6 Months, 6 Teachers
In the Jumpstart! programme, we are supporting 36 caregivers in total. With the 6 Month Jumpstart! Special you will have the chance of getting to know 6 of them a bit better. Within the next few week, we will upload their profiles on here, one by one, so keep your eyes open for facebook posts and tweets and enjoy !
Teacher #1: Meet Stephen!
One of the teachers at Nwoya Public Nursery School is Stephen. He has, so far, acquired the Certificate level in teacher training. Stephen is motivated and committed, and plans to complete a diploma in teaching as soon as he gets the chance. This is why Stephen enjoyed the refresher training coordinated by our Jumpstart! team so much:
“The training was good; and it has also bought some influence in us. So it has improved on my performance, given in the class and at the school. So when I joined here I had no knowledge of planning and scheming and even how to control the class. But through those trainings, I’ve gained some skills in organising class and even in preparing some scheme of work and evaluation plans – which I’m really so grateful of it.”
Stephen greatly admired his father who had been a teacher and inspired him to follow in his footsteps one day. He has only been a teacher for 6 months, but he shows great talent, having been chosen as one of the 50 STIR Education finalists among 1000 teachers for his micro-innovation ‘morning parade’ where students and teachers start the day by gathering at 7am to sing folk songs, rhymes, perform traditional dances and narrate stories. Stephen aimed to improve the punctuality of teachers and students, and has succeeded in doing so in his school – what better way to start a morning than with something fun and exciting!
What Stephen enjoys about being a teacher is “exploring his potential” and seeing his “ability of creating differences in life of the communities” he comes from. He especially likes Learning Area 1 of the Government Teaching Plan, which is about ‘relating with others’. This is why he finds great joy in seeing the changes in his pupils: Their social skills have especially improved since they started school, as they are able to interact with each other much better now. However, Stephen also admits that teaching at Nwoya Public Nursery School is not always easy, as they face several challenges, such as going unpaid when parents are unable to pay school fees, insufficient playing and learning materials and the challenges in protecting learning materials, as classrooms cannot be locked. All the more, Stephen appreciates the engagement of the parents when they create learning materials out of natural materials and help to keep the school grounds nice and clean every week.
It is a real pleasure to be working with motivated teachers like Stephen who share our commitment to the importance of ECD:
“It is actually very good, because it is the foundation where the child will begins to know the importance of education; and it is the first step where they start getting to know how to relate with others, so that when they advance there would be no difficulties in their learning.
When the children starts directly from the primary school, they normally get bullied by the older children, so they normally became scared and some may not even study because of bullying.”
Teacher #2: This is Sunday!
Sunday is not only one of our dedicated ECD teachers, he is also the head teacher at Lacek Community School; the community hired him two years ago when Sunday was only 19 years old! Sunday had always wanted to be a teacher: “It was my dream to be a teacher since I was in primary school. As I grew up, I gained more knowledge about the profession, and then attended a teaching college.” Sunday has been teaching for four years now.
There are very few male nursery teachers in Northern Uganda, but Sunday believes more men should be encouraged to join the profession to serve as positive male role models for young students. Sunday is one of the very committed teachers who is eager to support his community, as he believes that “I am a changemaker – I am here to cause change. That is the best thing about being a teacher!” So far, Sunday has expanded his school from P4 to P7, giving more children in this rural area access to quality education, and has been working tirelessly to improve general discipline at his school.
Sunday is particularly passionate about ECD, highlighting the differences between children who have attended nursery school, and those who have not:
“A child who has been to an ECD centre is more developed and prepared for primary school and can participate actively, but a child who goes straight to primary school is still fearful of others, and doesn’t learn as well” – and he clearly echoes the spirit of Jumpstart! when he explains “It is important as when they grow, they will be able to achieve what they are want to get in the future.”
As part of the Jumpstart! programme, Sunday was very grateful and happy to take part in additional ECD training organised by African Revival:
“The knowledge I have acquired in the past week thanks to African Revival is more unique than other courses. The tutors, who have been doing the training, have equipped us with useful skills in lesson planning, and devising work-plans to cover the curriculum. It has been most helpful. I have also learnt how to create good classroom displays and how to be more creative with playing materials – now I know what local materials I can use as learning tools”.
With these new-found skills, we believe that Sunday will continue to excel in his position as a nursery teacher at Lacek ECD centre, helping children to develop into well-rounded individuals. Ultimately, Sunday would like to see his students grow up to be capable and hard-working adults, who have maintained all of their youthful talents.
“I see my students excelling in football and athletics, and I would like to see them maintain these talents as they grow older”.
Teacher #3: Meet Dorcas!
– a young woman who is one of the three fantastic teachers at Agung Primary School. Whilst Dorcas’ colleagues – Oliver and Miriam – teach the large K1 class, Dorcas teaches the 63 K2 and K3s together in one classroom. As you can imagine, teaching so many young children at different levels is no mean feat. However, Dorcas takes this challenge in her stride. She sits the children in front of her on a mat, and together they complete activities at the blackboard, or in their exercise books. Dorcas is well-respected and obviously well-liked by the pupils, and they follow her every instruction carefully! It is therefore clear that in spite of the large number of students, Dorcas has ensured that her classroom is a productive learning environment. Even her young baby who dozes on her back throughout the day is silent and contented!
Dorcas has been teaching for several years, and whilst she is doing a tremendous job, she doesn’t have any formal training in nursery education. This is why Dorcas was selected, as part of our Jumpstart! programme, to complete an Early Childhood Development (ECD) training course which has helped her build up her knowledge of ECD, and build up her skills to plan exciting lessons for her young pupils. Dorcas has enjoyed this training and told us:
“Now I really like making bright displays; both myself and children like spending a day in this new environment, with new posters and drawings. I can also tell that the children are learning passively because of these materials, so I am seeing my pupils are progressing well”. “
As such, although there are many positive aspects to her job, one of the challenges in this school is that the parents of pre-primary school students frequently neglect to pay their children’s school fees, which means the teachers’ have not been paid properly for several months. However, Dorcas tells us “I love to teach, some teachers wouldn’t stay because we don’t always get paid, but I want the children to learn so keep coming.” Dorcas’ willingness to work without pay is a true testament to Dorcas’ commitment to her pupils!
Here at African Revival, we really value dedicated teachers like Dorcas who make many sacrifices for their young pupils, and we’re keen to see teachers and parents work collaboratively to ensure the best start in life for the children. So, as part of our Jumpstart! project, our Education Programme Co-coordinator Richard conducted a community sensitization meeting at Agung to highlight parents’ responsibilities towards their children’s education – including paying school fees -, and sought to motivate the local community to actively engage in their young children’s learning. We hope that these efforts to help ensure that Dorcas gets paid regularly; she certainly deserves it!
Teacher #4: This is Alice!
Alice teaches K2 at Koch Goma Central’s nursery school. As a young woman, when she finished school, she stayed at home, doing farm work. However, four years ago, she began to really struggle financially. As she always enjoyed taking care of children and as she saw the value of teaching-
“I like teaching, because education is the one that make our country better. Without it you can’t do anything, or knowledge – you have to gain knowledge before. Without education or if someone has not gone through school, he or she can’t do anything – for example writing, reading sample, it will be difficult for him or her.”
– she decided to pursue a career in teaching. Without further ado, Alice completed a Certificate in Early Childhood Development, where “we learnt how to assess, how to deal with the children and even how to use the learning framework”, and has been teaching ever since. She is very happy about this as she is now able to provide and care for family! Alice is very committed to her job, and realises the importance of her work as she believes:
“ECD is very important because in ECD we start learning from 0 to 8 years, so when the child goes through ECD, he or she will learn more and when he or she goes to the primary section, they will now be able to learn to speak, he or she will develop how to talk, how to thank, how to respond.”
Alice also enjoys being able to continuously gain more knowledge through attending additional workshops, courses and through daily experiences with her pupils. As an ambitious young woman, she hopes to be chosen by the government in 2017 for further formal training, which would enable her to obtain a Diploma – enabling her to teach in primary school, too.
However, for now she is kept busy with lesson planning according to the learning framework areas. As all kids, “they always like playing, singing, doing some rhymes – that is what they like!” – which is great because Alice enjoys teaching music in particular!
Although Alice speaks well of the parents engagement in the ECD centre – “Parents, they are involved. If you call them for a meeting and we have some issues, we share with them, so that we find a way forward that we can work on.” – she also points out the fact that parents struggle to pay school fees. As a result, Alice and her colleagues often go unpaid which is tough! Furthermore, the nursery school lacks learning and playing materials. As funds are scarce, Alice and her colleagues have been creative: They use local materials, such as bottle tops, and create hand-drawn visual learning aids that brighten up the dull classroom walls. Thanks to her dedication, Alice is proud of her nursery pupils’ positive development and progress:
“They are developing! They are developing like some, when they came, they didn’t know how to speak, even how to talk. So they are now developing so that they are even able to write some, now. Like in K3, they are now able to write their names on their own.”
It is so inspiring to see and hear how Alice is positively impacting the lives of her pupils and we are excited to hear more about her pupils and classroom as the Jumpstart! project goes on!
Teacher #5: Meet Doreen from Nwoya Public Nursery School!
Doreen only joined Nwoya Public Nursery School this year, as she originally comes from Alero, a village 6km away from the school. She has been teaching for 4 years now. Doreen initially wanted to become a policewoman, but due to financial restraints, she could not start her training. This is why, she returned to senior 4, and continued with school until she decided to become a teacher. As her interest in teaching flourished, she went to St Josephine Bakhita Nursery Teacher Training College in order to complete formal ECD training and finally, obtained the ECD Certificate, in 2013. As Doreen is still eager to expand her knowledge, she would love to go on with her training and complete the Diploma in teaching one day.
At Nwoya Public Nursery School, Doreen teaches K2 and K3, together with her colleague Stephen; as the school only has two classrooms, these two classes have to be taught jointly. This is definitely one of the challenges that she faces every day:
“Yes, that’s the problem, we are facing – because teaching them is very very difficult. When you are teaching this one with their work, with the things the things that you teach in K3, K2 are also hearing it and they will not understand it. That is the very big problem I am facing here.”
Additionally, Doreen also struggles with a lack of playing materials, especially outdoor equipment.However, thanks to her positive nature and her great affection for children
– “I like hearing things from children. And I like children, I like sitting with them, talking to them and their behaviours.” –
this is not stopping Doreen to give her pupils a Jumpstart!. Doreen realises how important education is for the children
– “Education is important – to make them feel at home; to develop their minds; to start living in the community, and share with friends.” –
So with all her heart, she does her best in supporting her pupils with their development. Equipped with bottle tops, abaccas, rhymes and songs, she is doing a great job offering these children a well-rounded, diverse and entertaining learning schedule every day. As a result, she is already to see changes in her pupils’ knowledge and development:
“There is a great change in them, because by the time I started here, on the first day a lot of children were not getting anything at all, but now they are at least doing some things.”
Fortunately, parents at Nwoya Public Primary School are very supportive, as Doreen tells us that
“They like this programme so much, because it is also helping them, and making it easier for them to do their work at home. And the children go back to them when at least they have something in their mind, so that makes them also be happy. The parents are very interested!”
Their involvement and engagement, from making learning and playing materials to maintaining the school grounds, is essential for Doreen and her colleagues in order to be able to offer the little ones quality education.
Doreen is a cheerful young woman and a dedicated teacher – and is one of the reasons why her involvement in our Jumpstart! programme is bringing about real change!
Teacher #6: This is Scovia!
Scovia was initially trained as a secondary school teacher, and has taught in secondary schools for the past few years. However, Scovia recently moved to Purongo with her husband, where she accepted a K2 teaching position at Purongo Hill Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centre at the beginning of this academic year. Although Scovia is accustomed to teaching older children, she is enjoying this new challenge.
“I love nursery teaching, I find it so interesting. I like interacting with the children; it amuses me because I like children very much. My pupils are doing well, although I have lots of new pupils from different schools and sometimes they struggle to understand the things I am trying to teach. But by the end of the year, I am hoping that I would have helped these children improve in the areas where they struggle”.
As part of our Jumpstart! programme, African Revival enabled Scovia to attend a week-long ECD training course in February to equip her with the knowledge and skills to best support her young students. At the end of the course, we caught up with Scovia:
“I have learnt alot through this training week, because my previous training was geared towards secondary school teaching. Coming here has opened my mind in many ways, and will really help me in my K2 classroom. I have learnt how to interact with the children, how to plan lessons and activities which are at the right level for the children, and how to implement a good routine for the children; these are the things which have made me so happy to know, because now I will be a better teacher. This training has been so good for me; it has been so busy but we have gained really good skills to take back to our classrooms. I think my eyes have really been opened to how important ECD is.”
New to ECD, Scovia has clearly faced some challenges. This is why, Scovia appreciates the continuous training in ECD, as she attended further workshops in May. Afterwards, full of new knowledge and motivation, she was ready to conquer the second term:
“I therefore guarantee you that our ECD centre will even do much better in term two and the other coming terms.”
Scovia and her colleagues, Jino and Jackeline, have put all their efforts into redesigning the ECD centre at Purongo Hill, bringing some life and colour into the three classrooms. With limited resources and only little furniture, it’s their creativity that counts and makes a difference! The results of their hard work are, for example, numerous bright and entertaining posters and charts supporting the children’s learning process.
As such a dedicated and committed teacher, Scovia does not only want to bring change within her classroom, but within the whole district and beyond. This is why, she is part of our teacher network, where she actively participates in order to be a real changemaker! Therefore, she also entered the STIR’s micro-innovation with a fantastic concept to 
increase parents involvement in their children’s education: the Responsible Parents Award – At first, during parents meetings, parents shall be assigned certain tasks tied to their childrens’ education and learning. At follow up meetings, parents, fulfilling their tasks in an outstanding manner, shall then be recognised publically and given voice as model parents to encourage other parents to follow their example.
Jumpstart! is supporting Purongo Hill Nursery School in several ways, but in the end, it is teachers like Scovia that are able achieve real change on a daily basis in the lives of these little ones.
Thank you for your support!
Happy 6 Month Jumpstart! Anniversary!
