A less belated (but long) blog post

So while most of our blog posts have been about fun and games (relatively) I figured I would write a post about the actual work we are doing. Because surprisingly we are actually doing work! Who would have thunk it to be true!

Life was very busy settling into to our house, but that was because we actively filled our day with little projects here or there. Now with both Stacey and myself teaching we are finding things much more hectic. I will start with what I know best and tell you about life in St. Theresa's.

The history of the school is like this, it was founded in the 1930's or 40's just like everything else in this colonial complex. The school served the needs of the small rural population just outside of the small trading center. Initially things were developed near the train depot (Got to love the British, trying to put trains in Africa. Africa really showed them.) which is a kilometer from the college/our house. Now most things are built up along the highway connecting Mbale and Soroti with the stops of Bukedea and Kumi in between. The school was small, but able to handle the community it served. After colonialism ended and Uganda struggled through multiple political coups, two things happened. The population of Uganda started to grow rapidly and AIDS started to take serious effect. While Uganda has been the poster child of how to address AIDS in Africa, its ideas and perceptions about family raising also suffered. Uganda still has many AIDS victims and orphans as well as understandable fears of a relapse into more difficult times, but overall has handled things very well. With the amount of death occurring in families many produced large amounts of kids. The decrease in AIDS and other child mortality factors led to a baby boom in Uganda which puts it in its current state. The population has essentially doubled in a very short time with 50% of the population being under the age of 15. The increase in children led the government to keep pushing proactive things and Universal Primary Education was hatched. While this government has done many questionable things (and really which one hasn't?) I am going to focus a little more on the positives. Uganda saw the importance of educating children and set up government schools where the tuition would be covered which is approximately 40,000 shillings a term.

This resulted in schools being flooded with students. The idea had wonderful intentions and the batch of children it applied to from P1 is just making its way through secondary school, the jury is still out on how much it has helped the country with the strain it has put on the education system. Universal Primary Education was promptly followed by Universal Secondary Education making tuition free for all pre-college education. So, sorry for the history lesson, but that all leads us back to St. Theresa's. In 2007 the school had a student body of 140. They had a dorm and a small block of classrooms as well as a nice administration block. There wasn't much there and it wasn't preforming that well. USE hit and the population swell hit the rural schools hard because families are still popping out 10+ kids each. Today the student body is at 740 with 160 of those being boarders. Their dorm is too small so girls sleep in one of the rooms in the administration block. The teachers were moved into the library and the Head Teacher, Deputy Head Teacher and Bursar all share an office. There are three lab rooms, but each is a permanent classroom because everything is full. The S5 class actually has a store room in which to hold their classes. The school started a new block of classrooms, but the government told them they would take over building them and they remain half finished. The S1 students are all in one room, while the other classes are broken into two streams each.

St. Theresa's has started to do some things to address the student surge. Just before I arrived they started work on a new dorm for the boarding girls. The idea is most girls will move there and open up one or two rooms in the process. That will open up the old staff room for me to set up a computer lab. There isn't much use for a library, the lack of books, suspicion of students stealing everything that isn't nailed down (which is partially true) and the lack of interest most students have of studying alleviates the necessity. The school was donated 10 computers a few years ago and initially had them set up, but as the space got to small they returned to boxes and have been sitting for at least two years. They have also been putting more pressure on the ministry and have been rounding up local support for school improvements.

So where do I come in? I am currently watching, keeping my eyes and ears open, opening my mouth occasionally (sometimes for the better, other times not so much), learning as much as I can about my school and students, and teaching S1 and S2 students chemistry and biology. I have 5 double class periods (80 minutes each) a week. It is a small load, but with the unfamiliarity of the curriculum and the other events at school it is nice. I am a part of the science department so I have been sitting in on staff meeting (an adventure in itself), looking at the labs, and voicing input here and there. I am also charged with helping establish the computers in the school. Already there is a computer in the staff room and I have assisted in lessons for teachers which typically centers around formating things in Microsoft Word. I spend a lot of the day hanging around the school, talking with teachers and getting a feel for things.

In every school there is a delicate balance. The biggest problem is that Ugandan teachers are spoiled. If anyone thinks that being a teacher in the US is the easiest job ever, and you are a complete idiot if you do, you will be sorely mistaken once I drop a little knowledge. Ugandan teachers come in two forms, certified teachers and uncertified teachers. Certified Teachers are teachers which have been approved by the Ministry of Education and are assigned to posts by the ministry. They are also paid by the central government. That means they have one of the most consistent paychecks in the country as well as little or no loyalty to the school at which they work. They literally could be moved across the country at the ministry's whim so many people keep their family in one place and travel far to work so if they get transferred they don't uproot each time. That part of their life is difficult, but it is completely offset by how the system works in their favor. In the school they are assigned they teach 16 doubles a week to be considered full time. Most teachers condense these over two or three days which allows them to pick up days at other schools as uncertified teachers. Uncertified teachers are teachers who either haven't been picked up by the ministry (even though there are huge teacher shortages) or teachers who have ministry appointments, but want to fill holes in other schools staffs. These teachers are paid by the school and while their pay is less, the incentive is higher. Many do it at schools near where their family is so they may stay at home more than half the week. Another thing is how the schools act. Salaries are paid at the end of each month, so schools organize a stipend for each of their teachers in the middle of the month to help get them through till payday. So most teachers get a government salary, a second school income, and a bonus in the middle of each month from two different schools.

While this doesn't seem ridiculous, the attitudes most teachers have is what takes the cake. There is ALWAYS a reason not to give your lesson. Absenteeism is rampant in this country and since the central government is in control at the government schools there is usually little the school can do about it. Also, many times the administration is just as bad as the teachers and since everyone gets their paycheck at the end of the month, why rock the boat? My school is also a small and poor one. They charge extra fees besides tuition, but they don't have a lot of capital. My teachers constantly are complaining about not having enough resources. The truth is they have plenty of resources, just most of them are the wrong ones. They rant about teaching aids, but they only have ideas for ones that can be used once a school year and left on a shelf the entire rest of the time. They are huge on token pieces here, oh look at the nice shinny piece of instrumentation, no it has never been used, but it shows how good our school is. Or, yes we have a library, all the books are under lock and key so they are safe and no one is allowed to enter there ever so the 500 books are never read. Besides getting more supplies for the S4 practical lessons which prepare them for the UNEB exam, I have never heard a good idea of a teaching aid, but I have heard almost every teacher exclaim they cannot do their job properly without them. The structure of life at the school is also a reason lessons are missed. Teachers cannot teach a lesson until they have gotten their fill from break tea or lunch which always runs late. They will also leave problem sets on the board or diagrams for the students and call that a lesson and sometimes they will just hand their notes or book to a student had have them read it for the rest of the class to transcribe while they remain in the staff room.

Obviously not all teachers are like that, but it is much more prevalent than it should be. Other acceptable excuses for not teaching are but not limited to; death in the family, sick child, it rained (more legit than one would initially think), teacher is sick, transport is bad, just arrived late, didn't have the right materials, tea was late, lunch was late, the weather looked like it could turn, their dog died, they didn't feel like teaching, they had to discipline students instead, the lab assistant wasn't there, there is a school program which interfered with one lesson so to keep the at the same place they will skip the other as well, they needed to short call, they haven't been paid (which is probably false), they don't want to work at the school they were assigned to, or they don't agree with how the timetable is arranged.

So my goal at this school will be addressing teacher attitudes, more specifically in the science department. I have already started by introducing demonstrations into my lessons occasionally, which hadn't been done for a while because “resources weren't enough” or “our lab assistant hasn't been at work.” Ultimately they didn't want to improvise and clean their own glassware. My students hadn't even seen litmus or other indicators and how they worked, ever. It will be a long process (most likely longer than this post), but it is where I think there can be the longest and largest impact. I care about the students (or at least try on the days they are good), but I can only inspire a small group over a short time, the teachers I work will will teach for many years and spread a little influence of mine over a much larger crowd.

Think about it as a Reganomics, a trickle down effect of inspiration rather than wealth.