Four classrooms, nine teachers, and one rule about class size
Started by two teachers in 2013. About four hundred students a year now.
Why we assess before we teach
Ilmu opened in 2013 with two teachers, one room and eleven students, all of them in grade ten maths.
Within a term we had noticed the thing the centre is now built around. Almost none of those eleven students had a problem with grade ten. They had problems with fractions, with negative numbers, with rearranging an equation, and with reading a question properly, all of which are grade six and seven work that grade ten quietly stands on. We had been teaching the current chapter again, more slowly, to students who could not have understood it in any case.
So we stopped doing that. Every student now starts with an assessment, and it is free because it has to happen whether or not the family can afford a second thing. It takes one session and produces a written page: here is what is solid, here is the gap, here is what we would do about it and how long it will take.
About one family in fourteen is told their child does not need tuition. We would rather say that and be believed the next time.
Nine teachers now, four classrooms, and the same rule about eight students to a class. A class of twenty five is what school already is, and a family paying for tuition should be buying something different rather than something extra.
The teachers
Mariyam Sofa
Taught secondary maths for twelve years before opening the centre in 2013. Writes the assessments and still teaches two O level groups.
Ahmed Nihad
Teaches language, literature and the writing groups. Marks every piece by hand and makes students rewrite it in the session.
Fathimath Zulfa
Chemistry and physics to A level. Talks to the maths teachers about shared students, because most science calculation problems are maths pro...
Hussain Riyaz
Enrolment, timetables, the term reports and the primary reading groups. He is who rings you the week a class is missed.
What it costs and how it is paid
What does it cost?
Six hundred rufiyaa a month per subject for two sessions a week, five hundred for primary, eight hundred at A level, and one thousand two hundred a term for an O level examination programme including three marked practice examinations.
One to one is three hundred rufiyaa an hour. A single marked practice paper is two hundred and fifty.
Do I pay for the whole term in advance?
No. Fees are monthly, payable in the first week, by transfer or at the office.
A second child from the same family is a fifth less. We hold a small number of reduced places each term for families who ask, and the conversation stays between you and the centre head.
What if we miss classes?
We tell you the same week rather than at the end of term, because a student quietly not attending is the commonest thing a parent finds out about too late.
A missed class can be made up in another group in the same week where there is a place. Fees are not refunded for absence, and a long illness is a different matter and we will deal with it sensibly.
Come and see a class
Orchid Magu, Male. Classes run from two until eight, Saturday to Thursday.