"Nothing is good when better is possible"

Last Friday was our first visit to a Ugandan school, and it was absolutely incredible. We visited a Primary school in Uganda that was the largest school in the country, holding approximately 3,000 students. Children begin their schooling as early as two-years of age, and attend Nursery school until they are five. Then, they take an examination at the end of Nursery school (holding pencils and paper to make graded marks at age five!) and go on to Primary School until they are eleven or twelve. At the end of each term, students take examinations that determine their rank and status in their particular class. The students really value their position and are extremely competitive to be the best in the class – hence the title of this blog post, a quote given to us by our supervisor, Enoch, to explain the mentality of children at school. Enoch told us that many students feel pressure from their parents to be at the top and get good grades because then they can continue their schooling and hopefully receive a high-paying job. Parents also pay quite a bit of money for their children to attend schools, and children will do anything so as not to let their parents down.

For these reasons and for many other reasons embedded in Ugandan culture, schools are examination-centered and teacher-centered. Rarely will you find a teacher who encourages students to be independent thinkers and creative problem-solvers; students totally rely on the teachers to tell them the right answers, and they always take the teacher's perspective because they believe that is always correct. The teachers have the responsibility to provide the students with answers that will lead the students to score well on their exams, and since the students care so much about the exams they never question what the teacher tells them.

At this particular school, there were approximately 60-70 students in a classroom, and never in my life have I seen students who are so obedient and disciplined. We began by touring the school with the Head Teacher (principal), and whenever he walked into a room the students would all stand and say, in unison, "GOOD MORNING TEACHER (his name)." He would then say something like, "Good morning students! How are you today?" and they would respond, again in unison, "WE ARE ALRIGHT THANK YOU." Then he usually asked them if they could guess who we were. One little boy yelled out, "They are Indians!" We were the first people from the United States to visit the school and the children's reactions were priceless.

I observed a Primary 4 level class (children ages 9-10), and at this point in the day the children were having their Religious studies class. This class read a passage from the Bible, but there were only 10 or so Bibles and over 60 kids, so the teacher had half of them stand up and read while the other half listened and then she would switch. Then, she asked the students questions after the story. She would call on one student to respond, and the student must respond in a complete sentence. Then, the rest of the class repeats word-for-word what the child had said.She was really a wonderful teacher and did wonders to keep all children engaged in the reading and responding.  In this picture, the children are copying questions about the story into their notebooks and then responding to the questions with the answers.

Overall, though, what I noticed the most was that kids are kids – no matter where you are in the world. Sure these children were phenomenally focused on their studies and incredibly disciplined, but I still saw their smiles, their playfulness, and their youthfulness in the classroom and during their free time.

Tomorrow I begin my first day at my new school!  Hope you all are enjoying the summer and possibly the end of your school year...mine is just beginning!