Wider Forums

On Sunday September 21st, Angelica & I conducted a wider forum at one of our partner schools. We conduct wider forums at schools to all students & teachers to introduce them to the Educate! programs. While the Socially Responsible Leadership Course is taught at A level only (17-18 year olds), the Social Entrepreneurship Clubs are open to the whole schools and we want the entire student body to be familiar with E!’s goals & approach.

This particular high school (LHS) is Seventh Day Adventist so they wanted us to come on a Sunday. E! is aiming to work with a range of partner schools balancing religion, socio economic status, boys/girls/co-ed and day/boarding. A medium socio-economic school, Eric described it to me as an ‘ideal partner school’ – founded by a social entrepreneur who has since passed away, they were the first school to start teaching entrepreneurship (before the Uganda National Education Board adopted it as an A-level subject) and all students must write a mission statement for their lives before graduation. The founder left land to the school which the social entrepreneur club has been using to grow sweet potatoes, passion fruit and eggplant to supplement the school kitchen.

My first visit to LHS was with Eric - I met the headmaster and Emmanuel (entrepreneurship teacher). The attitude of the headmasters at some of the private more privileged schools we work with is “That sounds good, we’ll probably be able to fit you into our schedule” in a rather nonchalant manner. LHS has what I have now dubbed the SCS = spoilt child syndrome. When we arrived, Eric was immediately chastised:
“You promised to come and see us again last term and do a wider forum, why did you not come?” (There was no such promise)
“Where is the agenda for today?”
“Have you brought us any curriculum material?”
And then when Eric showed them the book he’s reading (Yunus’ second) it was -“Will you give us this book?”
Then followed a speech by Emmanuel who explained how the passion fruit they had planted had been destroyed by termites – was there anything E! could do to support their project? (In other words, money please!)

It felt like these two men were grasping for anything and everything these white mzungus could provide for them. And this is the school where they started teaching entrepreneurship before the rest of the country! From one perspective it’s easy to understand where they’re coming from – any mzungu out here will have more resources, connections and money than the vast majority of Ugandans. But I sometimes feel slightly defeated in the face of this “gimme something because of your skin colour” when E’s mission and approach is to empower students to think for themselves, act for themselves and be creative by themselves. How much harder is it for students to be proactive with such teachers as examples?

The morning of the wider forum, the power was out at the office which meant no printer. After being jerked around at a print shop in town, we finally arrived at the school and the headmaster was waiting for us. He was happy to see me again but was also dismayed that Eric was not accompanying me. In fact I think his actual words were “So Eric has failed to come?”

The HM is a paradoxical character for me. On the one hand he is young, smart and expresses himself well. But at the same time he’s incredibly defeatist. He will say things like “You know when NGOs come, Africans always expect money. And sometimes we forget that our brains are money”. He also dropped the Obama quote of the day on me and Angelica that morning – “We hear he will not win because you people do not like blacks”. I feel like he’s the kind of man who’d complain about getting a cold, would talk about buying medicine but never would, and then would ask his neighbour to give him a jumper so he doesn’t catch a cold next time.

At any rate, after meeting with the headmaster, it was time to address the students. They had been gathered in the largest classroom and were sitting at bench desks. Emmanuel started the proceedings by introducing us and reviewing the work the school’s social entrepreneurship club (SEC) had done the past term – what they had planted and the many many problems they had faced. He droned on and on before finally calling the headboy (also the chairman of the SEC) to present. The headboy was on all accounts pretty pathetic. He had prepared his speech on 5 sheets of paper and proceeded to drone on about eggplants, how much the project had cost, the failed passion fruit and everything Emmanuel had just said but never once looking up from his notes. Several students simply put their heads down on their desks and started to nap! The back of the room grew noisy with whispered conversations. When he was finally done, Emmanuel stood up yet again and continued to speak about the SEC club.
Then I was finally invited to speak. “Good afternoon” I started. I got a grumbling “Good afternoon” right back. “How are you all?” This was obviously not a normal question. They twittered and giggled. “Fine” some of them said. I walked towards the students. “Are you hot?” Giggle giggle, “Yes”. “Are you sleepy?” By this point most of the students who had fallen asleep were being urgently elbowed by their neighbours. I started to explain E!’s history – as soon as I dropped the word “scholarship” the room went dead silent and attentive. This always happens in Uganda, no matter where you are. It’s the silver bullet that gets everybody’s attention. Generally when you mention scholarship you’ll be inundated with requests afterwards. Students will give you letters requesting a scholarship, headmasters request on behalf of their children, everybody wants your email… It tends to distract from E!’s programs but at the same time, our history as a scholarship organization is important. The new programs were inspired by the students we sponsored. Eric saw that the work the E! students did and the changes they inspired in their community was not so much a result of paid school fees, but a result of the support, advice and mentorship that E! as an organization provided. Sometimes it takes a lot of explaining for students and teachers to understand that. We don’t want to give money to help. We want to empower a student to help themselves.

After addressing the entire school, Angelica & I sat with the SEC members. The students asked for funds and I took time explaining to them that our job was to empower them as students to find their own way, not to make the way for them. After all, if our E! students who live in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement can raise over 2 million shillings to build an orphanage, any community should be able to raise money. Some teachers were also present at the meeting – to be honest I couldn’t tell the difference between the teachers and the students. The teachers conducted themselves and lazed back in their chairs exactly as the students did. They asked no questions and just sat, passively.

With a school like LHS, it’s exactly the kind of school where I feel we are most needed. The attitudes of the students, and apathy of the teachers, and the defeated atmosphere of the entire school will have to be overcome. I left thinking how much work there is to be done!

The following week, I conducted another school wide forum, but one that was completely different. This school was a low socio economic school – fees are 70,000 shillings a term (around £20 or $40) and most students are heavily subsidized by the school. Speaking to the founder of the school is an inspiring experience – he talks about how it’s the culture of the school that counts. He wants his students to be outgoing and to express themselves well. He wants them to appreciate what they have and will tell them the story of how when he went to school in 6th form, he had different sized shoes – one shoe was size 6 and the other size 7. (He now is the deputy head master at one of the top secondary schools in the country). He wants the students to have as much contact with adults as possible and to learn from role models.

I arrived at the school (NK) mid-debate. The entire school was gathered in this tiny classroom with two teachers present…but they weren’t the ones keeping order. Instead there was a student panel sitting at the front – the entire debate proceedings were being run by a student chairman. “Order, order please” he would yell. The atmosphere was energized, lively and contentious all at the same time. The topic of the debate? “The traditional world is better than the modern world”. There were many volunteers to come and speak. They touched on transportation systems, nutrition, traditional drumming, mobile phones, watching movies, gender leadership, jiggers, cut throat competition and idleness. It was so animated and the room was abuzz. Girls and boys came up to speak equally and the chairman was constantly calling for order. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. One student claimed to be siding with the traditional world and his argument was that in the traditional world, men were always the leaders and that the world is better that way. He said he would not allow himself to be led by a woman. (You can imagine my reaction.)

As the debate wrapped up, the deputy headteacher turned to me and said “Anyway, that is our school”. NK has these debates every week and I found myself wishing the schools I attended had conducted such debates. I mean, what a rockstar student body! It was my turn to talk so I introduced myself and proceeded to talk about the E! programs. I also couldn’t stop myself and addressed the student who refused to be “led by a woman”. I picked him out of the crowd and said “Who is your headteacher here?” “Madam Night” he replied. “Madam? Surely a madam is a woman is it not? So a woman is leading your school?” He started to protest. So I continued “And do you listen to your mother? Are you led by your mother? For she is a woman!” They whole school was laughing. Unlike the LHS students, these kids had plenty of questions – Is it a new course? How long is it for? Where is the funding coming from? Is it free for us? Do we get a certificate? What about the kids who aren’t in school? Can E! hire us for jobs?

The dynamism of this student body was completely opposite to that of LHS. It was incredibly refreshing and I smile every time I think about how the students will react to Angelica’s creative curriculum. They’re going to have such fun with it!
Two incredibly different student bodies, one Educate! approach. I’m excited for our programs to start at both of these schools but for different reasons. Either way, I know the students will benefit.