Katumba shows resilience in the face of adversity
This week Katumba Parents’ Humanist Primary School, close to the Congo border, reopened to its top Primary 7 class. The children begin two terms of intensive study to prepare them for their Primary Leaving Examination, which has been moved from the end of this school year in November to April, 2021. Passing PLE makes a […]
Isaac Newton School’s Covid-19 Challenge
Back in February, Isaac Newton School was doing well. It enrolled 600 students for the new school year – 400 boarders and 200 day-students. The O-level exam results, published the same month, placed the school 143rd out of 4,123 schools in the country. Results were particularly good in Science subjects. A month later, the school […]
A new start for Kanungu
Kanungu is in a hilly area in the west of Uganda. It borders the Congo and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, home of the mountain gorillas. The religious cult murder of 780 local men, women and children in 2000 caused many in the area to reject organised religion. One of these was the young Robert Magara who, […]
Meeting the Covid-19 Challenge to the Humanist Schools
The Uganda Government made a robust response to Covid. When the first cases arrived on a flight from Dubai, passengers were traced and isolated. Everyone in this first group recovered from the infection. The government started a national lock-down in April. Shops, markets, educational institutions and public transport were closed. Many people in Uganda lost […]
UHST Report to September 2020
The latest report from Uganda Humanist Schools Trust has been published: https://ugandahumanistschoolstrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/20-Chairs-Report-to-Sept-2020.pdf It reiterates two key long-term goals for the organisation and for the Humanist Schools in Uganda: Access to High Standards of Education and Welfare within a Liberal, Humanist Ethos To achieve this we need to continue providing scholarships to enable bright children from […]
Isaac Newton High School succeeds against the odds
Uganda Humanist Schools Trust has just published an update report on the past year of progress at Isaac Newton School, Katera, Uganda. Despite the setbacks brought by the Covid Pandemic, the report is truly inspiring. Update on Isaac Newton High School For a school in a poor rural area, this year’s exam results were outstanding. […]
The Covid Crisis and the Humanist Schools in Uganda
Covid has hit schools in Uganda very hard. The virus was brought into Uganda with a plane load of passengers from Dubai in mid-March. Most of those passengers were quarantined and the country went into lock-down. All schools were instructed to close before the first term ended in March, with the expectation that they would […]
Education is Transforming Uganda
In order to understand the context in which the small but growing number of Humanist Schools in Uganda are working, we need an overview of the education system. The most reliable source of information is the National Census of 2014, the results of which were published in 2017. The broad picture will not have changed […]
Coronavirus closes Humanist Schools in Uganda
Coronavirus was brought to Uganda a few days ago with passengers alighting from a flight from Dubai. There are now, on 27 May, 18 confirmed cases – all related in some way to the flight arrivals. Uganda is used to dealing with epidemics. In recent years it has had to cope with outbreaks of HIV/AIDS, […]
Humanist Schools give young people a lifeline to a better future
The 2019 Uganda Certificate in Education (O-Level) results for the Humanist Schools, published recently, showed a further improvement on the previous year. Improving educational standards at Isaac Newton and Mustard Seed Schools see them rising up the school league tables. The two schools are giving more and more young people from poor backgrounds the life […]