Work is now well advanced on two new hostels for boy students. One is being constructed on the site of Isaac Newton High School (Kateera, top) and the other on the upper school site of Mustard Seed School (bottom).

There is a strong demand for school accommodation. Many students live a long way from school and families believe that boarding on school premises offers a safe environment with access to study facilities, including the library and computers, in the evenings and at weekends. Experience from the girls shows that the performance of boarding students in national examinations is higher on average than that for day students. Boarding is essential for the most needy students, especially for those orphans who have lost one or both parents.

While each school already has a good quality hostel for girls, 40 or more boys are currently using make-shift sleeping arrangements in rooms designed as classrooms. However, after a successful infrastructure appeal, our supporters have provided sufficient funds through many small donations and a small number of substantial donations to construct the two hostels. Each hostel will have 10 small rooms – 8 for family groups of 6 students and two sleeping rooms for supervising teachers.

The boys will be able to use the toilets and wash rooms that have been constructed over the past year.

Moses Kamya says, “The boys are very happy seeing their dormitory under construction. Many are booking rooms in advance. Those in S4 and S6 are lamenting that they may not sleep in the new hostel before completing final year UNEB exams. I am however assuring them that before leaving, the hostel will be complete. We are being bogged down by the heavy rains coming almost daily but, hopefully, we shall reach there.”

Here is the latest message from Peter Kisirinya, Director of the Isaac Newton Schools, on how he has been working hard to fight the threat from evil spirit rumours at the Humanist School at Mbute.

“The situation has calmed down and since the incident reported in the previous post.

I have been sleeping at the school, on the floor of the kitchen storeroom* to demonstrate that there are no evil spirits to fear. The concern goes back many years when Mbute Hill used to be the site where witch craft and rituals were performed – long before the school was built.

I have had several meetings with parents, students, teachers and local government leaders of the area. They have shown a lot of support for the school and we have set up a committee headed by the PTA chairman to visit the homes of our students to reassure families.

We have invited the local community to an open meeting on Friday next week. At this meeting they will have talks from lecturers in Psychology from Kyambogo University school of Education. The Education Department at the university has set up a team to allay the fears of the general public on issues such as witch craft and exorcism in Ugandan schools and to share research findings. In some parts of Uganda there are still instances of children being abducted from schools and taken away for ritual sacrifice. The government is fighting a national campaign against such practices (see campaign poster).

The meeting will be attended by the Mpigi District Inspector of schools and the Head of the CID at Kammengo Police. Moses Kamya, from Mustard Seed School, will also come to give his support by speaking about the rational and caring philosophy of Humanist schools.

Now the school is well fenced there is little worry about security. However, I am proposing that as a matter of priority we seek funds from supporters to construct some teachers’ housing on the school site. Having people sleeping on the site will reassure local people that evil spirits are not still in the place.”

*When sleeping on the floor of the kitchen with no bed net, Peter was badly pestered by mosquitoes and he is currently suffering from malaria.

We have just received this disturbing report from Peter Kisirinya, the Director of the Isaac Newton Schools, on the latest attempt to use witch craft to undermine the Humanist School at Mbute:

” In recent months Isaac Newton High School at Mbute has had to cope with false claims of spirits invading the students at the school. We have learned that the rumours have been spread by a local group who are trying to establish their own competing school within the vicinity.

Four students attending school at Mbute, who come from families with links to the proposed new school, faked possession by spirits and claimed that there were evil spirits in the school which were aiming to kill two students and three teachers.

Information was sent to local press that the spirits had burnt down school buildings, because the managing director of the school had opposed their claims publicly and humiliated them in front of the school community.  They informed the newspaper that our school, being a humanist school, did not believe in the existence of spirits. Consequently the spirits were annoyed to the extent of burning the school down.

However, local reporters called Peter Kisirinya, the School’s Director, and came to the school to interview him and the school bursar. They were surprised and reassured to find absolutely nothing related to the story they had been given. There had been no fire and they could see that the school was operating normally. As we are concerned for the safety of the staff and students, we have now officially reported the matter to police and the Ministry of Education and Sports.

The clear purpose of the rumours and actions was to instil fear in students and parents so that they transfer their children to the new school at the beginning of the new year. It was also intended to persuade our teachers abandon the school under fear of witchcraft killing some of them.

In order to allay fears in the local community, I am holding a series of meetings with all local stakeholders, parents and community leaders. I have allayed their fears in open meetings (see photograph of parents in school above) and they have been in to the school to see that it is operating normally and that the staff and students are happy and working purposefully.  I am staying at the school, day and night, to demonstrate to students and parents that they need have no fear of spirits and the super-natural. I have opened up my daily S4 and S3 science practical lessons so that parents can come along and be reassured that their children are receiving a high standard of teaching.

We have also strengthened staffing at the school by offering part-time, temporary contracts to four of the brightest A-level students from INHS Masaka, who are now going to be teaching at Mbute before they go off to university. Two will be studying education to train as teachers and two have been given government scholarships to study diplomas in Agriculture and Secondary education.”