Kyambogo College School

Uganda is a vibrant, beautiful country full of friendly people. Kampala has majestic
hills, and also city streets, both paved and unpaved. Traffic is insane. Probably
worse for me because they drive on the opposite side of the street. If I die here it
will be by motorcycle. I could never drive here. Everyone I encounter speaks
English. It is required in their schools. But even so I have to concentrate to
understand them because their vocal inflections are very different from ours.
I was told that I needed to slow down when speaking because of my accent.
I thought that was very funny.

Tuesday was my first day seeing the school, but Wednesday was my proper introduction and my first full day. The school has 1,000 students and 78 teachers and sits within the grounds of Kyambogo (pronounced CHAM bogo) University. The students have a total of 21 class offerings and at Senior 1 (S1) and Senior 2 (S2) level are expected to take them all. There are 7 compulsory classes-- English, math, physics, chemistry, biology, history, and geography. At Senior 3 (S3) level they are allowed to drop down to three elective offerings and start to tailor their studies towards their interests. The highest level is S6. S5 and S6 are referred to as “A levels”, or advanced levels,  while the lower levels are referred to as “O levels” or ordinary levels. Classes are 80 minutes long, and the students do not change classes-- the teachers do! All instruction is in English. The school day runs from 8am until 4:30 pm, but students are here by 7am. The students are in uniform, and it is refreshing not to have to see sagging pants on boys or too short shorts on girls. Girls must wear knee length skirts and must have short hair cuts. The exception is the Indian and Middle Eastern female students, who can keep their hair long but must wear it pulled back in a bun or ponytail. There are approximately 60 Indian or Middle Eastern students here and one Korean student.  There is some relaxing of the dress code, however as students are also allowed to wear their “house” tee shirts with their gray bottoms. Sort of like Harry Potter, they are sorted into “houses” or groups when they enroll. The houses are all named after animals native to Uganda. Today I saw zebra, lion, rhino, cheetah tee shirts. 

View from the school grounds

I spent most of the day in Mrs. Patricia’s office, which is where my desk is set up. Mr. Okech, who is the assistant to the head teacher took me on a tour of the school.  The head teacher is Helen Twongyiere, and is what we would call the principal. I also was able to observe instructional styles in two classes, a Senior 1 East African history class led by Mrs. Esther, and a Senior 2 English class, led by Mrs. Josephine.

English Class

                                           

                                      Pottery produced by the art classes