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Kongwa School
On the 4th October 1948, the first session
of the Kongwa School was held. We assembled foe morning prayers
in the Billiard Room of the Kongwa Club and we sang “Praise
My Soul the King of Heaven.” Dr. Welch, the Chief Education
Officer of the O.F.C., through whose efforts the School had
mainly been founded, stood at the back and prayed with us;
Mary Welch, his wife, did not. She was tearing through the
bush recapturing a seven year old gentleman who had evidently
decided that he had come out to East Africa to avoid all
this sort of thing. Not having been in a School before, he
concluded that he was now too old to start and he headed
for home by the shortest route.
The School had been founded, by agreement
with the Government of Tanganyika, to provide schooling for
the large numbers of children arriving to join their fathers
on the “Groundnut Scheme.” It was to be a day
school catering for children from the ages of five to sixteen
and like the other schools opened in Nachingwea and Urambo,
was to be taken over by the Government on 1st January 1951.
On that first morning fortynine children were in attendance
and, looking through the admission register, I see that amongst
them were the present scholars; Sheila and Gordon MacDonald,
James and Robert Seabrook and Tommy James. Incidentally,
the last child to enrol in 1953 was Nicholas Bijl – number
930! There were five teachers employed, four of them wives
of O.F.C. personnel living in Kongwa, a student teacher who
taught the boys physical training and games and helped with
the older scholars. The “Seniors”, a mixed bunch
of eleven children, whose ages ranges from eleven to sixteen,
fell to my lot. The Infants’ class was housed in a
tent outside the Club, the Senior and Junior Standards 1
and 3 shared the Games room and Junior 4 were half a mile
away in General Harrison’s spare bedroom up on ”Millionaires’ Row.” There
was something prophetic about the spread-eagling of the School
at its opening.
One memory of that first month remains
clear in my mind. Tony Burfitt, six year old brother of Donald,
our first Head Boy, was sent “to stand against the
tent pole” (the local equivalent of “in the corner”).
After a moment he cried, “Please, Mrs. Hurley, may
I sit down now?” “No”, replied our Infants’ Mistress, “you’ve
been a naughty boy and you keep your face to that pole.” After
a few moments’ silence he again cried out, “But,
please, there’s something horrid on the pole!” investigation
revealed the sight of Tony, face dutifully turned towards
the pole, two terrified eyes focused on a huge scorpion aggressively
waving its tail a few millimetres away from his freckled
nose. Discipline, you see School, was excellent right from
those early days.
After three snakes in one week in the Infants’ tent it was a relief that
we moved into the new Primary School in November. The building was without
cupboards, doors, blackboards or windows, but it was a home of our own.
During 1949, the number of children increased
rapidly, and by the end of the year, 232 were admitted in
all, including such notables as Wendy and Jimmy Richmond,
Corinne and Ron Howard, Michael Thomas, Terry Rochester,
Mavis Baker, Hazel Miller, Peter Marks and Penny and Tony
White. During this year also the second wing of the school
was built, housing the Domestic Science wing and the Woodworkshop.
The most important happening in 1949, however,
was the decision reached to proceed with the recruitment
of teachers from home not only for Kongwa but for the other
O.F.C. schools. As European Schools Officer I accordingly
flew home in the summer to help with the interviews. This
visit produced Head-teachers for Nachingwea and Urambo schools,
and five teachers for Kongwa, including Mr. Ferguson and
Mr. and Mrs. Thwaite. I have always thought that the appointment
of Mr. and Mrs. Thwaite signified the first major advance
since the opening of the School, for it meant three things –
(a)To embark for the first time in Tanganyika’s
history on a programme of European Secondary Education,
(b) to include in that programme Technical
Education,
(c) to open a boarding wing so that children
from other areas might enjoy the benefit of the generous
scale of equipment provided in the Secondary Department.
1949 closed with a very successful “Kongwa
Youth Parade”, the profits from which purchased for
the School the first of eighteen handsome trophies which
now adorn my study table.
In 1950 the Boarding School opened, starting with four small boys living in
a house on Quarry Road, which we nicknamed “The Shoebox”, but as
more boarders arrived, including Keith Jones, Wanda Jablonska and Roger
Nicholson, we expanded into the Flats. During 1950 also we held our first Annual
Sports Day and the number of enrolments reached 372, although at no time had
the number of children actually attending the School exceeded 180.
The next major event in our history occurred when Government took over the
administration of the School in January, 1951, in accordance with the original
agreement, and from that time onwards the School has grown rapidly. At the
end of 1950 there were forty-three boarders, six teachers appointed from U.K.,
and one matron; by the end of 1953, 3765 boarders were in attendance and the
number of staff had risen in all to fifty-three. Over eighty houses and blocks
of buildings are now in use and the area of the School covers some 272 acres.
During this time also the organization of the School had developed and the
many sides of our activities will be reflected in the pages of this magazine.
We look forward to the next stage in our history – the opening of the
new Primary School in Tabora where all our Juniors will be transferred and
Kongwa will remain purely a Secondary School. After that a few more patient
terms before the St. George’s School at Iringa will be ready for our
proud entry.
And, in anticipation of that great moment, we have called this magazine – “THE
GEORGIAN.”
Headmaster
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