Rewriting education for rural Africa, 2009 onwards
Following Mathew Ole Kasaro’s retirement, Grosper Mollel, a dynamic and creative teacher aged just 35, took over as headmaster of Noonkodin in April 2009.
Keen to revive the original vision of Aang Serian to “preserve and promote indigenous knowledge”, Grosper launched the Unity in Diversity Project – an innovative inter-cultural education program – as an after-school club for interested students.
In 2010, it was included in the school timetable as a structured co-curricular program, helping to develop core competencies such as critical thinking and cultural awareness.
This made Noonkodin the first secondary school in Tanzania where indigenous knowledge, oral heritage and traditional skills are taught alongside the national curriculum.
Former forester Kephas Ndiamasi, a long-serving staff member at Noonkodin and now Head of Environmental Studies, helped to launch systematic research programmes in traditional medicine and ongoing sustainability projects such as tree planting and rainwater harvesting. An organic farming project was established in the spring of 2010.
