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  Click here to read a recent report from David Epidu about the schools ACE supports.


ACE's First Borehole

We have been concerned for some time about getting a clean water supply to St. Joseph School at Mwangi. This school is north of Kampala in an arid area and there is insufficient rainfall to keep the water tank full. This is also dangerous for the children because, if the level in the tank is low, the water becomes stagnant and can cause illness.

We have entered into a partnership with The Busoga Trust and Cape Cornwall School to facilitate this project.

Click here to get the latest information.


We have just reached the fine total of £400 raised by using this scheme when buying goods online.

If you shop online please register to raise funds for ACE at no cost to you.

Click here for further details.


From the Trustees

The ACE trustees held one of their regular meetings on 30th November and discussed the next projects to be carried out.

We are currently concentrating on the schools' sanitary arrangements because several schools had full latrines and would have been faced with possible closure without the problem being addressed.

Emptying of the latrines at Bukazi school (see below) has been completed and new latrines have been constructed at Nyakabaya school. The latrine construction at Nyarusunzu school is still ongoing because of delays caused by very heavy rain making the ground waterlogged.

The trustees have approved similar projects to empty the latrines at Rukongi school and Mukibugu school. This will cost about £300 at each school.

The trustees have also approved, subject to acceptable cost estimates, provision of covers for the water tanks at Nyarusunzu, Bukazi and Kabami schools. This is to prevent insects from dropping into the tanks. All our other schools already have lids on their water tanks.

We are also getting estimates for the construction of removable covers for the windows in several schools. They have classrooms which were built by the government which have no glazing in the windows. This means that rain gets in and stops lessons and also they can be very cold.

We are getting quotes for perspex windows in wooden frames which can be inserted during the rainy season and removed during warm weather.

 
Rainy season

 

The ACE trustees would like to thank you all for your fantastic support during 2008 and hope that you have had a very happy Christmas.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

May 2009 be a great year for you and for ACE


Cash Prize Raffle

The 2008 Cash Prize Raffle winners were drawn at the trustees' meeting.

The winners were -

Prize
Winner
From
     
1st - £100
Felicity Elliott
Gulval
2nd - £50
Celia Julian
St. Agnes
3rd - £25
Ann Woodhams
Praa Sands
4th - £15
M. Farmer
Ludgvan
5th - £10
Lin Rooney
Eastleigh, Hants

The raffle made a profit for ACE of £294. Thank you to everyone who took part.



ACE's First Japanese Fundraiser

Following his nine months spell of teaching at the ACE schools in Uganda, Eden Quayle is now teaching in Japan. His enthusiasm for the ACE projects and the Ugandan schools is undimmed and he has recently organised a fundraiser at his school.

He wrote -

The exhibition room looked great during the day with pictures of Uganda, statistics and information about Uganda in Japanese, paper cranes made by the students in Uganda dangled from the ceiling, and a video showing life in Uganda was running in the corner.

The International Club members decided to first do their annual talk in front of the whole school on 'Ugandan schools vs. Japanese schools' and then pushed on and changed a whole room into a 'Schools in Uganda' exhibition for the school festival. About a thousand people turned up for the school festival and many passed through the room. All that passed through understood a little more about Uganda and how different life is there compared to Japan.

The girls worked hard and approached all who came through to give a little donation towards schools less fortunate than Minami High School. They walked around the whole day in fact asking for donations and I was amazed how committed they were to the task. As I walked around with them for support, they dashed here and there trying to talk to people or handing out fliers to elderly ladies who had probably never heard of Uganda until today.  
Eden and the girls

They did a fantastic job and I was proud of them, all I had done was show them a video suggested a few ideas and they did the rest.

Twelve students from Minami High School are also writing to Mukibugu school children as part of a pen pal project I have initiated here. A few of the students even talked to Median and Alan from Mukibugu on the phone in Japanese recently. Now that was a special moment, an international call from a distant land for the kids at Mukibugu and for the students here as Japanese came through the loud speaker all they could do was smile.

It looks like ACE has a friend in the Far East.

By the end of the day they had raised 29,373 yen, which equates to about £205 in sterling.


Cape Cornwall School

We are delighted that Cape Cornwall School at St. Just have recently adopted ACE as a focus for their charitable fundraising.

Two of their staff and three students assisted at the bucket collection at Morrisons supermarket on 21st and 22nd November, £579 was collected.


Donations and Collections

We have recently received several donations and money raised by individuals in various ways.

Two local schools raised money for ACE at their carol services. Heamoor Primary School have donated £120 and Nancledra Primary School £447.

Thank you all very much.

Our collectors were out in Penzance, accompanied by 2 daleks, on a late night shopping evening. They collected £81.



Concert at Gulval Church

The Mounts Bay Singers presented a concert in aid of ACE at Gulval Parish Church on Saturday 8th November 2008.

For details click here.



Work in Progress

David Epidu

David Epidu, ACE's representative in Uganda (left) has recently been visiting the schools around Kisoro and checking the progress of the work currently going on,

As you can see it is the rainy season in Uganda.

He was accompanied by his assistant, Mandela. (right)

Mandela also acts as driver when ACE representatives visit.

Mandela

One of the main problems facing the schools which ACE supports is with latrines. As we improve the classrooms, more children attend, so the latrines get filled faster.

This picture shows the pit being dug for a new set of latrines at Nyarusunzu school.

Our current work is costing about £5,400. New latrines are also being built at Nyakabaya school and teachers' accommodation is nearly completed at Bukazi.

 
New Latrine Pit

It is also possible for the existing latrines to be emptied.

The wall at the back of the latrine block is excavated and broken through. The contents are dug out by hand and the wall is then rebuilt.

This unpleasant task is currently going on at Bukazi school.

 
Emptying Latrines

At the recent ACE trustees' meeting there was a long discussion about latrines.

The latrines illustrated here are the simplest type, known as 'long drop' latrines. They are literally a big pit with a building over the top to provide privacy.

A newer type of latrine is called 'EcoSan'. This provides for the separation of urine and faeces. The solid matter is therefore drier to start with and it can be dried further quite quickly. Mixed with wood ash, it can be used as a valuable fertilizer.

These latrines are much more environmentally friendly, but are more expensive to construct. We are proposing to construct our first EcoSan latrines - a block of three - at Rurembwe school. The project will cost about £2,000.

It is important that the users of EcoSans are properly trained in their use. So there will be a trainer at the school and the block will be used for teaching pupils and teachers from the neighbouring schools when we build more in the future.

If you want to learn a bit more about EcoSan latrines click here.


Nyakabaya water Tank  

David has also been checking the schools' water storage tanks.

This one, at Nyakabaya school, has had a new tap house installed with a locked door to prevent the water being stolen.


This is the teachers' accommodation building under construction at Bukazi school.

When completed it will provide rooms for two teachers.

 

As you can see from this report, there is more to ACE's work than just building classrooms and putting desks inside.



Record Giving to ACE

The ACE financial year has just finished and we have received record receipts of £40,017.22. This was more than double the 2006/2007 total of £19,507.

We are very grateful to all who have worked so hard and to all who have given.

During the year we have spent £36,791.93 on our projects at the Ugandan schools. The balance in hand is awaiting further money for our next project.

The biggest categories of expenditure were as follows -

Building work
 
£25,317
Repairs and maintenence
 
£2,352
Desks
 
£2,348
Equipment
 
£1,665
Stationery
 
£608

The financial year 2008-2009 has started with a bang. Angela has collected another cheue for £2,000 from Penwith College and the cream tea held on 7th September raised £310.




Charity Portal - ACE is 1st and 2nd!!

ACE has moved well ahead in 1st place in the International Children's Charity section on the Charity Portal website. We are in 2nd place in the overall classification and have over 12,000 votes.

In case you forgot to vote when you entered the site you can click on the orange button here.

After you have voted, click 'Statistics' then 'Top 10 Voted' and you will see the Top Ten of all the affiliated charities.

The next challenge will take a while. The charity in first place has over 25,000 votes so it will take a long time for ACE to become number one.

 
Click to Vote


New Classrooms at St. Joseph School

ACE has built a new double classroom block at St. Joseph School at Mwangi and carried out major upgrading of the school latrines.

You can see pictures of the construction by clicking here.



Classrooms Partitioned at Rurembwe

We have recently completed the partitioning of a large classroom to make two smaller ones.

You can see pictures by clicking here.




Two Large Donations for Desks

ACE has been seeking contributions from several charitable trusts who are known to support the sort of work we do.

The first donation we received was £500 from The Calleva Foundation.

We have now also received £1,000 from The Bower Trust.

The donations are earmarked for desks for the schools and we are very grateful to the trustees of both trusts for supporting ACE.




ACE Collection at Land's End

Land's End Sign

ACE held a collection day at Land's End on Tuesday 5th August.

This picture shows ACE trustee, Roger Drew, with a new member of the ACE fundraising team.

Further details, and more photos, are on our Fundraising page.

 
Roger Drew and Dalek



Newmill Open Gardens Day 2008

Sunflower Logo

 

The Open Gardens Day was held in Newmill on Sunday 6th July with a record 8 gardens on show. The rain held off for most of the afternoon although there were a couple of heavy showers.

There was also an art exhibition in the Jamieson Library which benefitted ACE. The participating artists were Margaret Chinn, Meg Jenkins and Pam Furby.

Click here for a report of the Open Gardens Day and pictures.


St. Hilary School Make Big Donation

Angela receives cheque

ACE founder, Angela Peake, recently attended a special assembly at St. Hilary Primary School to receive a cheque for ACE. The school had completed a two-year series of fundraising events and presented Angela with the magnificent sum of £4,200.

St. Hilary are linking particularly with the school ACE supports at Nyarasunzu. The money is being spent on a large classroom block which is being built at this very isolated school. The project is also being supported by Penwith College.


Angela Presented with Major Award

Rotary Presentation

Mounts Bay Rotary Club have awarded Angela a Paul Harris Fellowship. This award, named after the founder of Rotary International, is one of the highest awards given by the organisation. She received a medal and a certificate.

The citation on the certificate reads -

Angela Peake is hereby named a Paul Harris Fellow in appreciation of tangible and significant assistance given for the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among the peoples of the world.

Angela and her husband, Vic, were invited to the Rotary Club's annual President's Night by President Ed Bufton, who has been a frequent attender at ACE events in Newmill. The award, presented during the evening, was a complete surprise to Angela. The picture show Angela with Ed Bufton and two other award winners.

The Rotary Club also donated the proceeds of the raffle at the event, over £400, to ACE funds.


Building Project completed at Kabami

Our latest building project has recently been completed.

Click here for details and pictures.


Open Garden Raises Funds for ACE

We are grateful to Mr and Mrs Sandy of Wheal Darlington, Long Rock, who recently opened their garden to the public on two days, in aid of ACE.

£414 was raised from admission fees and the sale of wooden garden items



Work Completed at Gitenderi after a Most Generous Donation

In December 2007 we were delighted to announce that ACE had received a very large donation. The local donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, gave £5,000 to the funds. We were able to claim Gift Aid amounting to £1,400 on the donation, boosting it to £6,400.

We are extremely grateful to the donor and the trustees decided that the money should be spent at the Gitenderi primary school.

The school had a partially-built double classroom block. The building was originally funded by the Uganda Wildlife Authority, but has been standing unfinished for some time because the builder went off with the money. Nothing could be done to complete it for a while because it was the subject of litigation.

When our builder, Paul, completed the new classrooms at Nyarusunzu (see below), we moved him and his team to Gitenderi and they commenced work. He takes his own craftsmen but uses local village labour.

It cost about £4,000 to complete the project, which required provision of windows and doors, plastering and painting.

They made good progress and project was finished during April 2008.

The school also needs another double classroom block to be built.

 

Partially built classrooms

The partially-built classrooms at Gitenderi before the ACE project began

Completed

The completed classroom

 

To read more about Gitenderi school and see more pictures, click here



Dog Show

For information about thedog show, in aid of ACE, held on 16th March, click here.


Penwith College Becoming a Major Sponsor of ACE

College logo  

ACE is delighted to announce another very generous gift from the students of Penwith College.

They have recently donated £2,000, bringing the total they have raised to £7,000.


When asked how they are raising so much money, George Yates, from the College, replied -

Our money comes solely from one source, namely the parties that the Student Association hold at Club 2K. These are usually have a fancy dress theme and, even though we charge a low entry fee and give away hundreds in fancy dress prizes, we still manage to make a fair amount of money from them.

This is partly because the owner of Club 2K, Viv Evans, has been very generous in regard to the financial terms upon which she hosts the parties. So, we've got a partnership comprising ACE, Penwith College Student Association and Club 2K - three small organisations combining to add to the sum of human happiness!

Incidentally, four of our students - Imogen Rutherford, Charlotte Nicholls, Chloe Nicholls and Rebecca Tonkin - have been to Uganda and worked with ACE.

I hope you know that at these parties I'm taking the money on the door and have to put up with a lot of argy bargy and don't get to bed till 4am - and sometimes afterwards am at College at 9am. As it happens, I don't mind late nights!

We are most grateful to George and the students, and to Viv Evans, and glad to hear that they all have fun whilst raising the funds.

The students he mentioned went on the visit to Uganda in 2006 when they were pupils of Mounts Bay School.



Angela and Vic Peake Visit the Schools

Angela Peake, the founder of ACE and chairman of the trustees, made a trip to Uganda with her husband, Vic, in February 2008.

Eden Quayle's mother, Sachiko, went with them.

This picture shows (left to right) Vic and Angela Peake, Eden Quayle and ACE's representative in Uganda, David Epidu.

 
Visiting party

They had a busy programme, visiting all the schools which ACE supports. They were checking the work that has been carried out and assessing the needs for the future.

They took a large amount of material for the schools.

Also, each school was presented with a Cornish St. Piran's flag.

 
Cornish Flag
Here Angela and Vic are seen at Rukongi school with the headteacher, Victoria Nyibagwiza.  
At Rukongi



Fast Work at Nyarusunzu

In autumn 2007 ACE received three very generous gifts. Penwith College donated £1,000, Hayle Lions Club £500 and Penwith One Percenters £500.

Several local schools also made donations from various events.

At the October meeting of the ACE trustees it was decided that we now had enough money to commence work on the new 3-classroom block at Nyarusunzu school. The building cost was £9,500.

This has enabled the classroom shown here to be replaced.

  Nyarusunzu class and headmaster
Eden at Nyarusunzu  

This picture shows Eden Quayle with pupils at Nyarusunzu in November.

The new classroom block, which is partially built, can be seen in the background.

Because of the very poor standard of the teachers' accommodation at Nyarusunzu, it was decided to use one of the rooms for this purpose until we can get teachers' quarters built.

Eden took this picture on 15th December, showing that rapid progress had been made.

 
Classroom roofed
Completed block
  The project was completed and the building was ready for use when the school term commenced at the beginning of February 2008.




 

ACE 200 Club

The 200 Club, which we started in July 2006, has proved very successful. By the end of 2007 it had raised just over £2,000 for ACE.

By Autumn 2007 we had over 200 numbers sold. However, about sixty numbers were purchased as Christmas gifts in 2006. They entered their first draw in January 2007 and their last in December 2007. Only a few of these have been renewed.

That means that our numbers are now down to 164 which reduces the prize fund, and the amount of money raised by ACE.

Please try to enrol some new participants so that we can get back to 200. You can obtain more details and download an application form, by clicking here.



Christmas Events and School Donations

Carol singers  

St. Hilary School have been raising funds for ACE during the current school year. Prior to the Christmas 2007 period they had raised just over £1,400.

Their school choir sang Christmas carols at the Wharfside shopping centre in Penzance on Saturday 15th December and collected for ACE. Unfortunately it was bitterly cold so they couldn't perform for as long as planned, but they collected £87. With other events during the festive season they have earned a total of £336. They have several more events planned for 2008.

Nancledra School sang carols at the Tesco store at Carbis Bay on Wednesday 19th December. They wore their nativity play costumes and sang inside the store, right under the heaters. They have also given the proceeds of their Christmas carol concerts to ACE. The total they raised was £327.

Mounts Bay School raised £145 for ACE at various Christmas events.The money will be spent on desks at Rukongi Primary School.

Pendeen School have donated £182 which has been earmarked for new desks at Bukazi School.

We are very grateful to all four schools for their support.


Silvertree logo

 

We received a cheque for £35 from Silvertree Engineering of Truro.

Supporter, Martin Trathen, collected the money from his workmates.



Distribution of Exercise Books

These pictures show Eden Quayle giving out exercise books, which were funded by ACE, at Mukibugu school.
 
These gifts don't cost very much ....
 
.... but they bring so much joy to children with so little.
 


Pupils Do Best when Taught by Women

Charles Etoru has sent us an interesting article from the New Vision newspaper. The article contains a lot of information about Ugandan primary schools.

To read it click here.

Currently two of the schools which ACE supports have female headteachers. They are at Rukongi and Nyakabaya.



Sponsored Events

Two sponsored events have taken place during August 2007.

Click here for details.




Newmill Open Gardens

Sunflower Logo

This year's main event took place on Sunday 1st July 2007. Takings on the day amounted to £2,350.

For full details click here.

Sunflower Logo

Prior to the event, there was a private preview of 3 of the gardens for Ludgvan Gardens Group on 21st June.

Angela's garden at Chynoey was also visited on 28th June by a group from Trinity Chapel, Newlyn, and on 29th June by the Lamorna flower-arranging group.




£200 Cash Prizes Raffle
Raffle tickets

During spring and early summer we were selling raffle tickets for a draw which took place at the Open Gardens event on 1st July.

To see the prizewinners click here.

Money



We enrolled ACE into easyfundraising on 9th May 2007, enabling supporters to raise money for us whilst shopping online.

Direct Line logo
Payments are now coming in. The first one was a £15 donation from Direct Line Insurance when someone purchased pet cover. Other smaller amounts have come from Amazon and other companies.
Amazon logo

Thank you to those who have signed up. If you would like to know more about the scheme please click here.


Stone Collection

David Epidu

David Epidu

 

ACE's representative in Uganda, David Epidu, sends a monthly report to the ACE committee.

In his April 2007 report he wrote -

When at Kisoro District met various Heads and advised them to have a routine collection of stone and keep the stones around the school compound, such that if there is any chance for any of the eight schools supported by the A.C.E. getting any help, we should not be running up and down looking for the stone, this should be the contribution for the community.

They all accepted the idea and said that they would all have a routine collection of stones and keep them around the school compound.


This is a good example of the advantage of having a person on the spot to oversee ACE's efforts. It also illustrates David's ability to intelligently think about how our efforts can be improved and to act on his ideas.

He also added some less good news -

I also want to inform you that prices in our country keep on going up everyday so I want to keep you informed about that because at the moment transport is very high because of the rise in fuel prices.

He sent news of our work at Bukazi primary school and we have subsequently received an e-mail from the headmaster. Click here for details.

Mukibugu Stone Collection
 

This picture was taken in May 2007 and shows stones that had been collected and heaped up by parents at Mukibugu school.

The picture also shows the rainwater collection system and storage tank in the background.



More ACE 200 Club Members Needed

200 Club Logo  

Numbers in the 200 Club have dropped this year. This is mainly because subscriptions which were given as gifts to friends have not been renewed.

Please consider buying more numbers, either for yourself, or as gifts to friends.

Click here for details and to download an application form.



Good News for the Mountain Gorillas

Mountain Gorilla
 

The mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest are making a steady recovery.

Click here to read the article from The Times.



Angela Peake wins Citizen of the Year award

From The Cornishman newspaper, Thursday 22nd March 2007 -

"Outstanding individuals from across Penwith have been honoured at the presentation of the Alan Harvey Citizen of the Year awards.

"The awards, named in memory of the late former chairman of Penwith Council, were presented to four local people for their outstanding contributions to their communities and organisations.

"Angela Peake picked up the award for Penzance.

"Each of the recipients were given a glass trophy and £100 for their chosen charity."

 
Angela's Award

The award winners with the Chairman of Penwith Council, Irene Bailey. Angela is standing modestly at the back.

 



ACE has a Patron

Jon Snow

Jon Snow

 

We are delighted that Jon Snow has agreed to become a patron of ACE.

He is best known as the presenter of Britain's award-winning Channel 4 News. He has also hosted a wide range of discussion programmes and a number of high-profile documentaries for Channel 4, the most recent being War on Terror Trial, Bloody Sunday Debate, Snow in Japan, The E-millionaire Show and Secrets of the Honours System.

He was presented with the prestigious Richard Dimbleby Award for his outstanding contribution to the world of news and current affairs at the 2005 BAFTA Television Awards, and he was named Journalist of the Year at the 2005 Royal Television Society TV Journalism Awards.

He has a longstanding affinity with Uganda, beginning with a spell there as a teacher when he was 18.


A recent article in The Independent newspaper included -

Snow was also instrumental in C4 News's decision to base last year's coverage on the G8 summit not at Gleneagles, where it was taking place, but in Africa, subject of much of the discussions. Snow, whose political views were shaped as an 18-year-old teacher with VSO in Uganda, after which he was rusticated from the University of Liverpool for his involvement in anti-apartheid protests, says he was intrigued to know whether anyone in Africa knew that Gleneagles was going on. "Had they heard of Bob Geldof?"

At Snow's behest, the programme was broadcast from Namasagali, the Ugandan village on the banks of the Nile where he had taught almost 40 years earlier, and where depopulation and malaria had become rampant. "You never found anybody who had heard anything about the G8 and certainly nobody knew anything about Live Aid or Bob Geldof."

If you want to read the whole article click here.

In his letter of acceptance Jon wrote -

"Because I don't come from Cornwall, and stand little chance of getting down to meet the volunteers, I was tempted to say no to your flattering request for me to become a patron of ACE. But then when I think about the primary schools in Uganda, the need is so great that I'd really like to do anything to assist your work, so I am delighted to say yes but fully recognising that I am not able to do much practically to help."

ACE is delighted to have such a distinguished supporter.



Desks

A young lady called Hannah Westren, who is 11 years old, recently donated to ACE a jar of coins she had been saving from her pocket money. They added up to £19.17.

The ACE trustees have decided to make the gift up to £21 and purchase a desk and bench seat for St. Joseph School with Hannah's gift.

The desk will be marked as a gift from Hannah with a small plaque.

  Desks

 

These desks are designed to seat two pupils but are often occupied by three or four.

They are normally used indoors but this class was taking place outside because of the lack of classrooms.


Lots more desks are currently needed at most of our schools. If you would like donate one click here for details.

For donation of £21, you could have a desk with your name on it. Or you could donate a gift in the name of a friend and have their name on it.

We are very grateful to the gentleman from Weymouth who recently bought a desk named for his granddaughter.



First Work Completed at Nyarusunzu School

The school at Nyarusunzu was visited for the first time by ACE representatives in October 2006.

The needs of the school are great and it was decided that the first priority should be to provide a water storage tank and guttering, which will cost about £1,300.

The project began in February 2007 and was completed a month later. Click here for more information.




Solar Power Chargers

When David Epidu made his regular visit to all the schools supported by ACE in the Kisoro district in February 2007, he reported that the teachers currently have to travel to Kisoro each time they need to charge their mobile phones. They have to wait for two to three hours whilst this is done, pay for it, and then travel back.

He asked if ACE would consider providing one solar power charger for each of the nine schools. He said that they could be purchased locally for 65,000 Ugandan Shillings, which is about £20, each.

This sort of request is difficult for ACE because our priorities are naturally to the schoolchildren and the cost of each charger would provide a new desk.

However, we are delighted that a local supporter donated £200 in order to provide the chargers. A Gift Aid form was also signed so ACE will get another £56 for our general funds.

By the time David purchased them in April, the price had gone up, but the donor made up the difference. David is now distributing the chargers to the headteachers.

The solar chargers will enable the teachers to save a great deal of time and money. After all, sunshine is plentiful in Uganda. And it's free.

Headteacher with charger

 

This picture shows the headteacher of Nyarusunzu school with his new solar charger.



David and Christine Marry

David and Christine  

ACE's representative in Uganda, David Epidu, had an official marriage ceremony with Christine on 10th March. They have been together several years and have a daughter called Fortunate.

The ceremony took place at Soroti, northeast of Kampala. The trustees of ACE have personally sent a present of some money.

Below are some pictures of the marriage ceremony and the celebrations.

 

 

 


Three New Teachers Nearly Trained

The three teachers, who are being trained with ACE's support, have nearly completed their courses.

They started their final teaching practice on 4th March. We have just paid the final amounts for their stationery. We also pay for their food as they have to live away from home.



Typical Problems

This article was forwarded to ACE by Charles Etoru. It highlights some of the problems of primary education in an area of Uganda quite close to Luwero where we support St. Joseph School.

The article came from the online version of New Vision newspaper and was written by Elizabeth Namazzi.

Many people await the rainy season in anticipation. Not so with the pupils and teachers in Nakasongola district. To them, rain heralds woes as the district lacks decent shelter. Trees and makeshift shacks serve as classrooms and teachers' houses.

At present, Nakasongola has 143 government-aided schools and six registered private schools. The senior education officer, Sarah Bugoosi, said: "Some schools have no buildings at all, while others have just one building and an office."

The pupils of Kalinda Primary school sit in a partially grass-thatched shack that is supported by weak poles. Although an effort to construct permanent classrooms is evident, little has been done to provide accommodation for the teachers. Lack of teachers' houses is the biggest challenge we have. Some teachers live six kilometres away from school and their houses are several miles apart.

In the absence of reliable transport and good roads, most teachers are unwilling to trek long distances in the name of teaching. The situation worsens during the rainy season when the roads are completely impassable.

Unwilling to brave more than six miles of mud and pools of water, most teachers choose to stay at home until the roads improve. Even those with accommodation at the school premises are not better off.

To many, a good night's sleep is a luxury they dream of. "You cannot enjoy your sleep in such a house. We always sleep with one ear open, prepared to run out of the house at the slightest indication that it's falling," a teacher at Kateebe Primary School said.

In Nakitoma sub-county, the teachers of Kikanga Primary School also reside in grass-thatched huts. The only 'permanent' house has one room and one has to bend to go through the doorway.

In a district where dry spells hit with a vengeance, rain brings a smile to many faces, but for teachers, rain means sleepless nights. The roofs on teachers' houses are riddled with holes that leave rain flowing right into the houses. "When it rains, we spend the night standing. All our property gets wet," a female teacher of Kateebe Primary School laments.

Their residence is a tiny two-mud house on the brink of collapse. The doors are so weak that they can be kicked open without much force. Their biggest concern though is the roof. "It leaks at every point you can imagine," one of the teachers, who preferred anonymity, said.

After such a night, the teachers are in no mood for classes. The students are not enthusiastic too. Their attention is divided between cattle keeping and classes. When a sleepy and poorly-paid teacher stands before such a class, the quality of education is bound to suffer.

This, plus the fact that most of the teachers in Nakasongola district are not trained, does not help matters. According to Bugoosi, the district has about 500 trained teachers out of over 1,100 teachers.

It is not surprising that when the results of the national examinations are released, Nakasongola district records one of the worst performances in the country.

Bugoosi says for the last five years, Nakasongola has had the biggest percentage of pupils drop out before they complete Primary Seven. Out of those who sit Primary Leaving Examinations, only 7% attain first grade and the highest percentage attain third grade.

One sure way to improve Nakasongola's performance is by building a highly-motivated teaching force. In some schools, some teachers have solved their accommodation problem by using their meagre resources to construct small houses.

A few schools have benefited from NGOs like World Vision and Concern International. Whereas World Vision finances the whole project, Concern International covers 80% of the construction costs and requires the community to shoulder 20%.

There is still the fact that Nakasongola's people are not entirely convinced that education is worth the investment.

 

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