School Day at Arlington Academy of Hope

Arlington Academy of Hope
Bumwalukani, Uganda

The progress at the school which I have been able to observe over my five visits is phenomenal. There are some very confident boys and girls at AAH. They are all speaking in English with much greater confidence. Our students speak only English throughout the day and chastise each other if they slip into Lugisu. AAH students present themselves as clean and smartly dressed students who are still respectful of adults and authority. Their curiosity about the world beyond Bududa is ever increasing. Their love and enjoyment from books is evident. I wish all of you who are sponsors could meet face to face with your child. You truly are giving these children a chance and hope for their future. You can not imagine how grateful those families are.

The first lessons begin at 7:30. On Monday and Friday, that means the start of the marching and drilling at the assembly in the school compound. Tr. Godfrey is in charge of this and gets the children going in great form. He is a highly energetic teacher who treats the children with respect and they enjoy his fun approach to everything. Assemblies usually consist of announcements, praising songs, and a skit or the morning news. Each week a different class is in charge of the program. It’s my favorite part of the day.


Back in the classes by 8:30, the students work with teachers until the morning break time at 10:30. For classes from P3-P7, the classes are in 40 minute blocks and are taught by different teachers who move about to each class. The walls are covered with educational charts and information. Some of these are teacher made and some have been purchased in Uganda or sent from the U.S. Most teaching is done in a lecture form where the teacher talks for a while and then either puts a practice exercise on the board or passes out textbooks for copying information or an exercise. They write in exercise books which are somewhat like the blue books I used in college. They have 48 or 96 pages and whatever is copied becomes the student’s resource to learn the information. While studying they say they are “revising their books.” For the most part, texts are not taken home. These books are usually blue-gray and were covered with tan book covers. An exciting development this year is that the largest supplier of these has put a photo of the U.S. President on the cover. Another edition has the whole Obama family. Now on the back of each cover are the words, YES WE CAN!!! Pretty motivating stuff.

At 10:30 all students file towards the kitchen and receive a plastic cup of hot porridge (drinkable) and a mondazi, chapatti, banana or other small food snack. When they are finished, children return and wash their cups and then are free to play. Teachers go for tea and visit and talk among themselves until the bell rings at 11. The bell ringer is always a student who keeps very close track of the time. There’s a warning bell 5 minutes before they need to be back seated in the class. All students do this without teacher guidance.

Classes continue from 11 until 1pm. At this time the P1 and P2 students are dismissed to go home. They usually walk in groups until children veer off at the path which leads to their home. Some students have an hour of walking with or without company before reaching home.
The upper classes are dismissed and again go to the kitchen, this time for a wide plastic bowl of posho and beans (rice on Friday). It is the unofficial lunch/food for all Ugandan schools. The posho is made of maize which is cooked to the consistency of Cream of Wheat. Students use their hands to dip the posho into the beans and sauce. No food is wasted and once again the students return to the kitchen to wash the bowl. The rest of the hour is for resting, running, revising, reading or playing. Classes resume at 2 and continue until 4:40. Special classes for music, PE and library are an included part of a student’s week. When the final bell rings, classes are dismissed as the teacher excuses them (not necessarily the moment the bell rings). Students often linger about the school compound visiting with friends or playing a bit. They absolutely love being at school.

I think there is also something about the fact that once they get home, they will be enlisted to assist with the family chores! These chores might include, grazing their animals, fetching water, sweeping the compound, washing their uniform, collecting firewood, collecting grass for the animals, digging, or washing plates. It seems that there are always many things to do and there is a limited time of daylight to accomplish all. Most houses do not have electricity so students do their studying by candle or lantern light.

Through out the day, I do not hear complaining or whining. I do not hear attitudes of indifference or noncompliance. I have seen very few children cry. I have seen many children comfort and come to the support of another child-whatever the age. The school is like their home and they are part of a group. In Uganda, rather than being an alum, you are an OB or an OG, Old Boy or Old Girl if you have attended the same school. In visiting each secondary school during this trip, there is a noticeable bond between the S1, S2 and S3 students who are in each school. They are OBs and OGs of Arlington. Upon arrival at each school which we visited, we identified ourselves and most administrators immediately knew who our students were and simply said they would get the Arlington students for us. They complimented them for their seriousness of purpose, their study habits and for their preparation. Administrators asked us what our secret was to have produced such outstanding students from such a rural area.

AAH has been a unique development in this region of Uganda. Some of the keys to our success have to be: (1)hard working and dedicated teachers and staff, a visionary headmaster all of whom are at school and working from 7:30 until 5:00 every day, (2) feeding our students twice a day, (3) giving our students the uniforms and scholastic materials they need, (4) introducing our school to the culture of reading. On the North American side, we have been fortunate to have a very close relationship and the huge support of the Arlington Traditional School in Arlington, Virginia. We have a tireless group of workers on the US Board. We have received financial support from many hundreds of child sponsors and donors. We have had opportunities for many Americans to visit the village and they come back to enthusiastically spread the word about the program. It seems to all be working and one by one there has been and continues to be a transformation through education in a small, very remote part of eastern Uganda.