Team-Lorde

This morning begins the official Uganda program.  While we’ve been working on immersion projects, spending time working with specific organizations in depth, this week we will be getting more of an overview of Ugandan education and community programs and visiting several places and having discussion sessions of various topics each day.

Nine new people have joined our group, bringing our total number to 19.  Since half of us have been together for two weeks and the other half are new, we started the day with some team building.  We drove through a rainforest to Adventure Park on Lake Victoria.  The scenery was beautiful! 

We divided into teams and had several relay competitions.  We were climbing rope ladders, hopping in burlap sacks, army crawling under nets, hula hooping, dancing, and having a blast for two hours.  Each team won a competition so I would say the bonding goal was successfully accomplished!

We had a delicious lunch and then a presentation on the Ugandan school system.  In Uguanda there are 7 years of primary school, 4 years of lower secondary school, 2 years of upper secondary school and 3-5 years of university.  In 1997 Uganda passed a policy called Universal Primary Education and ten years later, in 2007, they passed Universal Secondary Education.  While the effort was well intended, there were significant obstacles to the success of the program.  For example, there are not enough teachers to teach all of the students, there is not enough funding to ensure every student can attend school so parents must pay fees-even for public school, there are not enough textbooks, and many teachers don’t show up consistently because they are paid poorly.  As a result, 68% of Ugandans don’t complete primary school, only one third of those continuing complete secondary school, and only 3.3% complete university.

 

Many girls will drop out of school around ages 12-14 to get married or they become pregnant.  Also, many students will drop out because they don’t have enough food and are hungry.  Boarding schools are preferred by parents because they are seen as being “better”.  About 35% of primary schools are boarding schools and almost all secondary schools are boarding schools.  Commercialization of education has also become a problem because many will see schools as a money-making operation and they compete for students but don’t necessarily provide a sound education.  Many students attend school because of “sponsorships” from wealthy Ugandans or people in the U.S. or Europe.  However, this can be problematic as well because once a student is sponsored, their parents may not claim them any longer in fear that they’ll lose their sponsorship.  At the heart of many of these problems is an overall lack of economic development.  There is high unemployment so even if someone attends university they may still make less than a boda boda man.  There are obviously many challenges facing Ugandan schools but we are here to learn about how people are tackling these challenges and finding ways to help students.

A girls' boarding room

Some of the things schools are doing that are proving successful are focusing on application and skills based learning and focusing on the whole child and meeting all of their mental and emotional needs.  After our presentation, we were off to visit a school for a music and dance presentation and a discussion about the role of music in Ugandan schools.  We were welcomed to Christ the King Primary School (Ugandan is very Christian and many schools and shops have religious names) by all of the students.  After a quick tour we sat down for the performance.  This school is fairly small (it has about 250 students) and many students receive sponsorships in order to attend school.  The condition of the classrooms was pretty similar to the conditions at Pastor Francis’ school-wooden benches, homemade learning materials on the walls, one chalkboard.  Students receive a snack of porridge at 10:30 and then either go home for lunch or have lunch at the school if they can’t afford to eat.

The school bell

The students performed a number of welcome songs and several traditional Ugandan dances.  These are becoming recognizable to me and are known for super fast hip movements.  The students asked us to perform for them so we did a round of Row, Row, Row Your Boat, the national anthem and wrapped up with a dance to the “Casper Cha Cha Slide” which was a big hit and had all of the students cracking up.

The teachers were introduced and we talked about the role of music in schools in the U.S. and Uganda.  In elementary grades, the role if pretty similar with students attending music classes a few times each week for about an hour.  However, in Uganda, students learn traditional songs, dances, and drumming.  They learn the dances of their own tribal groups as well as those of others to promote unity among Ugandans.  After the discussion, we asked the students why they thought it was important to use music in school and their answers were insightful.  They said, it takes away stress, it makes you happy, promotes friendship, and promotes unity.

 

After the discussion, we all stood up and the students tried to teach us some Ugandan dance moves.  They were so hard and the students had some good laughs at our expense.  As we drove away, students chased our bus for more than a mile.