Education Questions

There are a few questions running through my head these days about education and rural Uganda.
1. How do you increase the capacity of a school when there is such a high teacher turnover rate? For example, not even a year ago my organization sponsored a workshop on lesson planning. Today, only one teacher is left from that workshop.
2. Child-centered learning requires access to materials. Of which many of the schools I work with have very little. Picture dirt floors, wood benches, blackboards, charcoal used as chalk, no books, no electricity, a few pencils to share with the students, and old notebooks. How can you train teachers in child-centered methodology despite their limitations? Even if someone supplies these materials, they do not last long.
3. How can local village schools be grafted into the larger understanding of education, specifically government monitored education?
4. Universal Primary Education is fabulous. I am complete supporter. However, it does not reach the poorest. You still have to pay for school fees, books, top-up teacher salaries and uniforms, to name only a few things. Besides a never-ending dependency of child-sponsorship, how can these children get to school?
5. How can girls who have reached puberty stay in school and not leave for one week every month?
6. How can you train children in agriculture plus the normal academic subjects? Once a child is educated through secondary (high) school, the likelihood of them returning to their farming roots is very small. The job, in their eyes, is beneath them. Yet there are few jobs outside of farming.
7. How do you increase the quality of education so that the information children receive will help them in the long-run?

If anyone has any answers, let me know.

School Competition

This past week, I had the honor of being a judge for a school competition. If you have ever seen the movie War Dance, it was very similar. It is the year-end celebration and competition of songs, poems, traditional dancing, skits, instruments, and teaching of lessons.

It was incredible to watch, with a front seat, the children performing. As time progressed, there was probably two-hundred to three-hundred people surrounding the area, watching their children. The skill these children have is incredible and I feel honored to be apart of it. Unfortunately, it is difficult to describe the experience. So below are pictures that will help you get the idea of the event!



The day started out with welcome songs and dances from the children.



One child is sporting her American pride with her foot wear.





Cold drinks were provided for the crowd.


Drums were beaten for the dances.





And the children focused intently on the various competitions.


Some dressed up in costume and performed skits based on traditional stories.


Finally, the evening ended with this little man beating the drum and everyone dancing!