MugishaX Diary

Whereas article 30 of our constitution guarantees that all persons have a right to education which has been ensured by the initiation of Universal Primary Education (UPE) for the primary school age going children, it doesn’t on the other hand caters for the high enrolment of pupils in the public school which ultimately puts an insurmountable pressure on the teachers (which in most cases are few, exhausted and fatigued as a result of a single teacher teaching all the subjects per class in most instances) of those institutions. It is not news in Uganda that the universality of education puts emphasis on enrolment (access) rather than quality. With the closure of schools for over 18 months as a result of the global pandemic, the public schools have suffered increase in the number of pupils and students enrolling to attain education with the opening of the sector on 10 th January 2022. This is partly because parents were and are still afraid of sending their children back to the private...

  It was a cold Monday morning dated 17 th  of January, 2022. The rain that woke me to check the time, which I did and saw 4AM, lasted till 10am plus. I had planned to go before the official opening hours of 7.30AM, but greater forces had their reasons for making me register my arrival time in the teachers’ attendance book of Bugwe Primary School in Namutumba District at 11AM. Most teachers, as expected in most government schools – irrespective of the remoteness or urban-ness of the location, in such a bad weather – were absent. So, most class had learners without teachers. Myself and my co-fellow of Teach for Uganda after registering our presence decided to cover grounds – she in Primary one and myself in Primary two. We occupied the learners till their departure time. An effort that lifted my heart. My interaction with them and engagement (the pupils responding to me in Lusoga and me asking and giving instructions in English accompanied by my few Luganda vocabulary I amassed...