Paying teachers’ salaries and other staff costs is the main cost of running the Humanist schools in Uganda. And yet, the fees paid by local parents are generally insufficient to provide decent levels of remuneration for teachers, some of whom, in the more remote primary schools, earn little more than $2 a day. Scholarship payments made by UHST supporters make a substantial contribution towards staffing costs for the Humanist secondary schools. Families and local communities understand that we cannot help all children but are happy that they are awarded to talented students who gain a Grade 1 in their Primary Leaving Certificate and deserve financial help because they are double orphans, have a struggling single parent or other significant challenge.
However, scholarships do not work well in Humanist Primary Schools. These schools tend to be in areas of uniform poverty, where all families struggle as subsistence farmers. Furthermore, there are no criteria for grading young children on the basis of ability. Schools that give help with school fees have to find other ways to justify this. In the early days of Katumba Parents Humanist Primary School this was relatively easy. The children that were helped were those whose fathers had been killed in the 2016 insurrection. The whole community was happy for those children to be helped. However, where there is no such clear criterion for the allocation of a scholarship, other parents tend to feel a sense of unfairness when some children are, apparently arbitrarily, awarded scholarships, while a majority of children are denied them. In these circumstances scholarships can be counter-productive as they lead to a growth in fee arrears by the parents of non-scholarship children.
Our new Teacher & Child Appeal is designed to avoid these problems by funding the costs of teachers directly. If there is a good response to the appeal, we will be able to make a big contribution to the staffing bill. This will enable schools to keep down school fees, which will benefit all families and children, rather than a select few who might have received scholarships. Regular monthly donations from the Teacher-Child Appeal will be used partly to improve pay and conditions for hard-working teachers and partly to provide confidential and discretionary help to those striving children who are struggling to pay school fees.
Successful girl scouts winning the District Scouting Competition
In his latest Report on Mustard Seed Schools, Moses Kamya describes an increasingly self-confident school that is getting back into its stride after the shock of Covid. Academic results are good at all levels, from the Primary Leaving Examination through Uganda Certificate in Education at both Ordinary and Advanced level. Student welfare has been improved by refurbishing the sub-standard boys’ dormitory and building an efficient wood-burning cook house, so meal times have become more predictable.
Moses reports a vibrant school life for the children. The boys’ and girls’ football teams at both primary and secondary level have done well in the District competitions. The secondary girls won the District football cup this year. To crown the achievement, girls from the school’s well-established scout troop won the cup for the best performance in the District scouting competitions.
Two former students, who graduated with honours degrees in Agriculture and Economics and History have returned to school as teachers. A third has moved on to a Masters programme in Digital Forensics after gaining an honours degree from Uganda’s top Law School at Makerere University.
This is a wonderful record of achievement, which has made Mustard Seed the school of choice for discerning parents in the area.
As a charity we have made regular visits to Kasese to meet Robert Bwambale and see the Kasese Humanist Schools. Robert is active on Facebook and has many supporters around the world, but maintaining the continuity of funding for his schools has always been a struggle.
Since 2011, Robert has raised funds to build 3 primary schools and a secondary school. They are all in poor villages around Kasese, where parents find it difficult to keep up with regular school fee payments. Despite this the schools manage to educate many needy children and give them opportunities of a better life than that experienced by their parents. Robert has created inclusive schools based on the Humanist principles of reason, compassion and tolerance. Welfare standards are good and children are happy to go to school.
However, he faces one major problem. With the limited capacity of families to pay the even low levels of school fees requested, the Kasese schools are struggling to maintain decent standards of education. Primary teachers are paid as little as £33 ($40) a month, which is scarcely sufficient to support a family. This means that teachers have to be constantly looking for supplementary sources of income. The Kasese teachers deserve better.
At UHST we have always tried not to spread our limited funds too thinly. Nevertheless, some years ago, we set up a bookshop account to enable Robert to buy books for his schools. We have also provided money for science materials and some funds for staff development, The latter were used to support Phiona Ngabirwe, the headteacher of Bizoha Primary School, while she studied to gain a full degree in education.
In the past two years, Kasese Humanist Schools have adopted UHST’s model constitution for a not-for-profit Humanist School, and registered as a charitable company under Ugandan law. They have also come within UHST audit processes. The schools now have a dedicated ring-fenced bank account, and UHSTs Ugandan accountant, Dan Kasanda, has been invited to conduct annual audits of the school accounts. Furthermore, we have bought laptops for the school bursars and Dan Kasanda is helping them to digitise their accounts using accounting software.
Becoming a not-for-profit, with a dedicated bank account and externally audited and openly published accounts is a huge step forward in governance and accountability. It means that charities around the world can support the Kasese schools in full confidence that money donated will be used for the purpose for which it was given. UHST is planning a fund raiser to help the Kasese Schools. We are looking to find ways to increase the regular monthly inflow of funds to the schools, so that children from poor homes can get help with their fees and to enable teachers pay to be gradually raised. We need help from individual Humanists and organisations around the world if we are to do this. In November we shall be appealing to fellow Humanists in Europe, North America, Australia and elsewhere for help. If you or your group would like to help please email: stevehurd@uhst.org.
Posted: September 30, 2023 by Steve Hurd
Teacher & Child Appeal (now ended)
Paying teachers’ salaries and other staff costs is the main cost of running the Humanist schools in Uganda. And yet, the fees paid by local parents are generally insufficient to provide decent levels of remuneration for teachers, some of whom, in the more remote primary schools, earn little more than $2 a day. Scholarship payments made by UHST supporters make a substantial contribution towards staffing costs for the Humanist secondary schools. Families and local communities understand that we cannot help all children but are happy that they are awarded to talented students who gain a Grade 1 in their Primary Leaving Certificate and deserve financial help because they are double orphans, have a struggling single parent or other significant challenge.
However, scholarships do not work well in Humanist Primary Schools. These schools tend to be in areas of uniform poverty, where all families struggle as subsistence farmers. Furthermore, there are no criteria for grading young children on the basis of ability. Schools that give help with school fees have to find other ways to justify this. In the early days of Katumba Parents Humanist Primary School this was relatively easy. The children that were helped were those whose fathers had been killed in the 2016 insurrection. The whole community was happy for those children to be helped. However, where there is no such clear criterion for the allocation of a scholarship, other parents tend to feel a sense of unfairness when some children are, apparently arbitrarily, awarded scholarships, while a majority of children are denied them. In these circumstances scholarships can be counter-productive as they lead to a growth in fee arrears by the parents of non-scholarship children.
Our new Teacher & Child Appeal is designed to avoid these problems by funding the costs of teachers directly. If there is a good response to the appeal, we will be able to make a big contribution to the staffing bill. This will enable schools to keep down school fees, which will benefit all families and children, rather than a select few who might have received scholarships. Regular monthly donations from the Teacher-Child Appeal will be used partly to improve pay and conditions for hard-working teachers and partly to provide confidential and discretionary help to those striving children who are struggling to pay school fees.
Posted: September 22, 2023 by Steve Hurd
Mustard Seed School edges towards sustainability
In his latest Report on Mustard Seed Schools, Moses Kamya describes an increasingly self-confident school that is getting back into its stride after the shock of Covid. Academic results are good at all levels, from the Primary Leaving Examination through Uganda Certificate in Education at both Ordinary and Advanced level. Student welfare has been improved by refurbishing the sub-standard boys’ dormitory and building an efficient wood-burning cook house, so meal times have become more predictable.
Moses reports a vibrant school life for the children. The boys’ and girls’ football teams at both primary and secondary level have done well in the District competitions. The secondary girls won the District football cup this year. To crown the achievement, girls from the school’s well-established scout troop won the cup for the best performance in the District scouting competitions.
Two former students, who graduated with honours degrees in Agriculture and Economics and History have returned to school as teachers. A third has moved on to a Masters programme in Digital Forensics after gaining an honours degree from Uganda’s top Law School at Makerere University.
This is a wonderful record of achievement, which has made Mustard Seed the school of choice for discerning parents in the area.
Posted: September 22, 2023 by Steve Hurd
UHST to partner Kasese Humanist Schools
As a charity we have made regular visits to Kasese to meet Robert Bwambale and see the Kasese Humanist Schools. Robert is active on Facebook and has many supporters around the world, but maintaining the continuity of funding for his schools has always been a struggle.
Since 2011, Robert has raised funds to build 3 primary schools and a secondary school. They are all in poor villages around Kasese, where parents find it difficult to keep up with regular school fee payments. Despite this the schools manage to educate many needy children and give them opportunities of a better life than that experienced by their parents. Robert has created inclusive schools based on the Humanist principles of reason, compassion and tolerance. Welfare standards are good and children are happy to go to school.
However, he faces one major problem. With the limited capacity of families to pay the even low levels of school fees requested, the Kasese schools are struggling to maintain decent standards of education. Primary teachers are paid as little as £33 ($40) a month, which is scarcely sufficient to support a family. This means that teachers have to be constantly looking for supplementary sources of income. The Kasese teachers deserve better.
At UHST we have always tried not to spread our limited funds too thinly. Nevertheless, some years ago, we set up a bookshop account to enable Robert to buy books for his schools. We have also provided money for science materials and some funds for staff development, The latter were used to support Phiona Ngabirwe, the headteacher of Bizoha Primary School, while she studied to gain a full degree in education.
In the past two years, Kasese Humanist Schools have adopted UHST’s model constitution for a not-for-profit Humanist School, and registered as a charitable company under Ugandan law. They have also come within UHST audit processes. The schools now have a dedicated ring-fenced bank account, and UHSTs Ugandan accountant, Dan Kasanda, has been invited to conduct annual audits of the school accounts. Furthermore, we have bought laptops for the school bursars and Dan Kasanda is helping them to digitise their accounts using accounting software.
Becoming a not-for-profit, with a dedicated bank account and externally audited and openly published accounts is a huge step forward in governance and accountability. It means that charities around the world can support the Kasese schools in full confidence that money donated will be used for the purpose for which it was given. UHST is planning a fund raiser to help the Kasese Schools. We are looking to find ways to increase the regular monthly inflow of funds to the schools, so that children from poor homes can get help with their fees and to enable teachers pay to be gradually raised. We need help from individual Humanists and organisations around the world if we are to do this. In November we shall be appealing to fellow Humanists in Europe, North America, Australia and elsewhere for help. If you or your group would like to help please email: stevehurd@uhst.org.
If you wish to find out more read: Robert Bwambale’s “Director’s Report on the Kasese Humanist Schools“.