Hard times for Bududa survivors in schools
Mar 22, 2011
WHEN Bududa landslide survivors were reloacated to Kiryandongo, western Uganda, they did not realise language would be an issue
By John Masaba
FROM the time she was young, 18-year-old Robinah Nabuzaale’s dream was to become a nurse. And that dream seemed to be firmly in her grasp until early last year, when calamity befell her family.
It had rained heavily the previous night, and by morning, when she was supposed to be out for school, there were no signs of the rains relenting.
She plucked a banana leaf from their garden which she improvised as an umbrella and braved the rains. Little did she know that that was the last time she would see her family members.
As her family sheltered in their house, a heavy mass of earth and rocks, let loose by the pounding rains, tumbled down from the mountain and buried everyone at its foot alive. When she returned, she could not even trace the site where their house once stood. The entire village had been flattened by mud and rocks.
Nabuzaale’s story is one among the many tear-jerking tales of the survivors of the Bududa landslides that claimed over 350 lives last year and displaced thousands more last year.
But while the mudslides may have wiped out their entire families, for many young people like Nabuzaale, it has not wiped away their ability to look forward to the future with renewed hope.
During an interview with Mwalimu, Nabuzaale expressed her wish to return to school but could not find a school to kick-start her pursuit to become a nurse. She cannot afford the fees needed in the only school, which is privately owned, considering the fact that she is an orphan.
Desperate situation
But Nabuzaale is not alone. Other children are also struggling to adjust to the new environment in Kiryadongo. It is not rare to find children of school going age holed up at home with their parents during a school day.
While children in many places in the country enjoy Universal Primary Education (UPE), the situation is different in Kiryandongo.
Jesca Sera, one of the residents in the camp, says two of her six and seven-year-old children recently refused to go to school. “When I asked them why, they said they do not understand their teachers because they speak a ‘strange’ language,†Sera says. She says she later made out that the teachers were using Luo and Swahili at school, which her children could not understand.
The new thematic curriculum, which the Ministry of Education and Sports has introduced in all schools emphasises the use of local languages as a medium of instruction in lower primary (P.1 to P.2).
Francis Izama Buga, the head teacher of Panyadoli Primary School, which serves the camp, says the school has had to halt the curriculum in the school to accommodate the children from the camp. However, he says handling these children has become very difficult.
“Having come from the rural areas with a different mother language, communication is a problem. And yet they cannot understand English,†he says.
Izama says most of the children have difficulty concentrating at school.
“Many children have to attend lessons on empty stomachs and yet we have no means to provide food for these children,†he says.
Started by International Rescue Committee (IRC), a non-governmental organisation, to provide education for Sudanese refugees, the school is struggling to cope with the large populations of children who have since been admitted to the school.
Izama says the school has over 1,000 pupils who have to be managed by only 11 teachers. The textbooks are also in short supply and the school has only seven classrooms. Every morning children have to scramble for space.
Izama says the lower primary classes (P.1-P.4) are the most populated, and are the most difficult to handle. He says he has been forced to introduce co-teaching, where two teachers enter a class at the same time. However, this often causes a shortage in other classes.
IRC closes
IRC wound up its activities in the area following the return of Sudanese refugees back home. The school is now run with facilitation from the Government UPE programme.
However, Izama says, this facilitation is not enough or does not come in time.
“Since the term began, we have not received any UPE funds, yet we depend entirely on this facilitation to run the school,†he says.
He adds that he sought assistance from the Prime Minster’s office last year to prepare the school for the new numbers from Bududa, but he is yet to receive any response.
When contacted for a comment, Musa Ecweru, the minister for Disaster Preparedness, said the Government was aware of the problem and was working hard to arrest the situation.
Ecweru said the camp will acquire some of the best facilities in the whole of East Africa.
“We have an arrangement of a vocational college, a primary and secondary school for the people in the camp. We want to make Panyadoli Refugee Camp a model settlement in East Africa,†he said.
Quick action
As a temporary intervention, Izama says he is arranging a recruitment of teachers who are part of the survivor’s from Bududa residing in Panyadoli.
Betty Nabulwala, a former headmistress of Kitsatsa Primary School in Bududa, also one of the teachers Izama is recruiting, says she and five colleagues are ready for the new task. But their future is, however, shrouded in mystery. Despite their efforts to secure transfers from Bududa district payroll to Kiryandongo, there is little hope that she will succeed soon.
Nabualwala says: “We are worried and unless our transfers are effected soon, we may be deleted from the Bududa district payroll because we have not stepped into the classroom for a long.â€
Eddy Kibeti, one of Nabulwala’s colleagues, says it is difficult for them to get their salaries. He says they have to travel to Masindi, 80km away to draw their salaries because there are no banking services in Kiryandongo.
“We end up spending the salaries on the road in payment of hefty fares,†he says.
But not all is lost. The recent announcement by the Government that construction of a house for each household on the 2.5 acres of land is underway, is a statement of intent that bettering the lives of the mudslide survivors features prominently on its to-do list this year.
Already, a new health centre has started operation in the camp. This should be able to treat the sick, who have been travelling long distances to access medical care.
FROM the time she was young, 18-year-old Robinah Nabuzaale’s dream was to become a nurse. And that dream seemed to be firmly in her grasp until early last year, when calamity befell her family.
It had rained heavily the previous night, and by morning, when she was supposed to be out for school, there were no signs of the rains relenting.
She plucked a banana leaf from their garden which she improvised as an umbrella and braved the rains. Little did she know that that was the last time she would see her family members.
As her family sheltered in their house, a heavy mass of earth and rocks, let loose by the pounding rains, tumbled down from the mountain and buried everyone at its foot alive. When she returned, she could not even trace the site where their house once stood. The entire village had been flattened by mud and rocks.
Nabuzaale’s story is one among the many tear-jerking tales of the survivors of the Bududa landslides that claimed over 350 lives last year and displaced thousands more last year.
But while the mudslides may have wiped out their entire families, for many young people like Nabuzaale, it has not wiped away their ability to look forward to the future with renewed hope.
During an interview with Mwalimu, Nabuzaale expressed her wish to return to school but could not find a school to kick-start her pursuit to become a nurse. She cannot afford the fees needed in the only school, which is privately owned, considering the fact that she is an orphan.
Desperate situation
But Nabuzaale is not alone. Other children are also struggling to adjust to the new environment in Kiryadongo. It is not rare to find children of school going age holed up at home with their parents during a school day.
While children in many places in the country enjoy Universal Primary Education (UPE), the situation is different in Kiryandongo.
Jesca Sera, one of the residents in the camp, says two of her six and seven-year-old children recently refused to go to school. “When I asked them why, they said they do not understand their teachers because they speak a ‘strange’ language,†Sera says. She says she later made out that the teachers were using Luo and Swahili at school, which her children could not understand.
The new thematic curriculum, which the Ministry of Education and Sports has introduced in all schools emphasises the use of local languages as a medium of instruction in lower primary (P.1 to P.2).
Francis Izama Buga, the head teacher of Panyadoli Primary School, which serves the camp, says the school has had to halt the curriculum in the school to accommodate the children from the camp. However, he says handling these children has become very difficult.
“Having come from the rural areas with a different mother language, communication is a problem. And yet they cannot understand English,†he says.
Izama says most of the children have difficulty concentrating at school.
“Many children have to attend lessons on empty stomachs and yet we have no means to provide food for these children,†he says.
Started by International Rescue Committee (IRC), a non-governmental organisation, to provide education for Sudanese refugees, the school is struggling to cope with the large populations of children who have since been admitted to the school.
Izama says the school has over 1,000 pupils who have to be managed by only 11 teachers. The textbooks are also in short supply and the school has only seven classrooms. Every morning children have to scramble for space.
Izama says the lower primary classes (P.1-P.4) are the most populated, and are the most difficult to handle. He says he has been forced to introduce co-teaching, where two teachers enter a class at the same time. However, this often causes a shortage in other classes.
IRC closes
IRC wound up its activities in the area following the return of Sudanese refugees back home. The school is now run with facilitation from the Government UPE programme.
However, Izama says, this facilitation is not enough or does not come in time.
“Since the term began, we have not received any UPE funds, yet we depend entirely on this facilitation to run the school,†he says.
He adds that he sought assistance from the Prime Minster’s office last year to prepare the school for the new numbers from Bududa, but he is yet to receive any response.
When contacted for a comment, Musa Ecweru, the minister for Disaster Preparedness, said the Government was aware of the problem and was working hard to arrest the situation.
Ecweru said the camp will acquire some of the best facilities in the whole of East Africa.
“We have an arrangement of a vocational college, a primary and secondary school for the people in the camp. We want to make Panyadoli Refugee Camp a model settlement in East Africa,†he said.
Quick action
As a temporary intervention, Izama says he is arranging a recruitment of teachers who are part of the survivor’s from Bududa residing in Panyadoli.
Betty Nabulwala, a former headmistress of Kitsatsa Primary School in Bududa, also one of the teachers Izama is recruiting, says she and five colleagues are ready for the new task. But their future is, however, shrouded in mystery. Despite their efforts to secure transfers from Bududa district payroll to Kiryandongo, there is little hope that she will succeed soon.
Nabualwala says: “We are worried and unless our transfers are effected soon, we may be deleted from the Bududa district payroll because we have not stepped into the classroom for a long.â€
Eddy Kibeti, one of Nabulwala’s colleagues, says it is difficult for them to get their salaries. He says they have to travel to Masindi, 80km away to draw their salaries because there are no banking services in Kiryandongo.
“We end up spending the salaries on the road in payment of hefty fares,†he says.
But not all is lost. The recent announcement by the Government that construction of a house for each household on the 2.5 acres of land is underway, is a statement of intent that bettering the lives of the mudslide survivors features prominently on its to-do list this year.
Already, a new health centre has started operation in the camp. This should be able to treat the sick, who have been travelling long distances to access medical care.