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Education
Community / The New Forests Company
The New Forests Company is planning to occupy its plantations for the foreseeable future. While education is an essential tool for empowering communities to develop themselves, it is also an economic investment for NFC who will benefit from the improved capacity of local labor, contractors and other operations service providers. To date, NFC has invested the largest amount in educational projects.
The reason for this was two fold, NFC’s belief in the importance of education for development and the wide gaps in the current situation on the ground. When Universal Primary Education (UPE) was introduced in Uganda in 1997, millions of children who previously could not afford primary education were suddenly given the opportunity at a very low cost. Therefore, the 2.7 million children in 8,000 schools in 1996 jumped to over 7 million in 13,300 schools by 2003 (Literacy Practices in Primary Schools in Uganda, Muwanga, et. al., 2007). Unfortunately, public education funding has not been able to keep up with this massive expansion which has put a major strain on all aspects of the public education system from infrastructure to supply of qualified teachers to teaching and learning tools. This has resulted in very serious quality issues. In 2002, a study revealed that of the 361,150 students who successfully completed primary school, only 13% were adequately literate in English (Muwanga, et.al.).
Projects
Construction of Double Classroom Blocks
Not very many NGOs in Uganda engage in infrastructure activities, so due to the great need, NFC took this up as one of its main projects. It is not uncommon to see over one hundred children sharing a classroom in the local schools, or even learning under a tree when there are no classrooms at all.
NFC has invested in three classroom blocks so far at Kikandwa Umea Primary School, Ddalamba Primary School, and St. Noa Buswa Primary School - all bordering Namwasa Plantation. It is currently building a fourth at Nsavu Primary School bordering Kirinya Plantation.
NFC assesses which schools have the highest student: classroom ratios and targets those schools. The schools are then offered the opportunity to participate in the partnership if they are willing to mobilize the local materials as their contribution – the sand, bricks, aggregate and unskilled labour. NFC provides the remaining supplies including iron sheets for the roofs, paint and cement.
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| Under a Tree: Typical class head under a tree in the absence of classroom structures. | |
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| Ddalamba The student:classroom ratio at Ddalamba went from 90:1 to 64:1. | St. Noa Buswa The student:classroom ratio at St. Noa Buswa decreased from 136:1 to 97:1. The Head Teacher at St. Noa said the most positive impact this project had was that it gave the parents pride in the school and lifted their morale that there was something they could do to improve their children’s education. |
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| Nsavu Primary School has 750 pupils and only four permanent classrooms, making a student:classroom ratio of about 188:1. However, once the double classroom block is finished, the ratio will decrease to 125:1. |
The Learning Paper
The infrastructure of the UPE schools is not the only educational asset that suffered with the very fast expansion. The educational materials for the classroom are also quite hard find in the schools. New Forests partnered with an organization called The Learning Paper Organization (TLPO) to develop and distribute a non-textbook educational resource to over 20 local schools. TLPO brought the educational and pedagogical expertise from experts in the UK and combined it with the local knowledge and input of teachers from the schools and developed a very locally appropriate and educational enhancing teaching and learning tool, very well liked by the students, teachers, and parents.
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| Kids reading the learning paper | John Arnold and Teachers |
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| Teachers being trained at the workshop |
Educational Resources
When NFC first arrived in Uganda, it developed a partnership with the Alinyikira Primary School. Their most pressing need was some way to produce worksheets for exams and preps that the students could mark on and they asked for support for a manual duplicating machine which NFC provided for them. They later told NFC that this was the most beneficial contribution that the school has received. Therefore, NFC decided to provide one for Umea Primary School near Namwasa Plantation as well which they are now using to print their own exams as well as surrounding schools.
NFC is currently doing theoretical and field research to find out what other cost-effective educational resources would most improve the quality of education offered at the local schools.
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| Umea Duplicating Machine at Umea and surrounding schools, teachers used to have to travel over ten kilometers to make photo copies. They like the duplicating because it is so close and much less expensive than making electric copies. | Alinyikira’s favorite resource |
Forest High School Kikandwa
When the New Forests Company conducted its first participatory rural appraisal, one of the most urgent needs that came up was improving the access to secondary school, especially for girls. Many girls would finish primary school and despite good marks, if their family could not afford to send them to boarding school in the nearest town forty kilometers away, they would often be married off or take up work in the sex trade to earn income for their families. NFC decided to figure out how to bring a secondary school to this area and managed to do so in partnership with an NGO called Promoting Equality in African Schools (PEAS) who specialize in setting up and managing affordable, quality secondary education in Uganda. PEAS and NFC split the capital costs for building the school and all the running costs are sustainably funded by low fees from the pupils.
Forest High School Kikandwa was officially opened in January 2008 by guest of honour, British artist, Ms. Tracey Emin who generously funded the construction of the Tracey Emin Library at the high school. The school already has over 200 pupils and continues to grow.
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| FHSK Opening | Tracey Emin Library |
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| FHSK in session | FHSK classroom of kids |
Our current projects are:
