Practical skills are changing young girls’ lives
A peculiar scene played out on the lush green lawn of St Katherine Secondary School for Girls.
Dozens of pupils in bright yellow school uniforms and knee-high white socks gathered around a small bleating goat, which their teacher held down to demonstrate a circumcision.
“Aw,” the girls said at once as the procedure was swiftly carried out by agriculture teacher Tom Richard Oluma.
Animal circumcision is one of many practical lessons the girls at the Ugandan public school learn as part of their science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum. The procedure speeds up the animal’s growth and improves the quality of its meat, Mr Oluma said.
Most of the 1,057 pupils at the school come from families who survive on subsistence farming, so it is important to teach them these practical skills, head teacher Rose Nangwala said.
Pupils learn how to care for animals – including cows, rabbits and chickens – and how to breed them. They also learn how to slaughter them and prepare the meat.
“We are empowering them to build skills to make some money,” Ms Nangwala said.
The school is one of 40 schools in 39 districts across Uganda to share in an almost US$1.2 million (Dh4.3m) donation from Dubai Cares aimed at encouraging girls to study Stem subjects.
About 6,000 pupils, 500 science teachers and 40 head teachers will directly benefit from the funding, which is being managed and distributed by the Forum for African Women Educationalists’ Uganda chapter through 2019.
“There is this perception that science is for boys, not a girl thing,” said Sarah Murungi, the forum’s Stem programme officer. The teachers are trying to change that way of thinking.
“We want them to come out and take up science,” she said.
The funding will cover the cost of materials such as laboratory equipment, chemical reagents and textbooks to encourage the pupils to develop science projects, start Stem clubs and compete in regional and national competitions.
Training is also offered for teachers.
During a recent visit by Dubai Cares officials to St Katherine Secondary School, the pupils displayed their various science projects, ranging from recipes for organic pesticides to using pedal power to recharge mobile phones.
“The methodology of the teaching has moved from teacher-centred to learner-centred,” Ms Nangwala said. “The students are doing the work themselves.
“Initially the teacher knew it all and would be standing here and teaching, and the students would just listen and take notes. But as I talk, the teachers are also learning from the students. There is more participation among the girls in science subjects.”
But many challenges remain for the rural school. A new computer lab built with financial assistance from the African Development Bank in 2015 contains 60 computers to be shared among more than 1,000 pupils. The lab has no internet connection, and the teachers have yet to be trained on how to use the new technology.
Ms Murungi said the Dubai Cares Stem project would help to raise the pupils’ performance in science subjects.
Ms Nangwala agreed, saying it had motivated the pupils to become excited about Stem.
“These girls have now built up their self-esteem because of the Stem competitions,” she said. “When you go out there and you compete with other students, you come back not the same. There is a lot that is being learnt.”