Some Visits to Ugandan Schools

Hands and fingers shaking when raising a hand to answer a question, the child standing up to answer the question, and classmates clapping when the question is answered correctly: these were the first things I noticed about the third grade primary school mathematics class I attended a few days ago. There were a few other conditions I noticed: there was no elbow room to write down math problems, since there were 106 students crammed into a relatively small classroom. There was a 22-year-old girl seated on the back row. She had never been to school as a child, and is trying to catch up now. And while one teacher was conducting the math lesson, the other was planning for the next hour. She didn't help at all. In talking with my fellow HELP volunteers, they too thought it odd that she was planning during school time, rather than contributing and helping to assess needs and understanding.

This is part of the reason I am excited to be helping in schools. We have some exciting things planned: introducing practical science experiments in the classroom, setting up the first science fairs here, training teachers on effective teaching. We have done a lot of evaluations of schools and their conditions of teaching, and we are planning how to help.

Really, I have just been thinking of the work by educators like Freire. In "The Pedagogy of the Oppressed," he discusses a new type of education. Rather than "depositing" information in children, teachers should engage in conversation with them. Here, many students just repeat what a teacher has said, rather than posing problems and letting students think creatively to solve them.

And I'm also thinking of the advice of one of my mentors, Brad Wilcox. He discusses the five principles of "effective teaching." Perhaps the most important is that of "active learning," in which a student engages in conversation with teacher and students, doing practical activities (like science projects) and working in pairs and groups (rather than in a giant class of 106).

And more schools are in our sights. Just today, I was offered a ride by the head teacher at another primary school. His name was Sam, and he practically begged me to come to his school. I felt humbled by his request, and he was anxious to give me his contact details. "You come tomorrow?" he asked. And then he turned to my companions, "And you come tomorrow with him too?"

The people of Mbale, especially the teachers, are so eager to have our help. I am touched by their willingness to learn, and hope I can help in meaningful ways.