Regularity

While I would love for these posts to have come in a more regular manner, this is after all Africa. There is internet, there are cell phones all over, but not all of it can manage the uses most Americans would consider normal. Smart phones are almost always refurbished, copiers only work when power is on, and even the snazzier hotels are subject to slower connections for wi-fi. 

With that said, the technology accessible to African teachers and children in the norther Districts of Gulu and Pader were extremely meager. After visiting 15+ schools in the districts, there were a few with solar power, or close enough to town to make photocopies, and a majority with access to paper and chalk. Textbooks are more like the workbooks most kids in America are issued annually, but here in Uganda the most recent set was received in 2009 and doesn't necessarily match the curriculum in its most up-to-date form.

Education is valuable. It brings me to new places time and time again, but I believe in that value. The majority of rural Ugandans don't see it, and maybe that is because knowledge does not result in fruits for one's labors, only digging (gardening) does that. If you are a teacher in public Ugandan schools, you can have any level of certification and live in a hut without electricity or a private latrine and not get paid a dime more for your higher skill set or the quality of your teaching. So is there an incentive? 

Specialization. This is the answer many teachers resort to. They teach, continue their schooling and look to move into an industry where their skill sets will be rewarded. Problem is there aren't many. Government jobs are the most reliable (even if the pay checks don't come with sincere regularity). Parents chip in for additional teachers, accommodations, and feeding programs for their teachers, but in 3 years the teacher that was there is gone. Rarely do teachers stay at the same schools for long. Most stay less than 5 years before they are transferred (willingly or against their wishes) to new schools for their expertise or body count. 

Tragedy is common. Our first school visit took us to a relatively poor area that was not on a main taxi route (the ghetto super shuttle model mentioned in previous blogs), so to get to town you walk or hire a boda boda. since a private car is out of the question for most teachers.The school could not lock its classrooms, but was hopeful about the staff accommodations they were building for teachers nearby. 2 days later on a Saturday, we drove by the same school, roofless and barren after the latest storm's wind had taken off the roof and deposited it alongside the road in a mass of corrugated steel good for nothing but scrap. How does a school like this recover? In the US, FEMA would be dashing to the rescue. Here it will be up to parents whether kids take to sitting under a tree for awhile or have a repaired school building. If a storm like this had happened during the week, just imagine the consequences and casualties that would be found in 4 classes of 100 students as timber and bricks flew from the roof. 

This doesn't make the news, not even on the hotel TV in Gulu 25 minutes away. Had we not driven by, we would never have known the hardship this school would face in the coming months. Without a transfer of knowledge, what can government even be expected to do? There are distinctive needs for better monitoring of these types of events and better support from District Education Offices. Aid can't and shouldn't fix everything, Uganda needs its own regular methods to fix problems quickly as they arise. To show communities and individuals alike that what they do and who they are matters regularly, not just when some NGO shines a spotlight- more must be done locally.