I have lately written a lot about education of children in Africa, and all the challenges that they have to go through, the preparation and the academic environment under which, and from where they are expected to rise and gain the training that readies them for professional occupational work, for a good future.
So what is the typical school day for a rural child in Uganda and by extension, Africa? Well, it starts early morning at 8 AM. That is when you are expected to be in the school compound.
But of course you are awake much earlier than than. By 6 AM, you are already up and in in the garden doing farm work. It is a daily routine, before you depart for school, you first have to finish your portion of the garden and fetch water to be used at home while you are away. You are lucky if your family owns a bicycle, so at least you can quickly ride off to a borehole 1 or 2 km away, return quick and leave for school.
Frequently, you are late for school, but that is okay. You are not alone. The school rules demand you are present by 8 AM, but well, you are also frequently much earlier than the head master and the teachers, so no worries. The ideal time is 8 AM, the real time by which everybody seems to have arrived is around 9 AM after which the first lesson starts.
By then, you have taken place and now sit on a brick or stone, somewhere under a mango, pine, tamarind or eucalyptus tree, any for that matter with a large enough canopy shade for everyone. That is true. Under a mango tree, not in a classroom with some well furnished desk on which to write. That is a preserve for the city schools and some in the urban areas.
Of course during the rainy season, school is a luxury as your 'class rooms' under the eucalyptus or whatever tree, are all dump.....it is a holiday, and why not? Those are some of the best days. You have a valid excuse for skipping school. Every one knows there will be no place to study from And that bald head of a father who thinks school is your future cannot chase you to school with a cane. Although the problem now again is that you have to spend more hours in the garden!
If it was in a city school, you maybe would have a desk to sit and write on, but this is some village school in the outskirts of Eastern Uganda, so well, either carry a brick or stone to sit on, or as is largely the case, you sit on the bare dusty ground.
It helps perhaps, that school shoes, whereas they are included as a requirement for you to wear, the rule is never really adhered to. Those cannot be afforded, and majority of you just about either wear sandals either curved out of waste car tires, ordinary bathroom sandals or, as is by the bulk, walk on bare foot. But why should they adhere to that stupid shoe rule? Even teachers struggle to afford them, and you are lucky to find one on a good pair.
On an improved note however, you might be lucky to study inside some roof! Sometimes the community crowd funds, families each contribute some small money or materials and the community puts up a few grass thatched and mud walled structures. Now at least you are safe from the rain storms.
Where the gods smile, and providence comes to the rescue, government or donors contribute some funds and build some structures. But that is it. Even with this, they are often left incomplete, the windows remain open. Window and door fittings are way too expensive to be included, and the donor funds, where they were no misappropriated by the government, could only manage to raise the walls and a make shift roof. Inside these classes you will find a bench or two. Make sure you arrive at school earliest, if you want the privilege of siting on them.
How about places of convenience? Well, that is the more interesting part. The Pits where they are found are either dilapidated or about to fall in! Not that it matters anyway, you prefer to help yourself in the nearby shrubs! Everybody prefers that. It is the same even at home, so really no worries. If anything, you are doing the school a favor. The last latrine it had filled up, and now it is running out of school compound space to construct the next makeshift latrine.
Such a big irony! But it is not like you are alone. It is no different for your teachers. They may come wielding a cane and wearing trousers to show they are different, but whaaa....they are like you. They sleep in grass thatched huts, and share with you the same places of convenience.
Anyway, all that aside. Now here you are. Every school day, the cycle is the same. In the evening at around 5 PM, you have to sprint back home, and hope mama remembered to save for you some food. It is either potatoes or cassava and beans. It is the same everyday. And It is going to be your first meal of the day. And sure enough, she has saved some. She had to, as she at least appreciates the need for you to renew your energy for shortly going back to the garden to finish the balance of the early morning portion.
Soon night falls, and well, your day has just ended. By 10 PM, mama waves her scarf away to blow off the soot lamp to save the paraffin for tomorrow. At the same time, somewhere in the city, children your age are in an electricity lit classroom revising. National primary leaving examinations are only weeks a way. And you will have to sit with them the same exam, answer the same questions, and stake the same claim to a certificate that will enable you to proceed for secondary education!
The distractions and obvious lack of concentration studying from under trees while other children are playing just nearby, other non-students passing by the compound, birds flying around….well, none of that matters when the bald heads are marking and grading your scripts.... What chance have you against your city peers?
But who cares, a few months later, results come back and sure as any block head would have predicted, you have failed. Now what? Anyway, the good thing you have grown. Your father thinks school was a waste of time anyway. How was passing even important? At the neighborhood, the much envied boy who some white man paid for school fees up to university is also back home from the city. He has been a round for a nearly a year now despite his degree. There are no jobs.
So well, maybe failing was a a blessing in disguise. In deed papa thinks it was, with all the widespread employment! if you are a girl child, the even better news is that some suitors have been coming around meeting your father. At 15 or 16, and all that training as a child, you can now be a wife. For the male child, well, your father will shortly show you to your own plot of customary land. Time to shift and build your own grass-thatched house, marry and start a family.
The cycle is complete!
All the Photos are original, taken with Canon PowerShot A2600
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