CANON APOLLO GOES MOBILE

 

Figure 1; Mrs. Elizabeth Rwamwenge the deputy principal of Canon Apollo

Fifteen months into the implementation of a project aimed at improving literacy and parent involvement in secondary schools and PTCs, Canon Apollo has adapted the use of bulk sms for administrative purposes especially inviting parents for meetings.

According to Mrs. Elizabeth Rwamwenge the deputy principal of Canon Apollo, most of the parents come from as far as Busheyi, Mbarara and Kabale among other districts. “We would use circulars yet many parents cannot read and on many occasions students would not deliver the circulars”. The college also attempted to use a local radio to reach parents but the coverage of radio is limited and so the message would not be received.

After a meeting with CfSU/RWECO and Text to change schools were tasked to collect relevant telephone numbers so as to use the bulk SMS for communication with different stake holders.

“It is evident that in the past not many parents would turn up for meetings but with the use of bulk sms platform in 2012/2013, the college received the biggest PTA turn up ever and we are beginning to see an improvement in parent involvement at the college”  emphasized  Mrs Rwamwenge.

This is part of the three year Dutch Consortium ( Connect for Change) funded project implemented in western Uganda implemented by CfSU in partnership with RWECO for the period 2012-201

CFSU CARRIES OUT ONSITE SUPPORT IN SCHOOLS AROUND KABAROLE

Between the months of January-June 2013, onsite support was carried out around the schools in the C4C projects. Computers for Schools Uganda mainly supported the teachers in Kabarole district and these included teachers in Kyebambe girls’ school, St. Leos College Kyegobe and Rutete Secondary school.

Some of the teachers during the onsite support meeting.

Using the action plan that was jointly developed after the training, teachers from kyebambe girls, St. Leos College and Ruteete S.S had interactive discussions of what they have so far accomplished with regards to the project and some of the points that were raised were;

·         The setup of the English language resource room; although not up to standard and still requiring some work, St. Leos and Kyebambe were able to set up these English labs with resources like the laptop, projector and the speakers. The schools have worked on these resource rooms making them as safe as possible with burglar proofs and they are in the process of drawing a time table to schedule different classes for the resource room.

·         Development of more interesting and fascinating lessons using Power point and Photo story; teachers of English in these schools mentioned that they are developing more interesting lessons as testified by their students.

·         Computers in the staff room; with the availability of these computers in the staff room, teachers are now able to develop their lessons and type exams freely in their free time without competing with students which was the case previously. It has even helped them practice more, getting a grip on computer usage thus erasing the computer phobia of students being better than them.

·         Heads of schools were met and the project was discussed at length. The head teachers pledged to support the teachers and give them necessary help whenever the need arose.

CFSU PROJECT SCHOOLS CELEBRATE WORLD LITERACY DAY 2012 AT RUBONA

Rubona primary school was the center of activity as Computers for Schools Uganda’s project schools celebrated the annual world literacy day which is commemorated on 8^th, September every year. The day, whose theme was the need for peace and literacy among school going children around the world, started at 9:00am with the singing of the national and Tooro anthems.

Ms. Lydia Kamba, the Education Programmatic Program officer CFSU, explained the years’ theme of literacy and peace, also went ahead to explain and guide pupils and teachers about the rights of the school going children. The event was graced by one of the District Education Officials in charge of the children’s special needs Ms. Harriet Angwena as the guest speaker.

Ms. Harriet Angwena addressing teachers and pupils in Rubona p/s on World Literacy Day 2012

Speaking at the celebrations, the guest speaker emphasized the observation of the rights for a peaceful environment for the girl child and highlighted the importance of having a literate country. She also went on to commend CFSU for the support it has given the district on such an occasion.

CFSU DONATES PROJECTOR TO MBARARA JUNIOR SCHOOL

Mbarara Junior School is one of the good performing day and boarding primary schools in Mbarara district with a population of about 1,412 pupils.

Five years ago, the school’s academic standards had declined so badly and a lot of effort was needed to revive the glory of the school. This saw a new head teacher in place Mr. Mugume Nathan.

 

 Above;the computer lab at Mbarara Junior school

One of the issues he focused on and urged his management and B.O.G to focus on was the use of ICT among other issues considered. At the time, the school had no computers but had a typewriter affecting the efficiency at the school.

On getting in touch with the Computers for Schools Uganda, the school through support from parents, 10 refurbished computers which were housed in the library with support from CFSU and the parents grew to 30 computers which looked not fit in the library.

The parents supported the school to construct a computer lab where the diocese of Ankole/Bishop also contributed 15 computers. Today, the school has over 65 computers with a full time teacher to teach basic skills for classes primary three to primary seven.

Teachers also used the computers for gathering educational materials from the internet and use it for other administrative work. The community has also been benefiting from the facility through internet access.

 

Above;The Manager CFSU Mr. Kamba Joel handing over the Projector to the H/M of Mbarara Junior Mr. Mugume Nathan.

CFSU has also seen the trend of ICT in development at the school and as a result donated a projector to encourage the use of ICT for teaching and learning. CFSU intends to empower the teachers in the use of ICT for education and management so that other primary schools in the region can learn from them.

Joel Kamba (Manager)

KABAROLE DISTRICT PRIMARY SCHOOLS GO ICT

Computers for Schools Uganda introduces digital storytelling as a teaching tool in Kabarole district. Computers for schools Uganda, an ICT for education Non-governmental organization in partnership with Australia Aid, initiated the first digital storytelling project in the Rwenzori region.

This stated with selling of the idea to three pilot schools and was followed by an inception meeting which was later followed by the collection of stories. This took place between the 28^th of January and 8^th February, 2013, in Kabarole district. The meeting, held in three schools, Rubona, Mugusu and Kasiisi primary schools, attracted teachers of English language and head teachers from the three schools.

                      Inception: Teachers of Kasiisi, Mugusu and Rubona primary schools.

The project being piloted in the three schools of Kasiisi, Mugusu and Rubona is aimed at improving literacy in primary schools and improving pupils’ writing skills. Three teachers of English language were selected from each of the schools, to implement the project.

Head teachers of the chosen schools, welcomed the idea and agreed to work with CFSU, to see that the project becomes a success. This is the first of its kind to be carried out among rural project schools in Uganda. Digital story telling involves the changing of hand written stories into digital stories, using video, photo or audio tools.

COMPUTERS FOR SCHOOLS UGANDA HOLDS INTER-SCHOOL CLUB COMPETITION

Computers for Schools Uganda under its Education Programmatic Program, EPP, organized an inter-school club competition for primary schools. The event was carried out in 15 of its project schools by the CFSU project officer Ms. Lydia Kamba with the help of the project school teachers.

The competition was aimed at ascertaining the existence of these clubs and the creation of some in those schools, which did not have any.  The competition had the Debate; Music Dance Drama and Writers’ clubs compete in their respective categories.

A pupil performing during the drama competition

Computer for Schools Uganda and the participating schools had three quarters of the month of September 2012 dedicated to improving these clubs in order to help improve the communication skills of both teachers and students through debates, music, dance and drama, writing and drawing.

Pupils in the dance competition

The competition acted as a Curtain raiser for the instructional materials exhibition which was to take place in 5^Th October, 2012.

                               

DIGITAL STORY TELLING ANALYSIS WORKSHOP HELD

Kenneth Inn played host to a four day workshop on digital storytelling, by Computers for Schools Uganda. The workshop aimed at analyzing stories written by primary four and five pupils in the project schools of Kasiisi, Mugusu and Rubona primary schools; attracted over six hundred story contributions from the pupils, with only four hundred fifty of these, being passed by the teachers for consideration.

Teachers from the three primary schools conducted in-class and inter-class story writing competitions, to have pupils come up with stories for the project. The project, funded by AusAid and implemented by CFSU, is aimed at equipping pupils in rural schools with modern learning skills and exposes them to ICT oriented class experience.

  

                    ANALYSIS: Teachers of Mugusu, Kasiisi and Rubona, analyzing the stories. 

The selected stories underwent further scrutiny by CFSU and the teachers from the respective project schools and had only fifty stories selected for digitalizing. This reduction in stories was due to the limited writing skills of the pupils, inconsistent theme formations and numerous grammatical errors. The remaining stories were handed over to CFSU, for further development, improvement and digitalization. The rest were sent back to the contributing schools, for improvement.