Springs Alive Community school is still operational amidst challenges

It's been seven years since Springs Alive Community School (SPACS) opened its doors and we have overcome many challenges and enjoyed many victories. We started in tree shade, then moved into papyrus thatched, partially walled class rooms, and finally through friends and well-wishers like Mr. Colin, Madam Sue Bishop, Dr. Nunley and many others, we now have 2 permanent classroom blocks. Most of our children come from very poor families which are unable to afford an education. We have however managed to expose them to foreign cultures and a lot of new things which take place in non- African countries. This was achieved by partnering with foreign schools and exchanging letters. Some of the things our pupils have learnt include;
•Putting on a happy face and smiling - regardless of their hardships.
•How to speak respectfully to others
•Types of plant that suit a foreign environment, we have exchanged plants and seedlings grown both here and abroad.
•Local politics, laws and children’s rights.
•And then of course the school curriculum.

Much of what SPACS has achieved today is as a result of having partner schools. We are extremely grateful to everyone who has supported us with looking after the well-being and good education of our children and the school at large. We are especially grateful to the people who have helped us get through term two 2012 (May – July). We believe that God is working through them. Our recent challenge was a letter we received from the Kakiri Town Council – requested that we close the school due to the state of the school’s pit latrine (which was formerly meant for a home setting and now had become for a school of over 150 pupils) see picture of former pit latrine and the new pit latrine.

We pleaded with the council and were given two weeks to construct a new pit-latrine. There was no money available, but with the Lord's help, we found enough money to put up a new pit- latrine (though still incomplete) in the required time. We therefore did not need to close the school.

 During the same term, feeding our staff and students became very difficult as we had to use funds to build the new pit-latrine as well as repairing part of the classroom blocks. The drought that persisted for some months meant we could not grow food in our garden and many of our pupils braved being hungry at school. The drought also reduced the parents and guardian’s contributions toward the pupil’s school fees. We are proud to announce that we managed to keep all our eight teachers for the complete term. This is a great achievement as usually we would lose two or three teachers due to a lack of funds. We did however have to cancel the school house competitions. We managed to hold parent’s meetings twice, staff meetings took place weekly and management committee meetings were held twice. Thanks to everybody that has contributed to the success and wellbeing of our school. God bless us all.

urgent-plea-from-springs-alive-school.

If you've been following Kathie Nunley's newsletter for awhile, you know that they've adopted a small village school in Kakiri, Uganda. If you are not familiar, please watch our short video at: Nunley for Uganda she heard from the school director this week with an urgent plea. A storm has torn a large hole in the side of one of their 2 primitive buildings, making it unstable. In addition, they were unable to raise funds to make the required improvements to their pit latrine. The Kakiri Town Council is threatening to close the school. They have been given 2 weeks to make the repairs or close - leaving the village children without any school and most without at least one daily meal. They need $600 to make the minimum repairs. she's hoping at least 60 readers of her newsletter can find a way to collect $10 from their school / classes to donate to help Springs Alive school. Most of us know that just having a can to collect spare change can easily secure $10. We need it by the first part of next week. You can donate w/ your credit card at our bookshop: You will see an order button in the to!p row, right under the blue Help4Teacher banner Email me if you have any questions. THANK YOU

High grades alone don’t mean success

There is excitement every time primary, and secondary examinations are released. For the few who score high grades, their photos are splashed on national dailies while majority who do not make it go unnoticed.

This is not surprising since tradition has always been to reward ‘winners’ and
punish ‘losers’.

But are high grades a predictor of success? Do bright students perform well in their jobs? Evidence shows otherwise.

In 1973, Prof. David C. McClelland of Harvard University in his paper, Testing for competence rather than intelligence, argued that competence (underlying characteristics of an individual such as empathy, self-discipline and initiative) is the major predictor of superior job performance and success in life, not traditional academic aptitude and knowledge (IQ).

His research found that people with a high IQ often performed poorly at work. Indeed in our day-to-day interactions, bright persons tend to be argumentative and inconsiderate — behaviours that jeopardise group existence.

Of recent, these attributes have been framed into what is conventionally known as Emotional Intelligence (EQ), and includes personal and social competencies individuals require to manage themselves and others’ emotions.

Unfortunately, these attributes are never taught in schools and universities. Instead, effort is put on acquiring knowledge — something that does not increase one’s ability of getting, retaining a job and performing excellently at work.

Many people after being through school don’t still know how to write a report, develop a project plan, or use a computer.

Thus you find that when they find themselves in a leadership position, they fail to build a strong team and in the end get fired!

Most time the blame is put on a flawed educational system. Other times there has been upgrades for instances to learn skills like report writing, but still devoid of what an employer calls competence.

Thus although IQ may be important, EQ is indispensable. As universities churn out more graduates, it is important they possess the attributes to fit and work in a team.

What one scores in school should not be an issue, rather how they use these grades to create opportunities and contribute to society.

We welcome your reactions,hit the comment button below

MBS ROTARACT CLUB FUNDRAISES FOR SPRINGS ALIVE COMMUNITY SCHOOL

Oh what a wonder that as Chief Administrator of Springs Alive Community School(SPACS) I happened to be invited for the fundraising event that was organized by Multitech Business School Rotaractors.

While here I was mesmerized at the way the rotaractors had organized this event that brought together many Rotarians,interactors and rotaractors from various clubs around Kampala including Mulago,Kasangati,Mengo,Kasubi,Nansana to mention but a few.

There were several items that had been set for auction in order to raise funds for SPACS including a Rotaractors sculpture, buying money etc etc.

This did not all end there, on 4th November 2011 MBS rotaractors headed a group of about 20 other people to Springs Alive Community School in order to have time together!

At SPACS we shared a lot of eats, drinks, working in the kitchen together, played football, skipped ropes and so many other activities. We need your comments on the pictures we posted; click the link; http://on.fb.me/tNMapl

It was wonderful to see the rotaractors giving pencils and exercise books to each of the pupils; they were about 120 pupils present. They also carried with themselves clothes, bags, shoes, Text books and a huge box of chalk all for the children at SPACS.

We ran short of words and failed to express our gratitude!! Multitech Business School Rotaract club is indeed a seed that germinates and bring forth good fruit and many eat on it. Its shade a resting place for the small children as those at SPACS.

It all started as a very big scary project; given the fact that the rotaractors had made a needs assessment and the needs were enormous. Several meetings were sat to check the feasibility of the project. It was really a great joy seeing the fundraising drive happen.

But the greatest thing of all was when we went to the forementioned children’s centre (now community school). This was epitome of joy. The children were happy to see us and the Rotaractors were also reciprocating the happiness. Save for the journey back, where the rotaractors bought all the sugarcane that were being sold at all spots on the road. INDEED IT WAS SERVICE THROUGH FELLOWSHIP AND FUN! We are going back soon because we left our hearts at Springs Alive Children Centre,said the rotaractors.

Springs Alive Community School is a school that has continued to thrive as a result of such interventions, thus Multitech Business School Rotaract club goes into the records of SPACS as our partner in development toward the issue of ensuring that the needy children of SPACS do attain some education.

Here is the link of the video that was taken that day;http://bit.ly/vx0ZDL

We await your comments

OUR PRIMARY SEVEN CANDIDATES FOR THE YEAR 2011 AT SPRINGS ALIVE COMMUNITY SCHOOL

Our candidates of 2011 were twelve (12) in number, seven boys and five girls.

This was the second year running when at Springs Alive community school (SPACS) we are having Primary seven candidates complete their Primary leaving Examinations (PLE) at SPACS.

All the candidates were successfully registered as members of st.pius mixed primary school Naddangira.

Given that at Spacs we do not yet have a centre number registered with the ministry of education so our primary seven pupils do not sit their final Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) from Spacs.

The pupils have been very cooperative and working very hard in order to succeed in their academics, there has been concentration on serious work and we are of high hope that they will all pass with flying colours, said Mr.Kakaire one of their dedicated teachers.

The pupil’s examinations were done in three days as per the instructions from the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB).On the 1st of November they had their briefing at the coordinating centre of St.Pius Mixed Primary School Naddangira,then the following day was the 2nd of November 2011,early in the morning at around 9am,they sat for their first paper, that was, social studies then in the afternoon they did English and they concluded with Mathematics early in the morning followed by science that was on 3rd November 2011

We take this opportunity to thank God who has enabled us get to these achievements; now whereas there have been cases of reported incidents where pupils have failed to do their final examinations, not any of our pupils failed to do their final examinations this time.

We have heard of cases where roads have been a road block to pupil’s doing of their final examinations as a result of heavy rains, bad roads thus tricky transport systems to maneuver through.

There was also a case that was heard where a 15 year old candidate gave birth to a baby boy just before writing her first paper, there have also been reported cases where pupils sitting their final examinations were found to be pregnant.

In this picture, pupils balance on a makeshift bridge to school, such instances usually put the pupils’ lives at risk. This is mainly as a result of disastrous floods that usually wreak havoc after heavy rains, some schools sometimes do close for some time as the waters submerge and this usually causes sharp drops in pupil enrolment and buildings with cracked walls, damp classroom floors and mangled iron sheets are a sight to behold.

Surprisingly, some pupils have mastered the exact location of the rails. So they carefully wade through the waters making sure they step on the rails. This is risky because a miscalculation in step could spell disaster. Other pupils climb on to the mango trees on one side of the river and connect across through the intertwining branches.

Some of these and more are examples of cases Primary seven pupils do encounter here in Uganda

If you are interested in anything relating to this topics, please let us know, hit the comment button below and leave us your comments and input ,we would like to hear from you

Springs Alive Community School (SPACS) teachers complain about small pay

Do teachers get a fair fraction of the tuition in salary and/or allowances?
“We are paid Shs. 80,000, that is about $ 30 as a mandatory basic salary &/or allowance, this is besides the electricity, accommodation, water, and health bills that we usually have to meet on our own! It is, definitely, not enough considering that most teachers have families to feed,” one teacher complained.

Some teachers have dreamt of teaching in more than one school to boost their meager salary, but the school policy does not provide for this.It’s been very difficult to increase this money for the teachers given that we hardly have means yet to sustain the school. In many schools the longer one stays there, the more money they get. Pupils here pay a non-mandatory fee of about $10 per term. It’s not mandatory because you find that some pupils have contributed may be maize, beans or cassava to supplement for the teacher’s lunch.

We have had challenges of having to do with ineffective teachers/volunteers because with this kind of insufficient payment you cannot argue one for instance to be hardworking, keep time to mention but a few.

What seems so discouraging to the teachers is that after working hard, any mistake will not go unpunished. For the past three years, we have seen teachers get fired for misconduct, after consensus meeting with parents and school management committees.

At SPACS we have three terms and final examinations done at the end of each term, we also have Primary seven candidates that will be sitting their Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) and will be joining senior secondary schools next year come 2012, this will be our second class of Primary Seven Leavers since SPACS existed.

Schools with Primary seven leavers usually have a centre number that enables the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) work together to facilitate the examinations process but at SPACS we don’t have such centre number and we have requested one school in our neighborhood that has a UNEB centre number to allow out pupils sit their final examinations from there and they have agreed.

With a Primary leaver’s certificate, a student can join any secondary school or vocational institute.
For a teacher to survive here, he or she needs to be committed and does not have to teach anywhere.

On many occasions the Town council (a local authority) has thought we are a profit venture and want us to pay tax for the services being offered at SPACS, we have continually had to write and re-write to them that we are a non-profit making organization doing charity work.

SPACS operates as a community school and is recognized with the District Education Department. We have promised the Town Council that we will be able to supplement to their meager resources when we have means to sustain SPACS but not now.

We hope that if we will get the support needed to make the necessary upgrade for SPACS, then we will be in position to get support for the needy children in our care, be in position to sustain the school, increase the teachers’ salaries and also have the best teachers!

We need your comments, hit the comment button below and leave your comments; thank you very much

STUDENTS WHO FAIL TO PAY FEES ARE A SOURCE OF DISTRUST

One Wanyana Sarah has four children, all in primary school and were recently sent home for outstanding school fees.
“Business is bad; most people are unable to pay in full and we have nothing left to do!
Wanyana is not alone. Just last week, several schools in the country sent thousands of students home in a bid to force students to pay outstanding tuition. Many parents send their students to school each term after paying only part of the tuition in the hope that they would settle the outstanding balance by mid-term. But as the weeks go by, most find they can’t meet the deadlines.

To make the situation more complex, the schools do not reimburse the students for time lost. It’s only in exceptional cases that remedial lessons are offered. Some students miss anywhere from a week to a month and sometimes a whole term. In the end, both parents and students lose. And this being the third term, students in candidate classes, like Primary Seven (7) who fail to meet their tuition and exam fees on time risk missing out on the exams.
There’s no government policy that could redress such issue, the general understanding however, is that schools would keep the students in class until the end of the term and withhold their reports until the fees is cleared.
In the past schools used to encourage students to keep up to the end of the term but this cannot work given that each school has its own unique realities.
Some teachers opposed to this idea say they have genuine fears. They cite extreme cases in which students move to a different school each term when they fail to settle their tuition.
It is very common among private schools that are just starting. Some students start off by paying for only the first term, default on the subsequent terms until they are sent away.
There is therefore a need to make a radical change in the policy to address several issues. What happens if a student pays fees and chooses to leave before the end of the term? Are they entitled to a refund? Should the head teacher sue the parents who default on tuition?
Indeed the final decision should not disadvantage the student, who is supposed to obtain an education, whenever the tuition is finally paid. There needs to be a framework for school fees, involving the school management committee or board of governors.
“The terms of reference should be clear to students and parents when they start the term for avoidance of grief, to avoid arbitrary decisions.
At Springs Alive community school (SPACS), however, we maintain a more tolerant policy; we don’t send home students for defaulting on fees.
We always remind them [defaulting students] throughout the term and withhold their reports at the end of the term. We do this for the students’ good since we don’t want them to miss class. Sometimes, however, you find that its even useless to withhold the student’s report, observed SPACS Headteacher!

Besides, in a bid to support the needy children at SPACS, we will be looking for means and ways of sustaining SPACS and one of the ways is through collecting fees from the students that can afford.
We are seeking the reader’s opinions and advise as to how we can do this, kindly hit to comment button and leave us your remarks, will be very grateful.