THE MALIMA PROJECT

PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL REPORT 2008

The year under review has been a good one, especially as it has been without the excitement and uncertainties of the previous year.  We reported that our founding director of Malima, Felix Ngambou Ngadeu had left Malima and moved to England, and he had been replaced by Mr. Sop Sighen François Delefete.

François, as he prefers to be addressed, was known to Felix, and came from the same village in the Southwest of Cameroon.  He has had European experience as he lived for a time in Greece. His majors are mathematics and sports.  We have found him to be a very able administrator, and the hope that he would take the school to greater heights is being realised.

His report forms the Malima Annual Statement, wherein he proudly announces that 100% of our graduating students have taken and passed the Secondary school entrance examinations, thereby continuing the unbroken results over the past four years.

At the beginning we promised our students the best elementary school education that we could manage. However, the children themselves had come to enjoy the learning experience to such a degree that they all wanted to continue on to the secondary level. Consequently, we now support a school and a half. Quite naturally, there is a cost to this. At present, The Malima Project is actively seeking an “Angel” to provide the programme with a significant annual lump sum grant that would enable us to enlarge our scope and to provide Malima with financial certainty. We therefore ask that this request be furthered through word of mouth.  Your assistance will be greatly appreciated.

There is now another charity in the Gouria area in the form of  “Fundación Kapsiki”.  Two former Malima project members, who will undertake other efforts in Gouria and surrounding villages that The Malima Project had previously felt an obligation to assume, are leading this effort.  We are therefore relieved of such activities, however, the hope is that in the future we may work together to accomplish even more than working alone.

Finally, having successfully experienced eight complete years of operations, it seemed realistic to propose to Cambridge House Community College that their sponsorship from the start be recognised by a twinning of the two schools.  Simply put, without the initial and continuing support of Cambridge House there would be no Malima Primary School. This has been accepted, and in the future both names will appear on the others’ letterhead.

President

The following is the Annual Report submitted by our new Director of Education,  Sop Sighen François Delafete.  Mr. Delafete has completed one year’s service by taking Malima Primary School from strength-to-strength.  He follows the very successful term of Felix Ngambou Ngadeu, Malima’s founding director.

“The school year began on Monday, September 3rd, 2007 and ended on Friday June 6th, 2008 for the primary classes.  The pre-school opened on the 24th September 2007, and closed on June 5th, 2008.

During this period, starting from the very first day, classes were very effective with an average attendance of 95%. We are still operating on a basis of 4 classrooms for six groups that dictates that the school operates on a part-time basis as follows: SIL, CP, CEI, and CM2 attend from 7:30 to 13:00 hours; and CEII and CM1 Attend from 12 noon to 18:00 hours.  The pre-school children who study in a separate building attend from 8:00am to 12 noon.

This year, as in the past, we have been proud to give our children an excellent education despite a few imperfections.  Out of 79 children attending in the pre-school, 25 were selected to move into the Sil class, year One of the primary department. The others are taken into E.P. Gouria, the government primary school. The movement statistics between classes were as follows: From Sil to CP: 56% passed; from CP to CE! 72% succeeded; from CE1 To CE2 the figure was 60%; CE2 to CM1, 60%; and from CE1 To CM2 the pass rate was 70%.  From CM2 to enter Secondary we registered 96% for the First School Leaving Certificate, and after some remedial summer work that figure rose to 100% for the Common Entrance Examination.

These statistics give our staff and myself great pride as that means we continue the past record of 100% passing into secondary education. That number was spoiled by 10 students who dropped out during the year, although we do hope to have some of them come back."

Sop Sighen François Delafete