A report by Moses Kamya, Headteacher & Director of Mustard Seed Humanist Schools.
Uganda schools reopened on 10th January, and we are now well through the first term. Things are going well. Children and staff are happy to be back.
At first, students were slow to report back. Covid-19 cases were still prevalent in their communities. Families were unable to get their produce to market and had no money for school fees. They couldn’t even buy shoes for their children, let alone school stationery and pens. Additional funds from UHST enabled us to help needy children by giving them uniforms, stationery and the writing and drawing sets they would normally have to provide themselves. 487 of our original 600 children have returned.
An appeal to UHST supporters raised money to buy the neighbouring Muslim primary school, bankrupted by the Covid lockdown. It has now been refurbished and reopened as Mustard Seed Humanist Primary School. The school has already attracted 162 children. Some of the original Muslim children stayed with us, but most are new recruits.
When the term started, we were completely devoid of funds but fortunately UHST supporters came to our rescue. We were able to give our teachers money to return to school and pay for rented accommodation. UHST helped us to buy food stocks, control Covid with masks, hand washing stations and cleaning fluids, give all our girls packs of Afripads (reusable sanitary pads) and buy books for the new national curriculum.
We have worked hard to restore morale among students and staff and are beginning to re-establish the high standards of welfare and education that we had achieved before Covid struck. Our protection measures have been successful. There have been no Covid-19 cases among learners or staff in our schools. However, very many children have suffered high fevers due to malaria. Fortunately, our school nurse has help them with simple tests and medicine.
We are re-establishing popular out-of-school activities. Our Humanist Club has helped to cement our relationship with the community by conducting voluntary cleaning and tidying work in and around the new local health centre. The Director was so pleased with our efforts that he came to thank the children personally.
Football is popular at Mustard Seed. We have teams for boys, girls and staff in both the primary and secondary schools. As a team building exercise, primary and secondary teachers have played each other, staff have played children. Everyone is enjoying being able to participate in sport again. Both girls’ and boys’ football teams have performed well in competition against other local schools, and they are doing well in the regional tournaments, having just reached the semi-finals.
Mustard Seed boys with their coach at the semi-final of the Regional Coca Cola Cup
Mustard Seed School has been in existence for over 16 years, and we are beginning to see the results of our efforts. The school has given many local children a decent general education. Many have moved on to further and higher education and then returned to put their talents to use helping the community from which they came. A quarter of our teachers are home-grown talent. In January, two more former students returned to Mustard Seed as staff members.
The picture left was taken at the Senior 6 leavers party. Hellen Namaganda (left with cap) returned as senior teacher of Agriculture, after gaining a B.Sc. in Agriculture from Kampala University. Jamilla Namulondo (with sunglasses) qualified with a Diploma in Accounting and returned to be the bursar at our new primary school.
Although we feel we are doing well, we know there will always be challenges. Generating enough money to pay our staff is always the number one concern, but we need so much more. A few weeks ago, the roof of our old kitchen blew off in a storm. UHST has just sent money so we can begin work to build a modern kitchen on our new main site that makes more efficient use of firewood.
Temporary cookhouse used after storm destroyed the old one.
With global heating storms are becoming more powerful. Lightning poses a growing threat to both children and buildings. We are making our children lightning aware, but we also need to consider the installation of lightning conductors should funds become available.
The new national curriculum moves towards developing competencies for the information age. We have some computers but need more, so that children can access the wealth of on-line materials, and we need to introduce our primary children to the use of computers in their learning.
We could so easily have gone under in January, but for the extra help we received from Uganda Humanist Schools Trust supporters, and we are grateful to every one of them for saving us. Working together we will surmount the many challenges we face and succeed in our mission of using education to create a better society based on reason, compassion and tolerance.
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
The Mustard Seed Humanist Primary and Secondary Schools are in a very poor area which has become marginal for cultivation due to climate change. Local farmers are now only getting one crop a year, instead of two and even that can fail in a dry year. Family savings have been used up during the covid debacle and they will not have crops to harvest for at least another month.
Families were finding it very difficult to send their children back to school. Many could not afford shoes and they certainly lack money for the other school essentials like uniforms and scholastic materials.
Mustard Seed Children returning to school
After January 10th, when schools reopened, children were drifting back to school very slowly. At the secondary school, which had 600 students before the pandemic, only 140 returned in the first 2 weeks. The new primary school is starting from scratch. Most of the Muslim children who were there before are not being allowed by their parents to join a secular school, though some have. So, a school with a capacity of 400 is operating with 60 children – again others are drifting in slowly.
Moses Kamya, the schools’ Director, approached us for specific help. Moses had the idea that it would help if the school could provide returning and new students with:
– School uniforms
– scholastic materials such as exercise books, pens, mathematical sets, reams of paper, colours, uniforms, calculators,etc.
Providing the requisites to 300 children would cost £2,000. This, he felt, would greatly relieve family finances and enable many more children to return.
UHST funds were stretched but to help us one of our regular supporters agreed to donate the proceeds from his birthday Facebook fundraiser to help meet this challenge.
The success had been almost immediate. Almost 300 extra children have returned to the high school in the past 2 weeks, pushing enrolment towards 450 and there are now 200 in the primary school. The school and children are delighted to have received this really targeted assistance at a critical time.
Mustard Seed School teachers ready for the restart
Posted: March 14, 2022 by Steve Hurd
Mustard Seed School regains its pre-Covid momentum
A report by Moses Kamya, Headteacher & Director of Mustard Seed Humanist Schools.
Uganda schools reopened on 10th January, and we are now well through the first term. Things are going well. Children and staff are happy to be back.
At first, students were slow to report back. Covid-19 cases were still prevalent in their communities. Families were unable to get their produce to market and had no money for school fees. They couldn’t even buy shoes for their children, let alone school stationery and pens. Additional funds from UHST enabled us to help needy children by giving them uniforms, stationery and the writing and drawing sets they would normally have to provide themselves. 487 of our original 600 children have returned.
An appeal to UHST supporters raised money to buy the neighbouring Muslim primary school, bankrupted by the Covid lockdown. It has now been refurbished and reopened as Mustard Seed Humanist Primary School. The school has already attracted 162 children. Some of the original Muslim children stayed with us, but most are new recruits.
When the term started, we were completely devoid of funds but fortunately UHST supporters came to our rescue. We were able to give our teachers money to return to school and pay for rented accommodation. UHST helped us to buy food stocks, control Covid with masks, hand washing stations and cleaning fluids, give all our girls packs of Afripads (reusable sanitary pads) and buy books for the new national curriculum.
We have worked hard to restore morale among students and staff and are beginning to re-establish the high standards of welfare and education that we had achieved before Covid struck. Our protection measures have been successful. There have been no Covid-19 cases among learners or staff in our schools. However, very many children have suffered high fevers due to malaria. Fortunately, our school nurse has help them with simple tests and medicine.
We are re-establishing popular out-of-school activities. Our Humanist Club has helped to cement our relationship with the community by conducting voluntary cleaning and tidying work in and around the new local health centre. The Director was so pleased with our efforts that he came to thank the children personally.
Football is popular at Mustard Seed. We have teams for boys, girls and staff in both the primary and secondary schools. As a team building exercise, primary and secondary teachers have played each other, staff have played children. Everyone is enjoying being able to participate in sport again. Both girls’ and boys’ football teams have performed well in competition against other local schools, and they are doing well in the regional tournaments, having just reached the semi-finals.
Mustard Seed School has been in existence for over 16 years, and we are beginning to see the results of our efforts. The school has given many local children a decent general education. Many have moved on to further and higher education and then returned to put their talents to use helping the community from which they came. A quarter of our teachers are home-grown talent. In January, two more former students returned to Mustard Seed as staff members.
The picture left was taken at the Senior 6 leavers party. Hellen Namaganda (left with cap) returned as senior teacher of Agriculture, after gaining a B.Sc. in Agriculture from Kampala University. Jamilla Namulondo (with sunglasses) qualified with a Diploma in Accounting and returned to be the bursar at our new primary school.
Although we feel we are doing well, we know there will always be challenges. Generating enough money to pay our staff is always the number one concern, but we need so much more. A few weeks ago, the roof of our old kitchen blew off in a storm. UHST has just sent money so we can begin work to build a modern kitchen on our new main site that makes more efficient use of firewood.
With global heating storms are becoming more powerful. Lightning poses a growing threat to both children and buildings. We are making our children lightning aware, but we also need to consider the installation of lightning conductors should funds become available.
The new national curriculum moves towards developing competencies for the information age. We have some computers but need more, so that children can access the wealth of on-line materials, and we need to introduce our primary children to the use of computers in their learning.
We could so easily have gone under in January, but for the extra help we received from Uganda Humanist Schools Trust supporters, and we are grateful to every one of them for saving us. Working together we will surmount the many challenges we face and succeed in our mission of using education to create a better society based on reason, compassion and tolerance.
Posted: February 4, 2022 by Steve Hurd
Kanungu School makes flying start
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
Posted: February 3, 2022 by Steve Hurd
School recruitment crisis averted
The Mustard Seed Humanist Primary and Secondary Schools are in a very poor area which has become marginal for cultivation due to climate change. Local farmers are now only getting one crop a year, instead of two and even that can fail in a dry year. Family savings have been used up during the covid debacle and they will not have crops to harvest for at least another month.
Families were finding it very difficult to send their children back to school. Many could not afford shoes and they certainly lack money for the other school essentials like uniforms and scholastic materials.
After January 10th, when schools reopened, children were drifting back to school very slowly. At the secondary school, which had 600 students before the pandemic, only 140 returned in the first 2 weeks. The new primary school is starting from scratch. Most of the Muslim children who were there before are not being allowed by their parents to join a secular school, though some have. So, a school with a capacity of 400 is operating with 60 children – again others are drifting in slowly.
Moses Kamya, the schools’ Director, approached us for specific help. Moses had the idea that it would help if the school could provide returning and new students with:
– School uniforms
– scholastic materials such as exercise books, pens, mathematical sets, reams of paper, colours, uniforms, calculators,etc.
Providing the requisites to 300 children would cost £2,000. This, he felt, would greatly relieve family finances and enable many more children to return.
UHST funds were stretched but to help us one of our regular supporters agreed to donate the proceeds from his birthday Facebook fundraiser to help meet this challenge.
The success had been almost immediate. Almost 300 extra children have returned to the high school in the past 2 weeks, pushing enrolment towards 450 and there are now 200 in the primary school. The school and children are delighted to have received this really targeted assistance at a critical time.