Journal reflections from Uganda, Africa summer 2009

Economically Disadvantaged

Journal reflections from Uganda, Africa

As a teacher I grew by leaps and bounds the summer of 2010.   I have a completely new definition of what it means to be "economically disadvantaged".  I have not worked with any child in our local school districts that lives in a mud hut and has never personally experienced electricity.  All my students have held a book in their hands.  I am no long intimidated to teach a class of ESL children anymore. I am very blessed to live in Kansas and work with any of our students in any school. 

In the summer of 2009 I volunteered to travel with an organization called Libraries Of Love to Uganda, Africa to build four school libraries and help teach their students and staff how to use a library.  In the 1970’s, there had been a political uprising in the country and almost all of their public and school libraries had been destroyed.  Uganda had library in Kampala, their capital city.  Sadly it is not open to the public or the community.  I’m a teacher and the daughter of a librarian.  Books, reading, and education is a passion in my life.  Knowing that there were individuals whom had never had the opportunity to even hold a book inspired me to travel with this organization and to help their cause. 

Many teachers want to know… what is it like to be a teacher in Uganda?  This section of my website is dedicated to what I observed working in their schools, with their staff, and with their students.

 

Promotional video of the libraries of Love team

Q. What are the teacher certification requirements in Uganda?

The teachers were credentialed much like in our states.  The teachers are required to attend college for four years and earn teaching degrees before they could work in the classroom.  Many of the teachers were willing to share their resources for their curriculum maps - I was astonished that they were the same standards that our students have here in Kansas.   I was humbled to sit in on the various classes.   It was amazing to know that even without our technology that they are still required to meet their countries education standards.  It was indeed a challenge... it is a  challenge in our own classrooms,   but these teachers taught in classes where the teacher student ratio was 1:200.  

Q. How are teachers assigned to schools? 

Teachers did not have the flexibility to choose which schools to work at either.  Their city assigned schools to them.   Many times the teachers assignments would change from year to year.  One teacher Sarah had to take a Boda-Boda (bicycle taxi) 20 minutes to a bus stop then a Mutatu (8 passenger van taxi that the drivers would squeeze 20 passengers into)  for an hour to get to the high school she taught at every day.  Teachers also reported that in hard times, they would not always receive their pay consistently from their government.

Q.  What is the most challenging obstacle in teaching their students?

Not only were classes large... but it was astonishing that in Uganda, the home language spoken by almost all the kids was Lugandan... while the school’s academic language was English.  (All books, curriculum, and instruction is given ONLY in English.  English is also the predominate written language in their country as well.  Uganda was once a British Colony).   Imagine what it would be like to have 150-200 ESOL Kindergarteners in your classroom.  

Q.  How are students grouped into grade levels?  Do they hold students back?

Many families do not have records of children’s births and many families care for orphaned children from extended family members.  Children begin attending school around age 3 to 7.  No matter how old the child is when they start school, all children begin in P1 (Kindergarten) and work their way through grade P8.  Our students in the states have the option of starting school any time from age 3 to 6.  In our classroom, a second grader may have one year of school experience up to four years of experience (and teachers ponder the gap of student experience in our classrooms).  The teachers explained that they see less of a gap in student achievement than we typically report in our classrooms in the states.  America has many advantages, great medically care for one.  Many students whom have complications at birth in the states are given special care and go on to live long fulfilled lives.  Many of our special needs children (Downs syndrome, etc) fail to thrive and live past infancy.  Thus the schools have little need of a special education program such as our schools do.

Q.   How do teachers communicate with parents without the aid of email, phones, or even a reliable postal service?

 Collaboration among family members was a real challenge.  Sometimes the students had to walk over an hour to attend school each morning.  There was a lack of supplies, and written notices were out of the question.  Sometimes teachers would dictate notes home to parents, but most parents worked as farmers and couldn't read or write.   The teachers I met said that they often would try and visit homes to talk to parents when there were concerns at school, or they would use older students to deliver messages. 

A couple of the teachers I met found home communication to be even more challenging,  they were from Kenya a neighboring country.  These teachers could speak English and their tribal language, but not Lugandan.  (Does this struggle sound familiar to those of us who also work with ESOL students?)  Libraries of love not only builds school libraries and trained students and staff how to use library books, sometimes they would fund students to receive school lunches.   I got to travel home with a fourth grade student named Doreen.   After school one day, she led a few volunteers and I to her home.  Doreen didn't have any shoes.  She walks 40 minutes (one way) to her home.   Her little village is a rural farming area, only accessible by walking through a farm field on a narrow one person path.   She lives in area with four  mud homes all built together in the middle of a corn field.  Doreen's parents died in a Boda-boda (bicycle taxi) accident two years ago.  She lives with her young Aunt (early thirties) and 9 cousins in a two room mud hut.  Doreen is the oldest child and is responsible for looking after and tutoring her younger cousins.  Her Aunt was very sweet, but did not speak English.  It was very sobering to know that this fourth grade student had never experienced something as simple and common place as electricity.

Q.  What is family life like in Uganda?

Most families in Uganda were blended families.  The average life expectancy is 40 years.  50% of Uganda's population is between the ages of 1-14 years old.  Most people I talked to had experienced the pain of losing a loved one to Malaria, Aids, Yellow Fever, or other sicknesses.  Uganda's population about 40% Catholic, 40% protestant, 13% Muslim, and 7% other.   The people are very religious.  My group came to build a school library... and every classroom, teacher, even policemen on the street would share their faith and the love of God and Jesus with every one they met.  Teachers in Uganda often sing the same vacation bible songs we teach our kids to their classrooms of students.   Every classroom sounds like a choir.   It is important to know this... as so many families have been broken up due to death, their loved ones open their homes and hearts to orphans and family members.  Almost every family I met had four or more kids living in their homes that were not biologically theirs.  They took in their family members because it was Biblically commanded to do so.

Q.  Describe a typical Ugandan public school Do they look like ours?

The classrooms are often rows of buildings connected side-by-side.  There are no hallways, gyms, cafeterias, and until we came, no libraries.  There are two huge concrete classrooms per grade level.  Each classroom has about 150-200 students.  The desks are long tables with wooden benches and kids squeeze themselves together to make room for everyone.  All the classrooms had chalk boards.  The school rooms could get very hot, there is no running water, or electricity in the buildings, only windows framing the classrooms outer walls to provide light and a light breeze.  During midday students are allowed a 2-3 hour break to go home for lunch with their families or to stay and play soccer or net ball together as a long recess/PE break.   

 
 
 
 
 

ps.  If any you know of any teachers who would be interested in volunteering three weeks of their summer to work in Uganda building libraries,  have them go to this website to fill out an application to go on the trip.   http://www.librariesoflove.org/ .  This program is supported by  Trudy Marshall is a school librarian from Austin Texas and her school in Austin Texas. She started this mission 7 years ago.  Every summer she travels to Uganda to build more libraries and visit past schools to replace their books, fix broken shelves, re-train new staff, etc.