Buyende district remains one of the most impoverished districts in Uganda and it is even more appalling when it comes to education, skills training and transfer and knowledge acquisition.

The district on the shores of Lake Kyoga largely relies on government schools are often ill-equipped to the constraints government faces when funding schools across the country.

In this interview, Eng Isabirye Gerald, as the executive director, talks about the plans they are laying a plan to transform the education sector in Buyende district through New Life Schools Buwaidha.

Background of the New Life Schools Buwaidha  

New Life Schools Buwaidha is a community school located in a village called Buwaidha found in Buyende district, Busoga sub-region. The multipurpose school seeks to provide quality education to vulnerable children in a dignifying environment. The vision of New Life Schools Buwaidha is to train a generation of Godly leaders who will serve nations.

We believe opening a school in the Buwaidha area is imperative to the well-being of the children not only in their education but in developing them psychologically, emotionally and socially and giving them a chance to experience life as a normal child should. 

The objectives are quite many, and our vision puts the entire community at the centre. For example, we want children in Buwaidha and neighbouring communities to reach their full potential by providing them with a good education. 

We want to start community-based projects that we hope will provide jobs to people in the community and keep families together as the school is a local amenity. 

Targeted achievements

New Life Schools Buwaidha wants every child to have an opportunity to attain quality formal education to break the cycles of illiteracy and poverty that have been for so long defined this area.  

This is what we want to achieve. We want to support vulnerable and underprivileged children living in Buwaidha village and the surrounding areas with easy access to quality education.

Education model  

At New Life Schools Buwaidha, we use the Ugandan curriculum. We will teach everything that as required by the government. Our students will take the required tests to be able to graduate like the rest of the country. 

The difference with New Life Schools is that we teach the same information but in a different way. Instead of teaching only how to memorize to pass tests and exams, we teach our students critical thinking. 

The plan is to start with the launch of the Kindergarten in January 2023. Once the Kindergarten school is open, a year later, we will build the Primary division and High School. 

The school will have a Recreational Center, Teachers' Housing and a Medical Centre. The school will also provide community-based projects and training programs outside of school hours. 

Planned Kyabazinga launch  

First, it is always a pleasure and prestigious when the Kyabazinga graces such a function. We expect the Kyabazinga to come with a high delegation from the kingdom. Also, we hope that the Kyabazinga will come with a message of hope to inspire his subject. There is always something to learn from the Kyabazinga.

New Life Schools is working with Obwa Kyabazinga Bwa Busoga. And to launch the project, the Kyabazinga of Busoga, His Majesty William Wilberforce Gabula Nadiope IV, will on 28th January 2023 preside over the launch of the kindergarten section and break the ground for the construction of the upper sections – primary and secondary sections. 

Parents and pupils who are interested in joining Kampala Parents’ School in the incoming academic year but missed the November and December 2020 interviews have another chance this month to be interviewed.

This comes after Kampala Parents School announced new dates on which parents and guardians can bring their children to be interviewed and assessed before being enrolled in the school community.

“The Principal of Kampala Parents' School Informs all interested parents that admissions for 2021 intake are still on from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm,” the school announced.

The interview dates are Monday, 11th January, Friday, 22 January and Saturday 30th January 2021. The interviews and assessment are purely academic and will be conducted by highly trained teachers.

While the government hasn’t pronounced when it will be reopening schools following the closure of all education centres countrywide in March by President Yoweri Museveni as a means of combating Coronavirus, Kampala Parents School and other schools are optimistic that it will happen soon.

Kampala Parents mission, according to management, is to instil qualities of good leadership, sound moral judgment, self-discipline, a pluralistic outlook, and civic responsibility to distinguish each child as a responsible individual.

By Dr Krishna N. Sharma 

Higher education training institutions across the country were excited to know that the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) finally released guidelines for adoption of an emergency Open, Distance and E-Learning (ODeL) system during COVID-19 pandemic.

It is also applauding of the First Lady and education and sports minister Mrs Janet Museveni, gave the go-ahead for online teaching to enable the higher institutions of learning to offer learning during the current lockdown.

Though a few institutions had already engaged their students in teaching and learning activities using online platforms, the students and institutions were still uncertain about the continuity. If we leave out the institutions that started online teaching and learning early, for some of them, this guideline is a vanity, appreciating it is sanity, but complying with it is a yet-to-be-tested reality.

Institutions were concerned about the delay in issuing the guidelines as it was affecting the sustainability of institutions and the progress of students. But after reading this carefully crafted five-paged compact to-the-point document, it becomes clear why did it take time. The good thing is that the NCHE consulted the universities, took note of their suggestions, analysed, and then came up with this guideline. So, it is expected that the majority of the institutions co-own it.

These guidelines ask higher education training institutions to avail 26 different pieces of evidence. But the beauty of this guideline is that it protects academic freedom and institutional autonomy. These essential pieces of evidence cover a wide range of areas including but not limited to students, human resource, ODeL model, evaluation and assessment, ICT infrastructure, quality assurance, health and safety, and compliance with relevant laws and regulations.

The very first expectation in this guideline is the existence of COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as issued by the Ministry of Health. It indicates that NCHE has prioritised the health and safety of students and staff. It is something the higher education training institutions should already have in place as it has been long since the Ministry of Health issued the guideline.

The immediate challenge higher education training institutions may face is crafting a cost-effective ODeL system that addresses the need of institution and students. This can be well guided by doing a student survey to find out their readiness. Knowing the readiness and challenges of students will help institutions not only find practical solutions and build required ICT infrastructure but also help them propose reasonable mitigation measures and strategy of redress for time and learning lost. The survey will guide the discussion with relevant stakeholders on mitigation measures and approach.

However, just having the ODeL system and ICT infrastructure is not enough until the users know how to use it. Higher education training institutions need to train their staff and students on appropriate and effective utilisation of ODeL system for online teaching, learning, assessment and evaluation. It is also vital to ensure that the students and staff are aware of internet ethics and relevant laws and regulations such as the Data Protection and Privacy Act 2019.

There will be challenges at students’ end too. Few students may find e-learning financially constraining if there are longer face-to-face teaching and learning hours, mentally constraining if they have poor internet connection, and physically constraining (e.g. eye strain, neck pain, backache) if they don’t have quality tools to access ODeL. It is important to inform students about these constrains and help them learn cop up mechanisms.

Another important area, the institutions need to focus on is online assessment and evaluation. There will be a need for smart use of ICT to avoid cheating while ensuring security and privacy. Institutions should find creative and innovative ways to establish a framework that ensures fair assessment and evaluation without over-complicating the whole process.

In a nutshell, the guidelines have covered all essential areas and the ball is in the court of higher education training institutions and students. The post-pandemic period is not going to be the same and the e-learning is going to prepare both the education sector and the student for the same. It is not going to be a swift shift for many institutions and students, but it is worthwhile.

We must applaud the government on the move taken to allow e-learning. We should have had it in this country years back. The mere fact that now that the government has pronounced itself on the matter, this is highly laudable.

The writer is a Vice-Chancellor for Victoria University in Kampala.

Delhi Public School International To Start Teaching Robotics, Coding

Delhi Public School International (DPSI), the only international school in Uganda teaching India’s acclaimed Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), will next year in May start their ‘stem and Robotics programme.’

Under these programmes, the school, a member of the Ruparelia Group, said, will teach fundamental engineering concepts, design, building, testing and basics of coding.

“Our school prides itself on the balanced education it provides, the world-class facilities on offer, high moral standards and the fact that our students strive for excellence in all spheres of school life,” the school of the upcoming projects.

Coding is the process of using a programming language to get a computer to behave how you want it to. Every line of code tells the computer to do something, and a document full of lines of code is called a script.

Robotics is a branch of engineering that involves the conception, design, manufacture, and operation of robots. This field overlaps with electronics, computer science, artificial intelligence, mechatronics, nanotechnology and bioengineering.

Delhi Public School International recently had representatives of universities from the UK and Canada offer their career guidance to their students.

“Our students having one on one Career Guidance sessions with representatives from various universities in Canada and the UK. This Career Guidance Fair was organized at DPSI by S3 Education,” DPSI posted on social media with pictures of the career guidance sessions.

Delhi Public School International said that as an international school they have an obligation to prepare their students to be able to make the right academic choices and for that matter, they have engaged some of the best international universities in the world to share their experiences.

Many times, young students make wrong academic choices especially when it comes to the courses they are to study at university. These wrongly chosen courses equally lead these students to careers they don’t like or have talents to excel.

To avoid, Delhi Public School International (DPSI), the only international school in Uganda teaching India’s acclaimed Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), had representatives of universities from the UK and Canada offer their career guidance to their students.

“Our students having one on one Career Guidance sessions with representatives from various universities in Canada and the UK. This Career Guidance Fair was organized at DPSI by S3 Education,” DPSI posted on social media with pictures of the career guidance sessions.

Delhi Public School International said that as an international school they have an obligation to prepare their students to be able to make the right academic choices and for that matter, they have engaged some of the best international universities in the world to share their experiences.

DPSI, a member of the Ruparelia Group, also involves parents ‘in the school planning process because students develop better social skills and improved behaviour when their parents are involved at school.’

“Our school prides itself on the balanced education it provides, the world-class facilities on offer, high moral standards and the fact that our students strive for excellence in all spheres of school life,” the school in a public statement.

DPSI as a school is both modern and forward-looking, yet remains close to the values on which it was founded.

It has recently invested in world-class laboratories ‘because combining classroom teaching with laboratory experiments ensures students interact directly with the data gathered to get a first-hand learning experience.’

“At Delhi Public School International Kampala, we try to recognize the imperative of imparting an educational experience that is world-class in every respect and which prepares children for global citizenship.

We believe that a curriculum of excellence with a global dimension is central to the education of children to face the challenges of the 21st century with confidence and strength of character,” the school said.