will take Accounting, Business English, and Computers.  The girls will volunteer with the younger students in the morning and have a few Childcare, Nutrition, Health, and Hygiene, Creative writing, computer, and accounting courses.  At the end of the year they will receive a certificate stating they are employable.  (In Egypt, most of these refugee woman hope for jobs as a house cleaner or caretaker, if they are lucky.)  Right now I would just love to be there this fall and watch this unfold!