Opening the doors of a new school is an anxious time. This is especially so for schools in Uganda, which are mainly privately run – and even more so for Humanist schools opening amid communities where many people have strong religious ties. Over the past two years, UHST has provided funds to ensure that the school has all the classrooms and other essentials it needs: toilets, water, electricity, kitchen and staffrooms. We have also ensured that the site has a protective fence and has gardens and trees to make it a pleasant place to work and learn. Having made the investment, we rely upon the community to support the school by entrusting their children and paying fees. The initial signs at Kanungu are that the school has strong community support, and it is making a very promising start.
Kanungu children learning in the open air
Here is a report of progress from Robert Magara, the school’s Director:
“I kindly report to you that the school has recruited children to all classes from nursery to primary six, Next year our current primary six students will form a P7 class of children preparing for their Primary Leaving Examination.
Kanungu School has 11 well qualified teachers, 2 askaris (security guards) and 2 cooks.
5 Teachers who come from afar stay in houses with rents paid by school.
6 Teachers come from within the community near the school.
They all earn the same salaries apart from the head teacher, director of studies, and deputy head teacher who earn more.
Teachers of primary three, primary four, primary five and primary six carry out remedial teaching at weekends to enable children to catch up on work they missed during the long covid closure. For this extra work the teachers receive an extra 15,000 shillings (£3.20) each week. Our major challenge is to meet the monthly salary bill, which comes to 6,700,000 shillings (£1,440). As our community is poor and has no savings after the Covid lockdowns, total income from local fees falls well short of what we need to cover our costs. For as well as salaries we need to find money for: school meals, learning equipment, books and educational toys and games.
We are recruiting well and already have 120 children in the school. This is a great start.
There are 22 children in our nursery, 15 in P1, 17 in P2, 18 in P3, 11 in P4, 15 in P5 and 22 in P6.
Total number of Boys 54
Total number of Girls 66
We expect enrolment to grow as people realise that we have a well run, well resourced school with high standards of education and welfare. We intend our school to stand out as a happy school.
There are parents who will not send their children to the school, because they prefer schools with boarding facilities. This is something we may need to consider in the longer term but for the moment we will see how things go as a day school.
Our main immediate challenges are to have enough money to keep going. We also must meet requirements identified by school inspectors. At the moment they are putting us under pressure to have a dining room, as at present the children eat while sitting on the school lawns.”
Robert Magara, Director, Kanungu Humanist Primary School
Kanungu School makes flying start
Posted: February 4, 2022 by Steve Hurd
Opening the doors of a new school is an anxious time. This is especially so for schools in Uganda, which are mainly privately run – and even more so for Humanist schools opening amid communities where many people have strong religious ties. Over the past two years, UHST has provided funds to ensure that the school has all the classrooms and other essentials it needs: toilets, water, electricity, kitchen and staffrooms. We have also ensured that the site has a protective fence and has gardens and trees to make it a pleasant place to work and learn. Having made the investment, we rely upon the community to support the school by entrusting their children and paying fees. The initial signs at Kanungu are that the school has strong community support, and it is making a very promising start.
Here is a report of progress from Robert Magara, the school’s Director:
“I kindly report to you that the school has recruited children to all classes from nursery to primary six, Next year our current primary six students will form a P7 class of children preparing for their Primary Leaving Examination.
Kanungu School has 11 well qualified teachers, 2 askaris (security guards) and 2 cooks.
5 Teachers who come from afar stay in houses with rents paid by school.
6 Teachers come from within the community near the school.
They all earn the same salaries apart from the head teacher, director of studies, and deputy head teacher who earn more.
Teachers of primary three, primary four, primary five and primary six carry out remedial teaching at weekends to enable children to catch up on work they missed during the long covid closure. For this extra work the teachers receive an extra 15,000 shillings (£3.20) each week. Our major challenge is to meet the monthly salary bill, which comes to 6,700,000 shillings (£1,440). As our community is poor and has no savings after the Covid lockdowns, total income from local fees falls well short of what we need to cover our costs. For as well as salaries we need to find money for: school meals, learning equipment, books and educational toys and games.
We are recruiting well and already have 120 children in the school. This is a great start.
There are 22 children in our nursery, 15 in P1, 17 in P2, 18 in P3, 11 in P4, 15 in P5 and 22 in P6.
Total number of Boys 54
Total number of Girls 66
We expect enrolment to grow as people realise that we have a well run, well resourced school with high standards of education and welfare. We intend our school to stand out as a happy school.
There are parents who will not send their children to the school, because they prefer schools with boarding facilities. This is something we may need to consider in the longer term but for the moment we will see how things go as a day school.
Our main immediate challenges are to have enough money to keep going. We also must meet requirements identified by school inspectors. At the moment they are putting us under pressure to have a dining room, as at present the children eat while sitting on the school lawns.”
Robert Magara, Director, Kanungu Humanist Primary School
Category: News