Schools and more
A few days ago Adam and I when in an UN range rover to observe the quality of the primary schools in an IDP camp in Opit (so you can bust out a map if you really desire…it is still in the Gulu district, east side). These IDP camps are a community of people that have been displaced because of the war. In this particular camp there were roughly around 12,000 people living in a very small proximity. Naturally with that many people there are going to be a lot of kids. Adam and I evaluated two primary schools that were 200 yards from each other. The first school was of a displacement group. Walking into the first classroom was shocking to say the least. The floor looked like a street with pot holes that haven’t been fixed in years. The chalkboard looked like it had been through a million lesson plans before today. Desks for the most part were non-existent, and the roof of one of the buildings looked like it was raided by a German bomb from WW1. 
The excitement of the children upon entering the classroom was unbelievable considering the conditions of which they were learning in.
Our first task when entering the classrooms was to count how many boys and girls that were in each class, and if a teacher was in there teaching, which at the sound of it may be a bit ridicules but about half of the time the classroom had no teacher at all. Upon finishing counting of all the students in the school and all the teachers teaching, there was roughly a 100:1 ratio students per teacher in the first school.
The students were very respectful of Adam and I, when one of us would greet the class and inform them of our intentions the class would stand in unity and say, “Good morning, sir. Welcome, how are you?” every class greeted us in this manner. Though it would be presumptuous to classify all, but this type of respect was nonexistence in primary school back in the states when thinking back to my youth.
We would then meet with the school’s headmaster to go over scholastic supplies, desks, chairs, and the sort to see what was needed. Next came finances, to which I hear is very shady because Uganda is so corrupt that there have been reported cases of headmasters stealing all the money funded by the government for the schools. Bottom line was that the school was giver about 600,000 schillings to pay for the materials, teacher salaries, etc for the year. 600,000 schillings is roughly 380 dollars U.S., and with over 800+ kids at the school you can do the math at how much each kis costs. Think of it this way, the cost of a Dr. Grip pen, as nice as they are, would take care of almost 5-6 kids for the entire school year.
The second school that we visited was a lot nicer because it was the hosting school, thus meaning it was there originally and had already had all the nice things, nice for Uganda at least, that the IDP schools didn’t have. The buildings were in order, at least they had roofs, though the student ratio per teacher was still about 100:1.
The next day we played soccer with the locals and got worked, but after coming home later i wasn’t feeling so good. The bad feeling progressively got worse deeper into the night…finally when I basically couldn’t move anymore I was rushed to the hospital and the doctor confirmed that I had malaria (thanks a lot anti-malaria pills for nothing). Basically it felt like the flu x 10. When going to the clinic I had Adam help me out the door because I had the hardest time walking. Doctor gave me some pills, a lot actually, and that took care of the malaria quickly, though I still feel a bit crappy today, nothing compared to what I was feeling last night. So that is all I have to report right now
Cheers,
Scott
The excitement of the children upon entering the classroom was unbelievable considering the conditions of which they were learning in.Our first task when entering the classrooms was to count how many boys and girls that were in each class, and if a teacher was in there teaching, which at the sound of it may be a bit ridicules but about half of the time the classroom had no teacher at all. Upon finishing counting of all the students in the school and all the teachers teaching, there was roughly a 100:1 ratio students per teacher in the first school.
The students were very respectful of Adam and I, when one of us would greet the class and inform them of our intentions the class would stand in unity and say, “Good morning, sir. Welcome, how are you?” every class greeted us in this manner. Though it would be presumptuous to classify all, but this type of respect was nonexistence in primary school back in the states when thinking back to my youth.
We would then meet with the school’s headmaster to go over scholastic supplies, desks, chairs, and the sort to see what was needed. Next came finances, to which I hear is very shady because Uganda is so corrupt that there have been reported cases of headmasters stealing all the money funded by the government for the schools. Bottom line was that the school was giver about 600,000 schillings to pay for the materials, teacher salaries, etc for the year. 600,000 schillings is roughly 380 dollars U.S., and with over 800+ kids at the school you can do the math at how much each kis costs. Think of it this way, the cost of a Dr. Grip pen, as nice as they are, would take care of almost 5-6 kids for the entire school year.
The second school that we visited was a lot nicer because it was the hosting school, thus meaning it was there originally and had already had all the nice things, nice for Uganda at least, that the IDP schools didn’t have. The buildings were in order, at least they had roofs, though the student ratio per teacher was still about 100:1.
The next day we played soccer with the locals and got worked, but after coming home later i wasn’t feeling so good. The bad feeling progressively got worse deeper into the night…finally when I basically couldn’t move anymore I was rushed to the hospital and the doctor confirmed that I had malaria (thanks a lot anti-malaria pills for nothing). Basically it felt like the flu x 10. When going to the clinic I had Adam help me out the door because I had the hardest time walking. Doctor gave me some pills, a lot actually, and that took care of the malaria quickly, though I still feel a bit crappy today, nothing compared to what I was feeling last night. So that is all I have to report right now
Cheers,
Scott
posted by Scott at 2:46 AM
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