HOLIDAY COACHING

Aug 11, 2009

WHY HAS THE VICE PERSISTED <br>DESPITE THE BAN?<br><br>Just two days to the end of term, Priscilla Babirye, a P.4 pupil at one of the city schools, is distraught. “My mother forces me to go to a small school near home to study. I miss playing with my

WHY HAS THE VICE PERSISTED
DESPITE THE BAN?

By Moses Odongo

Just two days to the end of term, Priscilla Babirye, a P.4 pupil at one of the city schools, is distraught. “My mother forces me to go to a small school near home to study. I miss playing with my friends every holiday,” the 10-year-old laments.

As Babirye cries, Robert Kyanjo, a student of Makerere University, says he always stayed at school during holidays, while other students broke off.

“Dad always insisted that I get teachers to coach me during holidays and if I failed, he would contact my teachers and pay them whatever amount they asked for,” Kyanjo says.

A lot has been said about holiday teaching (commonly known as coaching) and its irrelevance, but revelations show that parents, on many occasions, are to blame because they put schools on pressure to run these holiday programmes.

Despite the education ministry’s ban on teaching during holidays, many parents will do anything to have their children coached.

Some of the headteachers Education Vision talked to said parents plead with them to retain the students at school for extra lessons. “Some parents are even willing to pay more than the school fees,” says Mike Kalumba, the head teacher of Makerere Highway College.

Mustafa Miwa, the director of studies at Nabisunsa Girls School in Kampala, says the school resolved not to have teaching programmes during holidays, but it took a lot of effort to explain to parents the need for a break.

“We advise those who want holiday teaching to use the time to teach their children lifeskills. Some of the students do not know how to wash their clothes, make their beds, iron clothes or cook,” he says.

Frederick Okailong, the head teacher of Teso Parents SS, says parents filed a petition to his office requesting for special holiday teaching of candidate and semi-candidate classes. “They are threatening to withdraw their children from the school saying we are not serious.”

Why the quest for holiday teaching?
In an era when excellent grades are the definition of success, many people believe that without holiday lessons, they cannot compete for the limited places in good secondary schools, universities and government sponsorship.

A money-minting ploy?
Grace Baluboinhe, a parent, says since the education ministry banned holiday teaching, schools have resorted to secret programmes and if one is not vigilant enough, a child might miss out.

“Schools are to blame. They continue the syllabus during the holiday and if my child doesn’t attend, he misses out. The topics covered during holidays are not repeated during the term,” he explains.

Fagil Mandy, an education consultant, says some teachers use this as a way of making money. They dodge classes during the term and fail to complete the syllabus in time. Since parents want their children to pass, they have to pay for holiday lessons.

In some private schools, some teachers are only paid for the first two months of the term. “In the third month, they are told to set exams and are paid per paper set and marked. Such teachers know that the only way to survive is to teach during the holidays,” he explains.

A selfish move
Mandy also says parents are trying to run away from their responsibility and pushing it to the teachers. “Parents are supposed to teach their children basic lifeskills during holidays, but they are relegating the responsibility to teachers,” he says.

However, Peter Epodoi, the head teacher of Entebbe Gateway School, reasons that many private schools admit students who have not passed well at Primary Leaving Examinations and O’levels, yet proprieters want results at all costs “This puts the teachers on pressure to devise means of covering the syllabus and allow the students time to master concepts,” he says.

Dr. Proscovia Ssentamu Namubiru, a specialist in curriculum studies at Makerere University, says: “If schools were doing what they are supposed to do at the right time, there would be enough time during the term to cover the syllabus and do evaluation.”

Health implications
Mental health experts say students deserve a break. Dickens Musagala, a psychologist at Makerere University, says overstuffing them with academic material without a break impairs their ability to learn and hinders good performance.

“They get fatigued and grow up to hate anything to do with books.” He argues that during holidays children should be taught hand work; domestic chores, or ecouraged to join debating, drama, sports and games clubs and voluntary work like helping the sick and the elderly.

The ban still stands
Aggrey Kibenge, the education ministry spokesperson warns that tough measures will be taken against anyone found teaching during holidays.

In 2007, some students and teachers were rounded up near Kireka and Namugongo during holiday lessons and some of the teachers dismissed. Last year, about 11 schools countywide were closed after they were found conducting lessons during the holiday.

WHAT ARE PARENTS CONCERNS?

Esther Nabulime, a single mother, says: “Holiday time is tricky. Children learn bad manners since an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” She says her daughter was defiled during the holidays as she wandered off to a dancehall.

“One is rarely with the children. One has to go and work and returns home late. I know no place is completely safe, but it is better for me to leave home, knowing where my girl is going somewhere she will be kept busy,” she says.

A university student says during her primary school days, some male teachers would lock up girls who had gone for coaching in their rooms and defile them.

Cuthbert Okalele, a parent in Teso, says: “Children are a blessing, but they can be a thorn in the flesh when it comes to discipline,” he says.

Yet, there are daunting tales. Brenda Kanyike, a single mother, says her children’s teacher convinced her to take her daughters for coaching during holidays. “I dropped my daughters at the school in town and was advised to pick them at lunch time. When I came to the school at lunch time, there was no one. On calling the teacher, I was told to go to Kibuli. The teacher told me they feared the Police would round them up so they hired a room in Kibuli. I squeezed through narrow corridors, occasionally jumping over filth and streams of urine. I found some people drunk and others smoking marijuana.”

“Lessons were being conducted in a makeshift dusty room in the middle of the slum, surrounded by bibanda (video halls) and malwa drinking joints,” she says.

Brenda, whose daughters were in primary, vowed never to allow her children to go for coaching. They are now at Makerere University on government sponsorship.

Other parents drop off their children at the school gate and immediately they drive off, the students walk to an undisclosed destination.

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