A teacher’s account of the first WTS trip
UGANDA 2007
Little or no resources, overcrowding in classrooms, teachers still working for qualifications – it could have been a recipe for disaster but it wasn’t. I was surprised, impressed and humbled by the experience of working alongside and with the teachers at Buhoma Community School. All the teachers are so enthusiastic when teaching and their enthusiasm is infectious as all the pupils are eager to learn. Their style of teaching seemed to be more formal, the teachers telling pupils facts, rather than interacting with them. In Nursery and Primary 1 classes they learnt by rote, saying facts repeatedly. The teachers would get pupils to repeat information back to them as a class by asking a question, the answer being shouted back en masse! There was lots of praise for correct answers by the class by applauding and shouting, “ good, good, very, very good”.PE lessons were very interesting as there was a great deal of singing and dancing as there were no resources. We introduced team games which proved to be a great success as competitive spirit began to emerge between the teams.
Maths lessons started by the pupils being asked to collect stones to use for counting – some pupils being more enthusiastic than others, bringing in large stones!
Work had to be set on the chalk board and was marked immediately on completion, the pupil kneeling at the feet of the teacher. It became apparent that pupils were working at different levels within the class, so we suggested that work could be differentiated according to need, allowing the teacher to work with the lower group of children.
In the Nursery group I split the class up into smaller groups, giving each group a different activity connected with the maths lesson. The teacher could see that the children were still learning, but independently. A boy proved this by using a peg board to make all his numbers independently.
There seemed to be a lack of intuition in some cases, the teachers being needed to be shown alternative ways of teaching. The easiest way to do this was to show them the resources we had brought out with us and different ways to use them.
The lack of PE resources developed into a sewing lesson for the girls in school. We bought fabric, dried beans, thread and needles and set up a production line making bean bags for the school. It all seemed very surreal sitting in the African sun, surrounded by pupils sewing. There was a queue wanting to sew and they didn’t want to stop. One of the teachers then said that they had been told the uses of bean bags in PE at college! So hopefully they will start to be used.
Again the lack of resources was brought home in lessons when the pupils used slates to do their sums, bringing the slates up to be marked. Discipline was very good in the school. If there was any bad behaviour, the whole school was assembled and the pupil was reprimanded in front of everyone!!
I found that both pupils and staff were very eager to learn about life in the UK, amazed by things that we take for granted, such as having a car.
The pupils have good pastoral care. All pupils have a porridge-like drink made from ugali at break time, as most pupils would not have had breakfast before walking to school. A lunch is also provided of posho and beans which was very filling.
The Nursery classes were made to sleep in the afternoon, this was to ensure that they wouldn’t be tired and sleep when they returned home, thus missing the evening meal.
There was a good emphasis on personal hygiene. This came to light when every Thursday the Pygmy children were made to have a good wash and wash their clothes, ensuring that at least once a week they were clean and had clean uniform.
The whole experience of working at a school in Uganda was amazing and brought home how lucky we are to have the education system we have in the UK. Buhoma Community Primary School still has a long way to go but hopefully by going out there for a short time we have helped them on their way.
