The Capuchin Province of Tanzania owns and administers Maua Seminary. The Seminary is located within the juridical boundary of the Catholic Diocese of Moshi which is in the North Eastern Tanzania at the slopes of Mountain Kilimanjaro, about 50 Kilometres from Moshi Town Centre. The altitude at the Seminary is 1666 Meters above the sea level.
Maua Seminary was established in 1970 by Franciscan Capuchin Missionaries from Switzerland; and it started with a small group of 30 students. Since then it has grown substantially. Currently we have 254 registered students of Form I-VI who study in Maua Seminary from different parts of Tanzania. The first Form IV graduated in 1973. Since that time it was issuing Certificate for Ordinary Level (CSEE) until 1981 when Advanced Level of Form V - VI (ACSEE) was added. The first Form VI graduated in 1983. Currently, the seminary teaches the following subjects in Ordinary Level: Civics, History, geography, Basic Mathematics, Kiswahili, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Agriculture, Bible Knowledge, and religion. In the Advanced Level, the students are taught in line with their combinations which are: HGE - History, Geography and Economics, HGL –History, Geography and English Language, and EGM – Economics, Geography and Advanced Mathematics. In July 2016 we added more A-Level combinations which included PCM, PCB, CBG, PGM. Currently there are 16 teachers; five of them are Capuchin Friars.
Our Mission is to provide a high quality secondary education to the students, with holistic formation aimed at forming Tanzanian boys for Priestly and Religious Vocation.
Our Vision is to form responsible persons, committed future (Religious) leaders of integrity, and to create a society- inspired with divine teachings and instilled with authentic values, hence acquire the true form of being human persons.
Specific Objective: To have well educated (skilled) and well formed (spiritually and morally upright) studentswho thrive to become agents for mission of evangelization.
The goal: To have an evangelized society with attitude that fosters human dignity and promotes integral human development in terms of true advancement of human life in body and spirit.
The core values: Our seminary upholds the values that include promotion of love, justice and peace, living in right relationships and respect for one another, Stewardship of creation and conservation of environment.
Our Motto is:Fides et Ratio, Faith and Reason.
The formation we give is meant to mold the students’ character and personality so as to ensure that the students develop intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically. This development is enhanced through various activities including academic activities and other programs that take place in the classroom, in the gardens, in the playing fields, in the church, in the school community as well as the community outside the School.
The formation we give is further meant to help the students discover their gifts and develop mental skills and their intellectual powers; to enable them develop critical thinking and sound judgment, to analyses situations and to make their own decisions, to take responsibility and to commit themselves to a certain task, in their case to the service of the Church as future religious and ordained ministers. The education and holistic formation given is intended to foster the seminary goal and values that include promotion of attitude that fosters love of neighbour and to have a sense of justice for all. We strive to collaborate with parents, family and community in leading the students in their care to a greater fidelity, to goodness, self-discipline, respect, courtesy, faithfulness, accountability, transparency, moderation, a good stand, commitment, competence, cooperation, patience, a sense of belonging, sensibility to the needs of others, a sense of justice for all, love of neighbor, civil maturity, moral integrity and ability to use and develop one’s freedom positively. Our role is to help the student find his vocation and decide himself what he wants to make of himself.
In the year 2020 Franciscan Seminary Maua will celebrate 50 years of its existence. Maua will be proud to celebrate this Golden Jubilee because of its great contribution to the Church and society of Tanzania. There are many Capuchin Friars in Tanzania who are the direct fruit of Maua Seminary; there are so many religious and priests in different religious congregations who studied in Maua and there are countless public servants and flourishing businessmen in Tanzania and outside Tanzania whose achievements and success in life cannot be explained without acknowledging the spiritual formation and good educational background they had in Maua Seminary.
Franciscan Seminary Maua is one of the schools that have fairly good National examination results every year. The seminary has an excellent record in the academic performance ranking among the best ten schools in Tanzania for many years constantly. It is our wish and desire that Maua remains among the top schools in the country and a place where many more people will benefit.
It is a fact, however, that currently Maua Seminary needs special attention in many areas if we intend to maintain its good standard. There are so many challenges which we currently face in Maua and so we struggling in tackling those challenges. Of particular concern is the infrastructure of Maua Seminary, notably, its buildings which need to be renovated and facilities that need to be improved. Dormitories, classrooms, laboratories, staff houses, refectory, kitchen and chapel need to be renovated or to build completely new ones. We also need to install a clean water system which will replace the current system which is not consistent. We also need to acquire new oven and cooking facilities for students so as to bring the kitchen up to health standards. We also need to increase books and have other current educational materials and laboratory facilities.
Our plan is to deal with one specific item after another; and our priority is to completely renovate the existing student refectory and Form One dormitory. The second move will be to repair the other dormitories too and the classrooms, and to add some new classrooms.Then we have to build a new refectory (dining hall) for the students (500 students capacity)including kitchen with cooker and chimney, changeling room, store, pilling room washing basin and furniture, tables, chairs and shelves. We shall need to construct a new dormitory that consists of bedrooms, toilets, bathrooms and reconstruction of the old dining to be new library with metal shelves and new furniture. We shall need to expand the chapel with furniture, sacristy and chaplaincy office. We shall need to renovate the administration block. We shall need to d reinstallation of the electricity. We shall need to reconstruct the Sewage and drainage system to suit biogas system and infrastructure.The issue of water also needs urgent attention since life is impossible without water.
For long time since its establishment, Maua Seminary High School was run by Swiss Capuchin Friars who received financial support from their relatives and friends of their home country. Currently, the school is run by local friars who depend largely on school fees but since the number of students is very small, we are unable to meet all the costs of running the school. Even if all students pay the school fees, with the number of students we have, the Seminary cannot have ability to run itself.
The situation has compelled us to look for the means of expanding our Seminary as we thought that expansion of the school can be useful since more students will have opportunity to study in our school, and also the increase of number of students will help financially to cover some of the running costs especially payment of staff members who, so far, have less load of work in comparison to other schools.
More than 200 students apply every year to get a chance to study in Maua Seminary but we are not able to receive them because we are hindered by limited facilities. Our current facilities can cater for only 35 students who can be admitted in our school per year. Classrooms are small that we cannot actually have more than 35 students in each class. The dormitories are also small with capacity to hold only 170 students all together. So this demands us to enlarge the classrooms and the dormitories.
Construction of the new rectory, part of expansion.
Desire for many students to have a chance to study in our school is an opportunity for us and assurance that there will be enough number of students who will make use of the expanded infrastructure; hence enable us to make the plan realized. Another positive thing that makes us confident about the project is the fact that, unlike in the past whereby only few parents were able to pay the school fees, there are many parents today who are financially capable of paying the fees. Despite the presence of many who are still very poor and so are unable to pay the required amount of fee, and certainly need to be considered, we are optimistic that in collaboration with those who are capable, there will be an assurance of sustainability of the school.
So our plan is to expand the school by increasing the number of students so that we have at least 80 students in each class instead of current number which is usually less than 35. The target is to double the number of all students of Maua Seminary so that by 2020 we have at least 400 students all together. Together with the main intention of forming students for priestly and religious vocation, we also believe that the increase of students in the seminary will enable more students in the country to benefit from quality education offered by our seminary. Through this ministry we also participate actively in the Education Liberalization Policy of Tanzania and contribute in improving the standard of living of many people who live below poverty line; hence to create a new generation capable of confronting societal challenges and championing the liberation of those who are caught in the darkness of ignorance and destitution.
The congregation of the Capuchin Friars was founded in 1528. It is a branch of the one Franciscan Order which was founded by St. Francis of Assisi in the 12th century. The Capuchin missionaries arrived in Tanzania in 1921. The main thrusts of their charism were and still are evangelization and social services including caring for the poor and providing education. In 1960’s, Joseph Kilasara, the late Bishop of Moshi, issued a standing invitation to take up a missionary apostolate in Moshi. The Capuchin missionaries responded to this invitation and, among many ministries that they engaged with, including parish ministry, they also saw a need for education and religious formation; so they established Maua Seminary High school in 1970. The school is now under local friars and is now in great need of expansion to meet the current demand of educational needs and self-sustenance.
The Capuchin friars in Tanzania provide a clear witness of Franciscan brotherhood through their engagement with youth who are in need of quality education which is meant to help them improve their condition of life as individuals and as society. As Franciscans, we are concerned with the need for quality education which will have positive impact in the struggle for poverty alleviati
