Cambridge SS building dreams without school fees

By Gloria Nakajubi

 

OBEDI Kyazze is currently pursuing his second Business Administration degree at Cairo University. But he has not come this far, on a silver platter. It has been a real, though worth struggle.

 

Right from primary school, he was never certain of his future. He never knew that he would join secondary schooling, until a friend tipped him of opportunities at Cambridge SS, that his dreams were once again illuminated.

 

“We were just so many children in my family and my peasant father could not afford to support all of us through school. If it wasn’t for such a system where some of us were allowed to work on the school farm, I would never have finished my education,” he says.

 

Stephen Kiweewa is also one of the pioneer students at Cambridge SS. After the death of his father, while he was just two years old, his mother struggled to push him through school. “My mother had told me that she would not afford paying for my secondary education. I was also aware of our situation. Life was really hard,” he says.

 

During his vacation, he managed to raise about sh160,000 through fetching water at construction sites which he used to enroll at the nearby secondary school. But was left wondering where he would get school fees for the following term. As luck would have it, he later found out about Cambridge SS and was able to secure a placement under the bursary scheme.

 

But to make this work, almost half the students at this school, contribute to its running, through various avenues. Some of the students, who cannot pay fees, bring food to cater for the boarding section of the school. Others work on the farm or the school’s bakery, or are involved in other fundraising activities.

 

Sustainability

The school now has over 400 students at both Ordinary and Advanced level with half of the number paying tuition, while the rest have to contribute through direct food contribution or working on the farm.

 

You would be right to imagine it’s an international school, considering its name. But is a local school using a local curriculum.

 

As Kalule narrates, the money from the private students which ranges from between sh350,000 to sh400,000 is used to pay up for some of the bills such as salaries and other maintenance costs.

 

The school has now been able to complete the one-storeyed building that was left incomplete when Kalule’s husband passed on. This now accommodates some of the classes, school library, main hall and laboratory.

 

On his recent visit back home, one of Kalule’s sons, Henry Lukenge, currently based in the UK explained that the journey has not been an easy one especially at the start when they had to support the school from their own pockets.

 

“It is mum’s dream and the best we could do was support her. We are just glad that she chose to stick to her idea even when we didn’t buy it,” he says.

 

Lukenge says the students through what is now known as Ssubi Drama Club that comprises of highly talented students has had tours in Canada where they have managed to fundraise for the school. The most recent tour was in 2013.

 

The boys have also been trained to bake and lay bricks. These bricks are later sold to supplement the income of the school. Such income is used to pay off teachers, buy school meals, and pay electricity and water bills.

 

With support of her children, a local bakery has been constructed out of clay and bricks. The students attend baking classes every Wednesday from 2:00pm-4:00pm.

 

The cakes, cookies, bread and biscuits are some of the products of such efforts. Some of the above items are consumed at break tea while others are sold off to generate income to further support school activities.

 

Kalule together with her sons have come with a social enterprise venture where she gets to engage the women in her community to do craft works such as handbags, baskets, wall hangings among others. These are later sent to the UK for sale and the proceeds sent back to the school.

 

More so, through Lukenge, the school recently got into partnership with Dream for Uganda foundation, a Canadian-based team that helped the school to create a dance studio and a library.

 

As the Kalule notes, the school can currently cover all its costs with both the privileged and underprivileged students benefitting equally.

 

Genesis

Back in 1999 when Kevina Kalule shared the dream with her children, they thought she was being insensitive. Their father had just passed on and they needed every income to keep the home running.

 

Kalule, a resident of Kyengera, Wakiso district, was not going to give up the dream of giving hope to the most vulnerable people in her community especially the young girls.

 

“I would see so many girls in my neighbourhood being taken on as housemaids at a very tender age and the next thing you would see would be a bulging tummy. In most cases this would be a pregnancy from another equally vulnerable young person,” she says.

 

It is the desire to change a life that made her turn her estate into a school, which now stands as Cambridge SS in Kyengera; with a current enrolment of over 400 students.

 

Real start

The year was 2001 when her dream was finally put to work and this was in one of the rooms at her home. Her first students were to use this as a dormitory but above all, they had become members of her family. Most of her biological children had left home.

 

With no prior training in teaching or school administration, Kalule had no idea of what she was getting herself into. She thought it would be a matter of having some few girls and boys with a teacher or two.

 

But when reality set in, she had already sunk her head a little deeper and was left with no option of pulling back.

 

The rental houses where she was getting money had to be turned into classrooms leaving her with basically no source of income.

 

“I had a simple kiosk by the roadside around my home where we started selling simple snacks like pancakes and fried cassava to buy the basics for home use,” she explains.

 

Her sons had to bear the responsibility of paying the two teachers that had been recruited at the time.

 

In just one year, the number had grown to over 100 students.

 

As they came in, she started identifying the relatively financially stable and the very poor students. Those who could not pay would bring food instead. 

 

This would be in form of beans, maize flour or sweet potatoes.

 

Up to today, the other mode of paying school fees is by working on the school farm during holidays which has helped many especially the boys to go through school.

 

At the school farm in Kakiri, Wakiso district, they grow food crops such as sweet potatoes, maize, bananas, cassava and tomatoes; which help save the cost on food for both the teachers and students.