Sharing my experiences in Kampala, Uganda

This past summer, I had the interesting opportunity to work with a team from the University of Minnesota, led by Dr. David Chapman, at the University of Makerere in Kampala, Uganda. Makerere is to Uganda as the University of Minnesota is to our state. The purpose of our visit was to work with University and state college instructors to help them prepare to provide in-service for currently serving head teachers (what we call school principals and assistant principals). In Uganda, there is no formal preparation for secondary head teachers. In earlier visits, by other members of our team, a survey was done to find out what head teachers saw as their work and how much need they saw for preparation in each of the areas. One of the interesting outcomes was that the head teachers (principals) in Uganda identified basically the same areas of work as are included in the work of US principals. However, without formal preparation, most indicated that they had little knowledge or skill in each area.

I found my weeks of preparation prior to leaving and my 14 days devoted to traveling to and working in Uganda were life altering. I loved the people! They were all warm, excited to be participating, eager to learn and, they were very intelligent. As English is the official language taught in schools in Uganda, communication was not a barrier.

While there, I became aware of a personally disappointing side to me that I had no idea existed; the discovery of which I am extremely grateful. Prior to arriving I had assumed that because Uganda is an underdeveloped country the people would somehow not be as smart. There is not rational reason for that but, somehow, that sense was inside me. I am surprised at myself as I am no stranger to extreme poverty. For about 15 years I owned and operated a large low-income housing facility and became friends with many who lived there. I don’t think that I ever thought of the tenants as not smart, but rather faced with life challenges such as mental illness, alcoholism, or with jobs that did not pay a livable wage.

I am still not sure why I had that assumption, perhaps because of the way under-developed countries are portrayed on TV or even going back to the “boiled in pots” cartoons and stories of my childhood. Whatever the case, I am certainly glad that it was dispelled and that I had the profound experience which put me in touch with that bias. Neither educational administrators nor any other person involved in education can afford to harbor biases that cause one to believe that a human, from any country, is less able to learn than any other country. I have always strived to be an inclusive professional educator throughout my career. It makes me wonder what other biases I have to dispel in my life’s journey to become a fully inclusive leader. I suspect this process truly is a life’s journey.

By my observation, Uganda is about 30 years behind in many aspects of education from facilities and resources to curriculum design. It is exposure to new concepts and the resources to teach them that are the blocks, not ability to learn. As examples: getting copies of paper is a big deal; the power would go out 3 to 7 times a day, making it difficult to rely on or use anything as a teaching tool that uses electricity; and in order for the Ugandan participants to prepare the lessons they will be teaching the head teachers, we had to leave them with basic paper, pens, and pencils for them to do their work. Based on our standards, they have almost no resources, including books. To introduce a case study, the instructor reads it twice and then, the students move ahead to discuss its contents; no PowerPoint or copies to reinforce the content or processes to follow as learners.

Other points of interest that I found in Uganda:

• Elementary class sizes in public elementary schools are typically 100 students, 50 in private schools, yet the classroom sizes are similar to the US.

• The people are beautifully and formally dressed. That is considered the English influence.

• Construction workers do not have heavy equipment like fork-lifts or cranes to help them move materials. Moving building blocks and other heavy materials is done by handing each piece off from one person or set of six persons to the next. As I watched one building under construction, there may have been 50 or more individuals in a line passing one block, from one person to the next, from the truck to the 6th floor. It was obvious that the building will go higher, one floor at a time. OSHA would have a field day with the scaffolding and lack of protective gear for the workers.

• Labor is cheap as evidenced by having multiple personnel for each job from sweeping the leaves off of lawns (yes, that was done daily) to having a person sit at each pay phone to collect money, to the huge construction crews to take the place of the equipment and technology we use.

• There are many cars, but most are older. Millie, our caterer, told us that she always buys older cars that work well because new cars get stolen.

• Transportation is by car (many of the cars seemed to be unmarked taxis), motorcycles, bicycles that were filled with large loads with the owner pushing along side, vans, and WALKING. One day my colleague and I saw a motorcycle go by us with one man driving and another sitting behind him. In between was a full sized mattress. The next day, in the same area, we saw two men on a motorcycle scooting down the street with a full sized bed frame, all put together, and perched between them!

• Most individuals are thin even though they eat a lot of starch. The hard work, like it used to be when we were an agrarian society, and walking must keep them thin.

• The city of Kampala is very large and heavily populated yet I only saw one working traffic light the entire time we were there. Yet, traffic moves, though slowly. Street lights frequently do not work. If we were out at night, we moved in groups for safety and always carried our flash lights. That was a BIG tip off that we were tourists!

There is so much more I could tell you about this wonderful experience. It was an opportunity I will always remember.

Dr. Werner may be reached at werne023@umn.edu.