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| Assembly at Kasengejje |
Kasengejje Primary School had some of the most amazing and inspiring teachers and pupils I have ever met. This was where I spent the majority of my time in Uganda. The staff greeted us every morning with smiles and the children, who had so little, were generous, fun and so grateful for every small thing we could do for them in our 3-week placement with their school.
The school had around 300 students crammed into 7 small classrooms. The children sat at old-fashioned wooden desks, made to fit two pupils seated side by side. In this school, however, they sat four or five children.
There was a classroom for each class; Primary Classes 1-7. The children are not allowed move to the next classroom unless they pass their end of year exams. This meant that in the Primary 2 classroom I was teaching children aged between 5-8, all with extremely different academic levels. There was also a child in that class with severe learning disabilities, who was seated at the back of the room and ignored. The class teacher simply had too many other children to teach with no resources apart from chalk and a blackboard to give him the attention he needed. In the Primary 7 classroom the children's ages went up to 16. They were not allowed to move on to Secondary School until they had passed their tests. There were up to 80 children in this room, again crammed into their desks.They had only one Maths book, which the teacher used to copy sums and problems onto the board for the children to take down into copies. The school had next to nothing in terms of resources to help these children to get any sort of an education.
Worse than the lack of resources, however, was the lack of food these children received. Many came to school without a breakfast, and only a few children had a lunch for their 11-hour school day (7am-6pm). Some children who were fortunate enough to be sponsored by the Nurture Africa programme were given a small lunch.
While we were over in Uganda, we decided to put some of our own money together to purchase books and resources for the school. Everyone contributed what they could and the Irish Secondary School teachers and Nurses, who were also volunteering in Nansana, pitched in after hearing how little the school had. We were able to buy 10 Maths and 10 English books for each classroom (and gave a workshop to the class teachers there on how to use the books), volleyball nets and balls, dictionaries for the older classes, and best of all, a massive First Aid kit. The school had a special celebration when they were presented with these resources, and their appreciation was unbelievable, particularly with the older children who recognised that these may help them to move on with their education, maybe to Secondary School.
Here are some photos of myself and children from Primary 2:
The children really enjoyed the playdough we brought over for them and got very creative:
The children were really musical and loved singing songs with us:
While we were in Uganda the school won a soccer match against another local team. The atmosphere at the pitch was unbelievable and the children were so excited to support the boys in Primary 7 on the pitch...
I didn't want to leave!
