St. Mary's Secondary School

After meeting and talking to the girls, we realized that we need to make some changes in order to provide them with the best possible quality education. There are many barriers to education in Uganda, so I will give you some specific examples. One is distance. Betty and Rebecca attend the school we originally were going to have all 6 attend, and it takes them an hour to walk to school. Some of the girls now attend other, closer schools, but the quality isn’t nearly as good. So Betty and Rebecca are getting a good education, but at the cost of having 2 hours of their day spent commuting, and having the risk of part of their after-school commute be in the dark (not safe when walking through the plantain fields that they cross through). Another is boarding vs. day school. As you know, we are going to be opening Hope Home, a home for girls, but this will not be open until July or August once we receive the paperwork from the government giving us the okay. Many of the parents didn’t want the kids going to school unless it was boarding school, and yet they couldn’t afford even the day school fees, so needed to rely on us. Some had spotty attendance as their parents would pull them out to work or to do chores at home. They said they would be happy when Hope Home opened, as it would be like a boarding school, but because that hasn’t yet happened due to government delays, this has caused problems.

Thankfully, a new school has opened! St. Mary’s Secondary School in Kireka is close, and is conveniently located directly behind CUS, the girls’ primary school. Its location means 2 things; 1) the girls who didn’t go to Luzira because of distance will now be able to attend, and 2) with it being so close to CUS, Hellen (director of CUS) will be able to keep daily tabs on the girls.

St. Mary’s has big, spacious, clean classrooms with about 30 kids per class. The Headmaster tells us that he is very strict about attendance, and kids who don’t attend regularly will be kicked out; they do not keep students simply to get their school fees. Classes the girls will take are: math, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, agriculture, history, CRE (Christian Religious Studies), fine art, commerce, entrepreneurship, literature, and English. The school is science-oriented with the purpose of producing “job creators” rather than “job seekers”.

As the school is new, it is not completely finished. It will be finished in 1-2 years, and boarding dorms and a huge science lab are in the works. Right now they only have S1 (first year of secondary, there are 6 years) classes, but one grade will be added each year.

So, what does this mean? We are re-thinking a lot of things, and we are hoping that next year when school starts (February 2012) Rebecca, Darphine, Betty, and Scovia will join Dinah and Ketty at St. Mary’s. (Dinah and Ketty had problems at their other school, so have begun Term 2 at St. Mary’s, and are loving it). If the boarding part of the school is ready, we will likely sign them up to board at the school. This will mean that they will live there, rather than at Hope Home, and that their parents will be happier as that is what most of the parents want. We think that some of the girls may need the support of Hope Home (those that come from more difficult pasts) so we will have that discussion when the time comes about what option is best.

The costs for day school at St. Mary’s is nearly identical to those at Luzira, the estimates we had provided the sponsors with earlier this year, so there will be no cost difference in sponsorship. If we decide to send the girls to boarding school here, we will do fundraisers to collect those extra funds, or will seek out individual donations (but you will still be the only sponsor for your child, as the primary donor).

Below is the list of fees for day school at St. Mary’s:

COST IN SHILLINGS: (ESTIMATED COST IN CANADIAN)
Admission fee = 5,000/once: ($2.02)
School Fees = 150,000/term: ($ 60.00)
Identity Card = 5,000/once: ($2.02)
Lunch = 30,000/term: ($12.12 )
Uniform Set = 55,000/once: ($22.22)
1 ream of photocopying paper = 12,500/term: ($5.05)
4 toilet papers/term*
3 brooms/term*

This means that it will be $80/term. The first term (when we also need to buy uniform, admissions, etc.) will be $107. The last 2 items (toilet paper and brooms) will be taken care of by the family. This is a total of $267, which is only $10 more total than what we had been paying for Luzira, so it will be very little cost difference to switch schools. **Note, 1) Sponsors: you will not have to pay this extra $10 next year if you are not able to, we will fundraise for it separately, and 2) These prices are for this school year, so in February when they start, costs may change.

For this year, all 6 girls are in secondary school and enjoying it. We are working with Hellen, the girls, and their families, to create a plan for next year, and so we will be posting soon as more details about this plan are confirmed.

Term Three (the final term of the year) begins in August, so we will have payment of $65 for Term Three due on July 1st, to give us enough time to collect payment from sponsors and send it to Uganda. After Term Three, the girls will have exams and go on break, and will start up again in February. We will collect sponsorship payment for the first term of next year around the end of 2011, to give you a brief idea of when to expect payments due.

Thank you again for your continued commitment to Rebecca, Darphine, Dinah, Ketty, Scovia, and Betty!

Update: Darphine is also registered and will be starting Term 2 at St. Mary's

(photos of Ketty and Dinah at St. Mary's)