Luzira SS disproves USE critics
Apr 25, 2012
It is five years since Universal Secondary Education (USE) was introduced. The programme, which has since been implemented in many secondary schools, is still grappling with challenges like shortage of funds, poor infrastructure, and lack of scholastic materials and teachers.
By Martin Kanyegirire
It is five years since Universal Secondary Education (USE) was introduced. The programme, which has since been implemented in many secondary schools, is still grappling with challenges like shortage of funds, poor infrastructure, and lack of scholastic materials and teachers.
But one school, Luzira SS, one of the pioneers of the programme, has defied the odds and registered remarkable success, proving the critics of the programme wrong.
The school produced some of the best students in last year’s national examinations. Its performance has been improving over the past five years, winning the trust of the locals. The student population has increased from a few hundred in 2007 to almost 2,000 today, 45% of whom are girls.
Luzira SS stands out from a typical USE school, perhaps because the teachers and the head teacher have embraced the USE, giving the programme the support it deserves instead of looking at only the challenges.
Listening to the headmistress, Olive Kyohere, one gets convinced that to work effectively, USE majorly requires a positive attitude and support from teachers.
“We have put in a lot of creativity and team work to get to this success. Before I look at the system of free education or education in general, I teach a child to respect authority, manage time and observe ethics,” Kyohere says.
Looking at its achievements now, it is hard to believe that Luzira started as a primary school in 1984 under the Church of Uganda.
An ingenuous schedule to ensure the students get room to study was laid out. Primary school pupils studied only in the morning to create space for the secondary school students in the afternoon.
In 1992, the school shifted to its own premises. Its first building that had four classrooms, a staffroom and the head teacher’s office, and was a donation from Uganda Breweries Ltd and the education ministry.
However, all was not rosy: “We would converge in the middle of the classroom whenever it rained because the block had no windows,” recalls George William Kavuma, one of the school’s longest-serving teachers.
Plans to put up other buildings at the school were regularly drawn, but never approved. The former head teachers came and left, leaving the school with its initial structure until 2002, when Kyohere was posted there as the head teacher.
It is hard to mention Luzira SS without bringing up the current head teacher’s name. Kyohere is a disciplinarian and that is what has shaped the school. She starts each day with a prayer and is never late for school.
Several changes were made and as enrollment at the school increased, so did performance. Kyohere appealed to the education ministry to allow her and the board charge parents some money to construct another classroom block.
A storeyed block that houses a laboratory and classrooms was thus constructed and a fence set up.
Enter USE
In 2007, the school was earmarked for USE and student enrolment shot through the roof. In 2008, school authorities were asked to introduce a double shift schedule as a pilot scheme to contain the numbers. Senior Three and Four students study in the morning, Senior One and Two in the afternoon, while the A’level students study from 8:00am to 5:30pm.
The few classroom blocks have not brought down the quality of the education given at the school. The number of students joining the school is increasing, but with the help of the Government and well-wishers, more structures are being set up to accommodate the increasing number of students.
The school has had several accomplishments in several competitions.
In 2005, it emerged as winner in the National Science Fair. Luzira has also won the under-15 Kampala Schools Football Competition.
The school headmistress, Kyohere