(This article was first published in the New Vision on July 6, 2022)
By Moses Bikala
Over the last six months of 2021, Nickson Ouma, a teacher at St Philips Secondary School, was a common sight in four villages in Namayingo district. At the beginning of every week, he rode his bicycle through Lwangosia, Buhehe, Budidi and Banda villages, distributing study materials and assignments to students.
Before the end of the week, Ouma would return to these villages to collect answer sheets from his Senior Three and Senior Four students for marking.
With sh10,000 he received from the school per week to cover his lunch costs, Ouma says he reached 540 students, whom he taught commerce.
“A year after the closure of schools, my fellow teachers and I had a discussion on our WhatsApp platform on how we could help the students to keep learning. It looked like the Government was not going to reopen schools,” he says.
During the discussion, Ouma said he suggested that the school administrators, who are members on the same platform, print reading materials and assignments for him to distribute to students.
“All my students lived in these villages and I knew them,” he added.
Whenever he would return to the villages with marked answer sheets and fresh study materials, Ouma said he would briefly revise the questions with his students and remind them of the dangers of engaging in sexual relations, alongside encouraging them to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Ouma says he mainly relied on his past experience with the students and their communities to deliver the study materials. When he was deployed to the school in 2012, a total of 465 female students, according to the school records, dropped out to get married.
Sensitisation Campaign
Ouma and the school’s senior woman teacher, Annet Auma, traversed the villages neighbouring the school to collect information about girls who had dropped out and married off by parents.
Ouma says they worked with the local leaders to identify the girls who were in Senior Two, Three and Four when they dropped out.
Between 2012 and 2013, Ouma says he led a door-to-door campaign to sensitise parents in the community against marrying off their young daughters and encouraged them to give them a chance to stay in school.
He says he was encouraged by the fact that most of the girls who had dropped out of school had a potential to make significant contributions to society as they had been performing well in class.
“I told the parents that the girls they were marrying off would be more useful to them if they got educated,” he added.
Ouma states that close to 300 girls who had been married off returned to school between 2012 and 2013, although five of them were pregnant.
However, the five girls, according to him, wrote their Uganda Certificate of Education exams and are currently pursuing vocational courses in Jinja and Iganga.
Sandra Nanangwe, who had been married off, and is now in Senior Six, said Ouma convinced her to return to school when he said she might be the future prime minister of Uganda.
“During the short period I was married, my situation was getting tough and there was always no food in the house. My boyfriend then, a fishermen, kept asking me to stay. One day I made up my mind and returned to school,” she added.
Ouma also says he and Auma counselled the girls who returned to school and also helped them get reintegrated into the institution. He explained that he also invited inspirational speakers to address the girls on some occasions.
While the school’s enrolment had dropped to 122 students in 2012, when Ouma was deployed to the institution, it grew to 997 by 2013, partly due to his efforts to get students who had dropped out back to school. Its current population is 1,123, with 766 being girls.
Sanitary Pads
In order to stop absenteeism, which was being blamed on menstruation, Ouma says he lobbied Hope for Children Africa, an NGO, which supplied female students with sanitary pads between 2015 and 2018. This, he says, provided some relief among girls and encouraged them to focus on their academic goals.
In terms of co-curricular activities, Ouma, who is in charge of games, has been instrumental in securing funds from the school administration to facilitate sports activities for the school’s teams.
He says he has twice previously bought jerseys for the school’s netball and football teams to take part in the district-level competitions.
In 2017 and 2018, under his leadership, the school won the district football competitions and represented Namayingo at the national level. Ouma says he also encourages his netball and football players to strike a balance between sports and academics as they are both equally important.
He says since he rents a house near the school, it allows him to stay at school after official hours to give students extra lessons.
Every weekend, Ouma says he trains students on how to make bricks, soap and cooking oil. The school sells the items produced by students and use the money on their scholastic materials.
“This has greatly helped students who would have dropped out of school due to lack of scholastic materials. It has also given them skills to survive after school even if they do not immediately get jobs,” Ouma adds.
He advises teachers to upgrade their education and strive to listen to students. And for better results, teachers should be passionate about their job.
What Others Say
The Namayingo district education officer, Kaawo Kawere, said Ouma is a hardworking teacher and urged other teachers to emulate him if they want to impact their learners.
“Some teachers think they will be recognised by doing the usual teaching. You should strive to stand out from others,” he added.
Kawere noted that Ouma has contributed towards the school’s improvement in academic performance by going out of his way to help students.
Namayingo district chairperson Ronald Sanya said Ouma’s contributions towards reduction in the students’ dropout rate has improved the school’s image. He added that working with district leaders, Ouma has been instrumental in sensitising parents to protect their daughters from early sex and urging them to keep their children in school.
The chairperson for Banda sub-county, Benard Ogutu, said Ouma has also contributed towards improvement in students’ discipline and that cases of misconduct reported against students at Banda police have drastically reduced.
The Banda LC1 chairman, John Ogoola, said Ouma is an extraordinary teacher as he rode his bicycle to not only deliver study materials, but also to sensitise parents against child marriages.
Richard Musana, the school’s headteacher, said Ouma is so committed to his job and that he is always the first to arrive at school and the last to leave.
Benny Kateke, a member of the school’s board of governors, said the institution entrusts Ouma with the role of soliciting views from students because of his good relationship with them.
Fact File
- Born in 1986, Ouma started his education journey at Masaba Primary School in Busia in 1990, then joined Merry Land High School in Entebbe for his O’level in 1998.
- In 2003, he joined Dede Secondary School in Namayingo for his A’level, before he enrolled for a bachelor’s degree in education, majoring in economics in 2006.
- Ouma, who started his teaching career at St Phillips, is currently pursuing a master’s degree in education management at Busitema University
