Primary school

Wellspring primary and nursery school is different to the norm in that most children in Uganda attend boarding school from a very young age  - can be as young as nursery but most attend from about the age of 6. This is partly due to the fact that boarding school can be a cheaper option once you factor in transport and food costs. Well spring is entirely a day school so inevitably the classes are smaller as the classes go up in age. Corporal punishment is still the norm in schools in Uganda but does not occur at wellspring at all. Again many parents prefer this as a suitable punishment in school.
School starts at 8 am and finishes at 5pm. There is a half hour morning break at 10..30am where, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, all children receive a warm drink of porridge made of millet rather than oats so similar to a watery Reddy Brek. Lunch is provided at1pm for the whole school and staff (posho, beans, rice and some beef) and the younger children get an afternoon snack and a drink. Year 7 is the equivalent of our yr 6 - these children will be assessed by the national tests which appears to affect the choice of secondary school. Yr 7 pupils also attend on a Saturday morning for extra classes. For some children education will be complete. For some education will have been completed before that! All education has to be paid for, exercise books and all equipment as well as text books must be provided. Parents are also expected to provide photocopy paper for the school. Some parents pay termly but many pay weekly or even daily. Education is the priority in the family
The curriculum is very knowledge based and exams are held at least three times per term (there is no half term - this term has been about 12 weeks). Exams are generally 'bought in'!
Social studies includes history, geography and everything else - sanitation, health, jobs etc. There is also maths, English (grammar only) and religious studies, debate and and PE. There are no creative subjects! After school children go home and do homework. There are no extra curricular activities in school or anywhere else. On Saturday (once a month) wellspring offers FunFactory - a free afternoon of fun and games with a free drink and snack and a bible story. About 100 local children attended. There are no playparks but wellspring has a couple of swings, a slide and a very old fashioned roundabout and many children queued patiently for a chance to use these!
There are no resources available nor technology - chalk and talk is the norm. Teachers use the text book or their own school books for information - very different from our methods. Each 'fact' is read aloud by the teacher and then repeated a number of times by the pupils before the children copy it into their exercise books e.g. in year 2 class "a community is a group of people who live and work together." - this is written on the blackboard and repeated 3 or 4 times by the whole class then by some individuals. New words are read aloud by a number of the other pupils. The concept is not open for discussion - the exam will merely require that children can give this definition. Correct spelling is essential for an exam answer to be correct. Virtually all work is taught in this way at the primary level and the exams require the children to repeat such definitions rather than engage in any original thinking or questioning.
There is no provision for remedial work and children may only repeat a year once. David and I have provided (thanks to your financial help and our ingenuity) 600 wooden hand made wooden blocks for the lower school to help with the phonics.
All in all primary education is very different to that in the UK - children aged 7 know what a spiracle is and now I do too - do you?