|
Little Big Africa began working with Bukhadala
Primary School in 2007. In July and August 2007, the school hosted
six LBA volunteers from Oxford University student group, ODA, who
constructed a 10,000 litre water tank on the school premises and
taught about Hygiene and Sanitation to the school pupils and
teachers. Bukhadala Primary School has since been provided with both
stationery and musical instruments through LBA which were donated by
Marlwood Secondary School.
The School
Bukhadala Primary School is located in Butiru Sub County in Manafwa
District. Out of 43 schools in the project area, it is only one of 6
schools with a female Headteacher.
Bukhadala Primary School was founded in 1944 and became a Government
school, receiving financial support from the Government, in 1961. It
is named after Wakhatala who provided the initial land for the
school.
Pupils & Teachers
Bukhadala Primary School has 1302 pupils, 669 boys and 633 pupils.
The pupils are divided into two streams for each of the classes from
P2 to P7 and three streams for P1, the first year of Primary school.
The school has 16 staff, 14 of who are teachers (including the
Headmistress who teaches English) and two others who work in the
school. However, according to the pupil enrolment numbers, the
school should have 24 teachers, nearly double the number of teachers
currently allocated to the school.
Some of the teachers come from great distances to the school, with
one travelling 15kms each way (on a bicycle) to teach. Many teachers
are dedicated to their work but are unable to get transfers to
schools nearer to their homes. This means teachers may be forced to
arrive late, as well as tired, to school. The school has no staff
accommodation which would help solve this problem.
Absences
Despite a high number of pupils registered, attendance can fluctuate
greatly. In August, as it is onion planting season, which is common
in the area, attendance falls as low as 800 pupils only. Other
reasons for pupils not attending school are: the parents’ lack of
motivation or insistence on their children attending school, often
as a result of parents not having attended school themselves;
children being forced to stay home and look after younger siblings;
and self-employment such as selling fruit and vegetables like
tomatoes or riding a bodaboda (a bicycle taxi) for income.
The Headmistress insists that all pupils have at least one exercise
book to write their work in (even if it is one book for all
subjects). Pupils without this exercise book are not allowed to
attend school as without the exercise book, the Headmistress feels a
child cannot learn properly and a teacher cannot check on the
progress of a child. This means some pupils without an exercise book
can miss school whilst they find money for an exercise book.
Some girls are also forced to drop out of school due to early
marriages being arranged for them. Last year, six girls dropped out
of the school for this reason, and this term alone (lasting two
months), three girls have already dropped out to get married.
Classrooms
The school has 4 completed permanent classrooms, 4 uncompleted
permanent classrooms (which the school is still fundraising for) and
4 semi-permanent classrooms. However, sometimes a teacher is
required to teach more than one stream at once and therefore holds
the class under a tree due to lack of space in the classrooms. The
Headteacher’s office is located in a store room and the staff room
is under a mango tree located in the middle of the school compound.
The school is lucky enough to have enough furniture for every pupil,
including specially made small desks and chairs for the youngest
pupils in P1 and P2 (the first years of Primary School).
Unfortunately, due to the small size of the classrooms, the pupils
sit on chairs but the desks are unable to fit into the classroom as
well, so pupils write from their laps.
The school has five latrine stances (cubicles) which are divided
into three for the girls and 2 for the boys, and a urinal for the
boys. This means approximately 211 girls use each stance. There are
also two stances for teachers.
Meals
The lack of a midday meal at school can increase pupil absence so
the school tries to ensure a daily meal of porridge is provided for
pupils. Every term, parents are asked to provide 2 containers of
maize [approximately 4kg of maize – similar to dried corn-on-the-cob
kernels] as well as 1,000 Uganda shillings (approximately £0.30) for
grinding the maize into powder, and paying the cook. This food
however often runs out before the end of term, and so it is common
in the last few weeks of term for pupils not to be fed at school.
Pupils are also asked to carry a piece of firewood to school when
firewood is needed for cooking. Some of the parents complain about
this contribution as they have been told by the Government that
schooling should be free under the Universal Primary Education
programme, but as the school often does not receive funding from the
Government, it is unable to consider providing meals for pupils.
Teachers usually eat posho (maize meal) and beans for lunch which
they each make a financial contribution towards.
Finances
Every year, a school expects to receive 4,000 Uganda shillings
(approximately £1.30) per pupil, from the Government. This should be
distributed in 9 instalments, one for every month the school is open
in the calendar year. However, in 2008, Headteachers were told by
Manafwa District that they would only be receiving 3,000 Uganda
shillings (less than £1) per pupil as the District was deducting
1,000 per pupil for the provision of supplementary readers and for
monitoring purposes.
Last term (February to April), the school received 315,000 Uganda
Shillings (approximately £100) and this term (May to August) the
school has received 573,000 Uganda shillings (approximately £185).
Even with the District deducting 1,000/= of what the Government
pledged schools, the school still should have received at least five
of the nine months worth of the total amount of 3,906,000
(approximately £1,260), which comes to 2,170,000 (approximately
£700), making an outstanding balance of 1,282,000 (approximately
£414) which the school has not yet received.
Despite this, the school is obliged to financially contribute to
District and National Educational activities, with the District
demanding money which they know the schools have not yet received.
Many people believe this lack of cashflow has been the result of the
introduction of Universal Secondary Education in 2007 and the
diversion of Primary Education funds to Secondary Education, as
prior to this, although UPE money was small, it still came in on
time.
The result of this is that Headteachers are forced to use their own
money for the running of the school, in the hope that it can be
reimbursed when (or if) the funds come through.
Academic Results
In 2007 (the school year closes in November) Bukhadala Primary
School had 48 pupils in P7 who were registered for the UPE (end of
Primary School) exams. Of this number, 45 sat the exams. The school
did not have any candidates scoring Division One (the top Grade
bracket) but had 21 in Division Two, 15 in Division Three, 6 in
Division Four and 3 who did not pass. One reason the pupils are not
able to pass well is that due to the lack of funds, the school is
unable to produce mock examination papers. All exams prior to this
are written on the blackboard for pupils to undertake, and therefore
the examination paper is a very unfamiliar concept to pupils at
examination time.
Income Generating
The Headmistress planted a forest of 200 trees as an income
generating activity for the school but the area surrounding the
school is rocky so some of the trees did not grow well, and others
were stolen by the school neighbours, leaving only 15 seedlings
remaining. She does not plan to give up, however, and hopes to plant
more seedlings in the near future.
She also initiated a small garden for the teachers to grow
vegetables. A local councillor gave the teachers seeds but the
ploughing of the land occurred very late as there was no funding for
hiring a plough and so some of the seeds failed to germinate. They
plan to continue with it in the next planting season.
|
