(This articles was first published in the New Vision on June, 16, 2021)
By Olandason Wanyama
Creative thinking among learners in Karamoja is key if the sub-region is to transform, a district education official told dozens of teachers who attended a recent media in education training.
Williams Abura Iwuala, the Nakapiripirit district education officer in charge of counselling and guidance, said there was great need to embrace the use of newspapers to improve education outcomes in Karamoja.
The training was conducted on June 1-4 in Kotido, Napak, Moroto, Nabilatuk and Nakapiripirit districts.
Iwuala said the learners must be empowered to use newspapers.
“It is not just skills that need to be acquired, but the mindset and personality of the learner must change,” Iwuala said.
He added that newspapers could cause an appetite for life-long learning in the sub-region.
Thus, a change in the teaching culture was emphasised during the five-hour training held at Nakapiripirit Primary School.
Presiding over the training, the Newspapers in Education (NiE) consultant at New Vision, John Eremu, asked teachers not to underestimate the wisdom of learners, saying they should be allowed to discover.
“Always allow child-centred learning,” he said, adding that this will increase participation.
Eremu also advised teachers to let the learners take charge of lessons for an effective realisation of a learning process. Hence, newspapers are a supplementary teaching material.
“It is a complete textbook but requires a lot to deliver a lesson,” Eremu noted. He said the content is ever fresh because the language and appearance of the paper changes on a daily basis.
He also said NiE encourages group learning, the reason learners are clustered.
Phillip Edukut, the headteacher of Namekwii Community School in Napak district, said NiE has also improved the parents’ attitude towards education.
“The parents also come requesting for papers,” he said, adding that the children have become agents of transforming villages.
Edukut said the parents even make phone calls in case of delay of the distribution of the newspapers to the learners.
Another head of school, Paul Lokut Bongolo from Nakaumeume Community School in Nakapiripirit district, said NiE has helped learners perform better in class.
“We are now utilising papers to ensure children participate actively in learning,” he noted. Bongolo said the introduction of NiE in Karamoja was timely and would facilitate the learning process. He encouraged parents to embrace the media in the education process so as to tell successful stories in the future.
Teddy Alinga, an educator at Nasinyonoit Community School in Nakapiripirit, urged teachers to hold close NiE, asking the partners to do more capacity building for the educators.
Bernard Owilli, the Save the Children Uganda programme offi cer for Nakapiripirit and Nabilatuk districts, said the introduction of NiE was transformational.
“I believe with time, the learners will do better,” he said.
The headteacher of Nakapiripirit Primary School, John Francis Asire, told the trainees that NiE was a blessing to Karamoja.
“It is rare to hear that the media is working with teachers to transform Karamoja,” he said.
Joy Esther Abo, a senior multimedia producer at New Vision, outlined the advantages of NIE, saying newspapers cover a wide range of issues.
Abo said they provide current information as opposed to the textbooks that are not updated often, adding that papers create awareness in schools.
She quoted a three-year study in the US which showed that children who read newspapers regularly showed superior spelling, vocabulary and sound skills compared to their counterparts who lacked access.
