Focus on Community Schools

This past week I walked through the sugar cane fields, past the coffee trees, and through the leaves of past seasons. I moved from home to home, recruiting people to come and share their opinions of the community school in the village. At each home, I was warmly welcomed and the many greetings were paced back and forth.


Grandma of a few of the children who attend the community school.

A few days later, I found these friendly faces surrounding me as they shared their passion for their children and the education in which they receive. They told me they want their children to be doctors, lawyers, teachers, and tour guides. Never once did farming make the list of professions. They told me that they don’t send their young children to the government UPE (universal primary education) School because it was too dangerous for them to cross the main highway (which is true, many children are killed every year by cars because they failed to step out of the way) and that the teachers only cared about a select few. They told me that at the very least, they want their children to know how to read and write in Lusoga and English and to be able to calculate math problems.



This week, the faces of twenty men and women, mostly grandparents who are looking after their children’s children, shown brightly. They are proud of their children, proud that they have a school in the community that meets their needs.

Community schools are common in Sub-Saharan Africa. They meet in churches, mosques, under mango trees and in mud huts. The community recruits the teachers, figures out how to feed their children, and pay the salary. As the international community continues to advocate for UPE, communities do the same- but in a different manner. They actually make it work.