TOTO magazine activities excite nursery pupils in Moroto
The situation is worse in the Early Childhood Development (ECD) class, where all 175 learners (2-5 years) sit on the dusty ground under a tree. No furniture, no uniform or scholastic materials.
Teacher Peter Namuke using TOTO Magazine to teach Primary One learners. (Credit: Ritah Mukasa)
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Kidepo Pupu Community School has unique challenges. Located a few kilometers from Moroto town in Moroto district, Karamoja sub-region, the school is grappling with teacher shortages and inadequate infrastructure, compounded by a lack of instructional materials and basic class requirements such as books, pens, pencils and crayons. Yet the class sizes are also overwhelming, according to Peter Namuke, the deputy head teacher who also teaches Literacy, Physical Education and Art in Primary One and Two.
Primary One alone has 230 pupils crammed into one room. Ten children or more squeeze themselves on the bench meant to accommodate five pupils. And only five pupils out of the 230 were lucky to receive a book each (48 pages) and a pen, not a pencil, donated by a Good Samaritan.
In this one dirty book, the child writes all the subjects. They skip some lessons so the book doesn’t fill up. Namuke says the rest of the class cannot write. Not even their names because they don’t have anywhere to practice from.
Throughout the lesson, they sing while peeping at the kitchen to see if the cook beckons them for lunch.
“These children come from impoverished homes. They come to school for food,” Hellen Kolibi, the ECD teacher, says, adding that parents cannot afford to feed or even buy their kids clothes and books.
However, despite the hardships, Kolibi is grateful that they manage to make it to school. She thanks Save the Children, an organisation that saves and cares for children around the world, for the newspapers the school receives every week.
“I used to struggle to teach these pupils, but now, I use TOTO Magazine to do lesson plans.” Children also love to see pictures of other children and animals in the magazine.
About the NiE programme
Every week, Kidepo Pupu Community School receives 25 copies of Weekend Vision and TOTO magazine under the Newspapers in Education (NiE) programme, which is being funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) through Save the Children in partnership with New Vision. NORAD is implementing a five-year programme from 2024 to 2028 called “Transforming the Future-For and with Children” in Acholi and Karamoja regions. The program aims to ensure that all children enjoy their rights to survival, protection, development and participation in a safe, inclusive, accountable and resilient environment.
