The final day of the 3^rd Humanist Schools’ Conference was devoted to developing a common understanding of Humanism and how to apply it in schools. Peter Kisirinya and I were joint facilitators for the session which included consideration of:

• principles of Positive Humanism most relevant to schools in Uganda.
• compatibility of humanism with religion, theism, deism, atheism and agnosticism.
• The Golden Rule, Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
• fostering mutual respect and fellowship in Humanist schools, which welcome children and teachers from differeent Christian and Muslim traditions.
• appropriate attitudes towards wearing religious symbols, clothing and prayer in school.

There were reflective and amusing stories and anecdotes from Humanist school directors about how about how they personally came to adopt a humanist philosophy and how they apply it in running their schools. Peter Kisirinya of Isaac Newton Humanist Schools (shown left) explained how his Uganda Biology teacher in a catholic school encouraged the class to consider whether evolution was compatible with religious teaching and how belief might at times lead to a suspension of reason. Robert Bwambale (Kasese Humanist Schools) spoke of his trials as an orphan being moved between Christian and Muslim carers and how he wanted to set up school that respected the rights of the child to become a free thinker. Rogers Muwanguzi (Eagle’s View Humanist Primary) explained how he learned of Humanism as a student of Mustard Seed Humanist Secondary School. It inspired him to start his own school based upon the principles of reason, compassion and self-reliance.

There was a healthy disagreement on attitudes towards God. However, there was a broad consensus that schools should regard religious belief as a matter of personal choice and conscience. What mattered was our behaviour towards each other. It was important to foster an inclusive, mutually caring and happy school community with Humanist values. It was agreed that it is possible to be Christian and Humanist or Muslim and Humanist. Humanist values are relevant to all of humanity.

All present received copies of “Humfry Hippo Moves Home”, which exemplifies the Golden Rule in an accessible way for young children. They also received the booklet, “Developing a Humanist Ethos in Uganda Schools”, containing activities for students that illustrate the Ten Commitments propounded by the American Humanist Association.

The workshop ended with a genuine buzz of excitement among the teachers, many of whom were hearing about Humanism for their first time.

Teachers were delighted and completely engaged with the content of the second day of the 3rd Humanist Schools Conference, whose broad theme is: ” Quality Education based on Reason, Compassion and Self-reliance”. The second day was devoted to achieving high standards of student welfare and of education.

The welfare issue that this conference chose to focus upon was the maintenance of good interpersonal behaviour and school discipline. We invited the Ugandan NGO Raising Voices to organise a workshop to present the Good Schools Toolkit. The kit explores strategies for identifying signs of physical, sexual and verbal abuse of and by both children and staff. The trainer, Mariam Nankiyingi, from a Muslim heritage, was an excellent story teller and motivator. Our audience clung on to Mariam’s every word as she recounted examples of abuse that can occur within schools, including why some seemingly mild chastisements might become abuse when used thoughtlessly and repeated often. The teachers were delighted to receive ideas of a variety of alternative strategies for achieving positive discipline, i.e. the sort of discipline that comes from within rather than by the exercise of force.

There were a series of other parallel workshops given by primary and secondary experts, who were either examiners for `Uganda National Examination Board or belonged to a subject panel of the National Curriculum Development Centre. The primary workshops covered improving performance of students in literacy, numeracy and social studies. The secondary ones focused upon English, Mathematics, Science and Geography.

The conference is going well and there is much to look forward to on the final day.

There is much excitement at Isaac Newton High School the day before they host the 3^rd Humanist Schools Conference. Rooms are being cleaned, the site tidied, furniture and sleeping quarters arranged, catering arrangements finalised and welcoming posters displayed at the school entrance and along approaching roads.

While testing the equipment we found that the all-important data projector was overheating and cutting out after 3 minutes. With the fan not working we rushed the ailing machine to a technician in Masaka City, and placed a precautionary order for a replacement projector (needed anyway). The new projector is being sent by local taxi service from Kampala, so should be here this morning (?), hours before the conference starts this afternoon.

Although the school vacation has started, Senior 4 and 6 students have stayed in school for an extra 2 weeks of exam preparation. They are still trying to make up study time they lost during Covid and Ebola outbreaks.

I met the performing art students who made the school’s stunning new promotional video. The video is outstanding, and they are rightly very proud of their work. Students explained to me how, after writing and rehearsing the song, they were all taken to a recording studio in Masaka to make the sound recording. Once they were happy with that, they came back to school to make the film, miming to the sound recording. The young film maker used a small drone to take video sequences of the school from the air.

After talking about the video, a group of students sat for a relaxed chat. They told me of life in school. The pride they have in their school was evident. The only perennial complaint of school children throughout the world was of school dinners. As is the norm in Uganda, the staple diet is posho and beans. Though for a change they do have beans and posho. Although monotonous, it gives them the basic essentials and they get their vitamins from fruit which is widely available. Although the diet is limited, the students looked healthy.

They asked me about school dinners in the UK. I explained that British children can usually choose what food they pick, but there are various ploys to encourage them to choose healthily. I know that our British grandchildren look forward to their pizzas (less healthy than posho and beans!), which are served every Thursday. They asked me to name my favourite food. I had to come clean and tell them that it was a dubiously less healthy “bangers and mash”. The discussion ranged far. They were interested in how many children I had (two). I told them how quickly family sizes had come down in Britain from the previous generation to me. My father was one of “at least” 9 (I never knew the actual number), and my mother one of 3 (although her mother had died at the age of 31). They told me about their own families, which ranged from 2 to 13 children. The evidence is that, even in rural areas of Africa, the demographic transition is beginning to happen, as more cash-earning job opportunities become available to women and girls.

The three Humanist Schools coming from Bundibugyo District were so excited about the conference that they decided to arrive a day early. Peter Kisirinya is now rushing around to make sure that beds are ready for them and arranging for the kitchen to prepare food for an evening meal. Nothing is too much trouble for Peter, who wants this long-awaited conference to go well. I feel certain it will.