LOOKING AHEAD

Community Schools, Amuru

In 2006, Gulu district was split into two and Amuru District was formed. In 2010, the Foundation visited a number of community schools in the District, where parents pay monthly fees to support the school. The schools we visited had no permanent infrastructure (classrooms, latrines, teacher accommodations or administrative offices), scholastic materials, musical instruments or sporting equipment. One of the community schools Ssubi visited had 500 students with six teachers. Dusman is working with the District Education Office to help prioritize a community school where Ssubi can assist with infrastructure support.

Palenga Primary School, Gulu

Palenga Primary School is located at an internally displaced people's camp, during the 20 year civil war the school supported three displaced schools. After the war many people returned to their traditional land, but the school still supports over 1,000 students. Last year The Ssubi Foundation provided Palenga Primary School with renovations and building of school infrastructure, including a library, five classrooms, toilet blocks and five teacher accommodations.

In 2011, our focus will be working with the headmistress and school teachers to improve the academic performance of the school, which is currently very poor. Almost half the students fail out of school before reaching primary 7. The teaching staff at Palenga have designed a program to improve academic performance. Starting at the primary levels they will be striving to improve the level of English in early grades through extra lessons. The program requires resources (text books, exam papers) and staff time for teaching extra lessons. This program will be tested as a new model to improve academic performance and success will be measured over time through a set of indicators defined by teaching staff at Palenga School and The Ssubi Foundation.

Lilly Kindergarten and Primary School, Kampala

In 2008, The Ssubi Foundation re-build Lilly Kindergarten and Primary School, including five classrooms, a headmistress's office, staff room and toilets. In addition Ssubi has provided the school with a source of clean water, improved drainage infrastructure and furnished the headmistress office, staff room and classrooms. Ssubi has also provided scholastic materials, including the full set of Uganda National Curriculum text books and teaching guides for Primary 1 to 7.

In 2011, the foundation plans to continue supporting Lilly school by strengthening their new school lunch program by designing and building a functional kitchen and canteen on site.