Student Body Elections

campaigning

Campaign “staff” members pretend to hold microphones for their candidates during speeches delivered in the classrooms all over campus.

Student leaders are a very important part of life at secondary schools in Tanzania. The general behavior and performance in all aspects of school life is largely guided by the quality of student leaders. Idigima has been blessed with godly leaders among its students in the past, and the future looks bright in light of the leaders selected during the recent elections.

The process consists of letters written by the students to the faculty, requesting consideration for a given position of leadership.The teachers then interview the candidate in the Headmaster’s office. Candidates are sometimes asked to run for a different office after the teachers have discussed the student’s strengths.

The candidate then “campaigns” between the various classrooms to garner votes from the student body. Election Day ends with the student body gathering to cast their votes. Announcing a given office and its candidates, teachers pass through the crowd with ballots, then immediately collect them after the candidate’s name has been written. The votes are counted right then and there in the midst of the gathering.

Pray for our student leaders, please. With about 700 students on campus, they have big jobs requiring wisdom and tact. Over the years, we have developed close relationships with a number of our new leaders, and we know them to be humble and God-fearing individuals who desire to glorify God. The new Head Prefect (student body president) came to our home before the campaign to ask for prayer. The new Head Girl is a regular song leader and organizer for our chapel services.

God is doing great things here at Idigima, and we are blessed to be a part of it. Thank you for also being a part of it, a big part of it, through your prayers and gifts.

In His grace and service,

Gary and Joanne Grenell