Ugandan School System

This post is for all ya’ll educators out there interested in the educational system here in Uganda. Being a group of 20 teachers, we are constantly reflecting on our experiences at school. I can’t help but compare aspects of this experience to my JET (Japan Exchange Teaching Programme) experience. School is the most obvious place I can’t help it, but I also find myself saying “Ohayo Gozaimasu” in the morning and “Sumimasen” when I’m trying to get through our Staff room of 40 some teachers in a space made for five. Anyway, back to the school system. After British colonialism, education in Uganda was turned around. It is not for me to tell you whether this somersault was a positive or negative gymnastics routine; you will have to do your own research and critical thinking about that. It is what it is now though, so I’ve included this here handy dandy reference chart to show some facts, some opinions and observations I’ve made below. All are in reference to middle to high school aged students. 

Transportation to work: Boda Boda

We had a two day conference in Gulu with our team teachers and head teachers to focus on dynamic teaching. This was the super motivational and inspirational speaker, Fajil Mandy.

St Mary's All Stars: Mark, me, Alice and Geoffrey.

A typical student, taking it upon herself to study in free time (picture compliments of Rachel Metzger, who teaches at Sacred Heart).

St. Mary's Lacor's main gathering area

Geoffrey and I with four S3 students.

Two of our fabulous 'lunch ladies'... and breakfast and dinner, for the teachers and kids that stay late/live in the dormitories

School 'kitchen'

Water for the beans being boiled

One of many PSA messages around the school grounds

The girls' dormitory that part of IC's Schools For Schools funds have gone towards.

Jane and Geoffrey heading back to the staff room; check out the water pump on the right!

School grounds regulars... I don't actually know if the goats are school 'property' or neighbors around the area or what... but I'm just waiting for the baa-ing to stop and goat to be served at lunch someday

Speaking of lunch, here a few people are making the labor inducive posho that goes along with the beans we eat daily

Morning meeting starts at 8:00 every day and is supposed to end by 8:20 when the first period begins... that rarely happens

An S5 class with Alice where we pretended to be a TV show with a moderator and an audience and students were the official commentators on urban-rural migration. This is by far our smallest class, as by S5, many students have faced enough hardships at home/life to prohibit them from furthering their education.

Half of our S1 Yellow Class

The other half

“Category”	US (WI)	Uganda	Japan
Class size	25-35 students	100-120 students	35-45 students
Age for grade level	Set: Ex 6th grade = 12-13 years old	Students move from Primary 1-7 by age, then Senior School by passing each level 1-6, assuming they have not been kept to work at home, gotten pregnant, fallen very ill, been abducted, or a refugee; SS 1-4 are required by law, 5-6 required for college application	Set: Ex 6th grade = 11-12 years old
Where teachers ‘reside’	Their own classroom the majority of the time; occasionally lunch room	Staff room, outside under a tree with chairs, the classes they teach in for a portion of the scheduled time	Staff room from early am till late night, the classes they teach in a minute before class and 20 seconds after
Extra Curricular Activities	Mostly sports,  but many others offered as well, after school for one – two hours	Lots of opportunities across the nation, including athletics, debate, Scouts, PIASCY(AIDS/HIV awareness group), Young Christian Society, Social Justice and Peace Club, and Scripture Club ; occur sporadically	Involvement essentially mandatory; practice before and after school for about an hour each, mostly sports but some others offered as well
Class length	45 minutes each; 5 mandatory academic classes, 2 selected coordinated arts classes per semester	Either 40 or 80 minutes, but depending on when the teacher shows up and/or whether or not an announcement or meeting is being run, it can be severely shortened at any time; 12 mandatory subjects, including fine arts	45 minutes each; 7 mandatory classes per term (3 terms)
School lunch	2 ‘options’, salad bar and/or snack bar offered daily; Options are lacking, technically meeting certain health standards but in reality a plate full of grease and carbs with little nutritional value; eat in cafeteria; affordable and free and reduced lunches offered for students in need	Posho and beans… everday; take as much as your stomach can handle as it is likely your only meal of the day; eat wherever you can find space; difficult for some students to pay the semester fee of about $ 20	Nutritious and delicious, offering a variety of meals throughout the month, but no choices daily. All food groups and colors of the rainbow represented daily. Mostly Japanese dishes, but a few ‘multicultural’ dishes thrown in there for shits and giggles; eat in the classroom and clean up afterwards; extremely affordable at less than $2 a day
School Commute	By bus, parental drop off, a few exceptional walkers	Walk (some students up to 2 hours each way), a few exceptional bikers	Bike or walk
Assessment	Multiple forms, but standard weighting is 10% homework, 30 % formative (quizzes, small projects), 60% summative (tests, large projects, portfolios)	1 midterm (30%), 1 term exam (70%), especially in S4 where passing determines whether or not you can continue to S5	Similar to US; the most emphasis is placed on standardized tests, though
Philosophy	School is a place for learning and growing academically, emotionally, and behaviorally to create productive and engaged citizens	School is a place for learning and growing academically, emotionally, and behaviorally to create productive and engaged citizens	School is a place for learning and growing academically, emotionally, and behaviorally to create productive and engaged citizens
Teaching style	Everybody learns differently, Blooms taxonomy, differentiation, students and teachers learn together	Chalk and talk; most effective way to deliver information on the exam to 100+ students with limited to no resources	Confucian; teacher holds knowledge and students are to listen and learn it; there is only one way (kata)and everyone must learn together
Consequences for negative behavior	Love & Logic	Caning; “the butt is where the child’s ears are”; “spare the rod, spoil the child”	Intense yelling and humiliation in the staff room, occasional corporal punishment
Teacher dress code	Business casual;  on Fridays, GTown spirit wear allowed/encouraged; graduation is probably the only time an entire grade level of staff in formal wear	Fairly formal; men’s shirts are pressed and usually wear a tie or sport coat, and classy shoes without a speck of dust on them despite traveling by foot or bike on dusty roads… I can’t figure that out.  Women wear skirts and usually closed toed shoes.	Business casual or track suits; two pairs of shoes (one for outside and inside, of course); special occasions where they whole staff dresses to the nines
Student dress code	Skirts and shorts as short as humanly possible without showing crack, that goes for cleavage on top; boys pants sagging or wearing gym shorts; casual	Uniforms; teachers stress the importance of clean clothes, skirts to the knees, boys undershirts being white and top shirts being buttoned; boys still like to sag and girls still like to hike ‘em up ; many are torn and worn due to overuse or hand me downs from siblings	Uniforms; multifunctional for clubs before and after school; boys still like to sag and girls still like to hike ‘em up