St. John Paul II Junior Seminary
in Mpanda Ndogo, Tanzania
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The Beckhoff family, Beckhoff Automation
and its employees have been supporting various projects in the Catholic diocese of Mpanda in western Tanzania for many years.
Beckhoff‘s largest project in that region is the St. John Paul II Junior Seminary in Mpanda Ndogo, a secondary school for up to 360 students that operates as a boarding school.
This website is about the school project — it is not the official website of the school.
Background and History
This school was initiated originally in 2008 by Bishop Pascal Kikoti
and supported by Father Walter Lükewille, a missionary from Verl/ Germany, the town where Beckhoff is located. As a member of the Society of the Missionaries of Africa
(commonly known as the „White Fathers“), Father Lükewille had been working in Tanzania for 45 years. „Father Luka“, as he was called in his beloved Tanzania, was instrumental in many projects in the dioceses of Sumbawanga and Mpanda.
When Bishop Kikoti suddenly died due to a heart attack in 2012, Vicar General Father Patrick Kasomo temporarily took over the leadership of the diocese. He significantly contributed to the actual construction of the school.
The school started operation in 2013 and was officially inaugurated on May 5, 2014 with a festive act. Father Lükewille was able to attend, together with a delegation of Beckhoff Automation. The inauguration was enhanced by the presence of a large group of Tanzanian bishops and priests, including the new Bishop of Mpanda, Gervas Nyaisonga, who had been installed the day before.
Later it turned out that this would be the last trip for Father Luka
to Tanzania: he passed away in October 2015, aged 85.
Both Bishop Kikoti and Bishop Nyaisonga as well as Vicar General Kasomo have also visited the Beckhoff company headquarters in Verl, Germany.
Goals
It is the aim of Beckhoff’s support to accompany the school on the way towards financial independence. A Beckhoff team visited the seminary again in May 2016 and August 2018 and agreed with the school board to support several additional buildings within the school compound which will help the boarding school to operate at full capacity and thus more efficiently.
The 2020 visit had to be postponed due to the global Covid19 pandemic.
About the Project
The school in Mpanda Ndogo
The seminary has been registered by the Tanzanian Government under the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training
with Center number S.4732, and by the National Examination Council of Tanzania
with Center number S.5166.
St. John Paul II Junior Seminary is a Secondary School for boys. The Catholic school aims to prepare the students for the service in priesthood as well as civil professions.
The school has started operations in 2013. It has facilities for 360 students. At full capacity, the school will have 4 grades (for O-level education), and may also provide Advanced Level education (2 more grades) in the future. In addition, the school runs a preparation year class. The students live on campus and the school grounds also include fields and agricultural facilities in order to be as self-sufficient as possible.
In June 2022 the school accomodates 183 students, has 9 teachers (including 2 teaching priests) and is supported by 3 nuns and 12 non-teaching staff.
The Rector Father Paschal Kipenye:
“St. John Paul II seminary Mpanda Ndogo [...] aims to train men for service as Diocesan Priests and also as civil workers like technicians, engineers, and also people of good reputation in the society. The vision of the seminary is to provide qualitative education geared into integral formation to our young seminaries.“
Location
The John Paul II Junior Seminary is located at the B8/T9 road near Mpanda Ndogo village, about 27km north of Mpanda, Katavi Region, in the far west or Tanzania. Mpanda is roughly 500 km north of Mbeya and 380 km south-west of Tabora. An (outdated) satellite image of the seminary ground can be found here.
Partners
The construction of the school buildings and their equipment was supported by various partners: besides from Beckhoff, donations were received from Vatican (Congregation for Propagation of Faith), from the Benedictine Congregation, Uznach, Switzerland, several parishes in Austria and of course from collections within Tanzania.
Targets
- Provide education and thus future opportunities to children of one of the poorest regions in Tanzania.
- Make the education excellent and thus attract more pupils
- Provide medical care to the village of Mpanda Ndogo.
- Overall the school shall be put in the position to operate self-sufficiently, financed by tuition fees. By doing farm work on the lands belonging to the school, running costs shall be kept at a low level.
Achievements
- The school has been operating since 2013, providing numerous pupils with invaluable education.
- Solid buildings, houses for teachers, staff and pupils, laboratories and medical station, chapel.
- The educational results are very good: In the second year of secondary school, Tanzanian Educational System has a national assessment examination (“Form Two National Assessment”, FTNA) which allows those who pass to continue to study for an additional two years. The St John Paul II Seminary does well in all its FTNA results, ranking first in 2015 the Katavi region and in district level. Results of 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 are available at the NECTA website.
- End of 2017 the seminary participated for the first time in the Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (CSEE) and the students achieved an excellent result: the school again ranked first in the region and 45th out of 1738 schools nationwide. The 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021
results
are also excellent: again first in the region, 17th out of 1371 (2018), 43rd out of 1011 (2019) , 52nd out of 986 (2020) and 87 out of 854 (2021) schools nationwide.
The Tanzanian Educational System
The Tanzanian educational system comprises 7 years of primary school, followed by four years of secondary school leading to Ordinary Level (O-level) exams in nine subjects, followed by two more years leading to the Advanced Level (A-level) exams in nine subjects, including General Studies. the 2017 UNICEF Education Fact Sheet can be found here.
In the second year of secondary school, there is a national assessment examination (“Form Two National Examinations“, FTNE) which allows those who pass to continue to study for an additional two years. After those two years, students take the Certificate of Secondary Education Exam (CSEE), held in November; the results come out in March of the following year. Two years later, A-level exams are given. After the final year of secondary school—the thirteenth year—students can take the Advanced Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (ACSEE)
which is recognised worldwide.
The quality of public secondary schools in Tanzania is generally considered to be very low, which drives parents to pay for private schools. According to Actionaid, from 2011 to 2015 there was a 20% increase in secondary private schoold and a 8% decrease in public schools. End of 2015, the Government of Tanzania introduced free secondary education in public schools, which certainly helped to lower the barriers to secondary education (see Human Rights Watch report). However, this did not really help to improve the quality of public secondary schools.
St. John Paul II Junior Seminary in Mpandandogo strives to provide quality education at affordable tuition fees, and Beckhoff fully supports this goal.