An Education

As promised, I said I would be writing about the education system in Uganda and here it is! Visiting schools is something we did a good bit of. We visited some public schools and a private one, St Mary's. I bet we saw close to a thousand school kids during the week we were there. There are SO many children in Uganda. It is really something that strikes you almost immediately. The population there is quite young. 50% of the population is under 14 years of age. The average life expectancy is 51 years. Retirement is at age 55. Uganda is full of mostly people who are a lot younger than we are in the US. Here at home only 27% of our population is under the age of 20. And we have nearly 13% over the age of 65. So the demographics of our two countries are quite strikingly different. As is most everything else, in case you haven't noticed that already......



The fact that there are so many children perhaps in some way explains the conditions in the schools. They are just not equipped in any way to handle the number of kids who need to be educated. Consider the teacher to student ratio in the US. Once the numbers get much above 25 per classroom at the elementary level, big red flags begin to go up. Parents become very concerned. Class ratios and concern over them lead many parents to choose private schools or to home school. In Uganda the ratio of students to teacher is around 70 -80 per teacher. No- that is not a typo. You read that correctly. 70-80 students per teacher. How do they do that you are wondering? Well, there are a couple of things that they have going for them that teachers at home do not.....

First of all, African children are taught to fear and respect adults. There is a very definite belief in the proverb "spare the rod, spoil the child". Teachers have the authority to beat students with a stick if need be. They do it regularly. No one bats an eye lash. Consequently, the kids are well mannered and well behaved. They fear the rod. So they think twice about acting up. We saw children being beaten in the streets by adults. There is no social services to come around and threaten parents. They have full authority over their children and no one questions it. You might think this is terrible. But if you could see the difference between how these children behave compared with children here at home, you might begin to think differently about it. I may not like the idea of children being beaten, but I can tell you I certainly can see the positive effects of it. There is absolutely no denying that children there are more polite, better behaved, more respectful than children in this country. Of course there is more than one reason for this, but a healthy fear and respect for authority is certainly a part of the equation.


This for example. We walked into a class room of 3 and 4 yr old children. 70 or so of them. They were all seated on long narrow benches. Maybe 8-10 per bench. The room was very small and dark. There is no electricity in the schools. There were no books. No computers. No pens, pencils, crayons. No educational toys. All they had was a blackboard and some chalk. These children sat quietly. No one said a word. There was no touching. No bothering each other. No one fidgeting. No one getting up to run around. In short- no evidence of ADHD anywhere to be seen! If someone wanted to speak a hand was raised. The teacher had absolute control over all these children. Is there a preschool anywhere in the US that would look anything like this? Oh, I think NOT! I remember drop off days at preschool. It was like Bedlam!


As I spoke to in my previous post, school attendance is a big deal. Being able to go, that is. Every child wants to go to school but many can't because their parents can't find the fees for various things. Public school is free in Uganda. Sort of.....kids are allowed to attend to a point. But then parents are contacted for the fees they owe, and if they can't pay, the kids can't come back. This results in many breaks in the child's education process. And this is why they are much older when they finish up the equivalent of high school here in the US. It is not unusual for a 20 yr old to just be graduating from what we would call high school.


My family sponsors a 14 yr old girl in a village in Uganda somewhere. Her name is Deborah. We support her with a monthly stipend which pays for her school fees, uniforms, supplies, and any extras that she needs. She writes to me often in English. She never fails to thank us for paying for her school fees. Just this simple thing takes so much pressure off of her family. Kids in Bombo where we were staying know about these type of sponsorship arrangements. If they approached us and asked for anything at all, they asked us to sponsor them to go to school. Such a small thing to desire. And something so easy for us to do. For less than the cost of a dinner out each month, we can make a huge difference in the life of a child in the developing world. There are several good organizations thru which you can do this. One of the things I want to do at the end of my journal sharing is to offer suggestions for ways in which people can get involved in helping to make things easier in the lives of our brothers and sisters in the third world who have so much less in the way of material things than we do.


The time that we spent visiting schools in Bombo is one of my fondest memories of the trip. At one elementary school we gathered outside under a large mahogany tree with at least 200 children. We sang worship songs, shared some inspirational messages, visited their class rooms, and played games. At another we gathered in a large auditorium with about 400 high school aged students. We were teaching the teens a Third Day Song entitled " Sweet, Sweet Song". It's a simple song to sing. The chorus is "You are beautiful my sweet, sweet song. You are beautiful my sweet, sweet song. You are beautiful my sweet, sweet song. And I will sing again...". At first they just listened. Then Rachel invited them to sing with us, and 400 beautiful African faces smiled broadly and broke into song. It was one of those total "God present with us" moments. In that room was the presence of the Holy Spirit. It was amazing. Powerful. Holy. I will never hear that song again and not go right back to that moment in Uganda. I will carry that memory in my heart till the day I die. As I will the beauty of all the children we met during our brief time their country. Children with dreams.  Children who long for a better life.  Children loved by a Holy God who wonders how long before His people answer His call to care for the orphan, the widow, those less fortunate?  I have heard skeptics say that God should get off His butt and take care of these people if He loves them so much.  To which I say- that is the job He has left to us until He comes again and all things are restored.  How long will that be?  Until The Gospel has reached the ends of the earth. Help spread it.  Love a child who is not your own.  Care for one.  Provide for one.  We can't fix all the ills of this world.  But we can be like the Star Fish Thrower.  We can make a difference to one.  Shalom!