August 2023 status update
Keframa High School
Update August 2023
In Uganda the school year runs from the beginning of February to about early December, and now they are just coming to the end of the second term of the year. The top class (S4) students have been taking national mock exams, but so far the results are not out. Most of the children will go home for a short time and report back at the start of September.
Shelagh and Ian visited the school at the beginning of February this year and have decided that then is a good time to go as it fits with the beginning of the school year, whereas our previous time in October/November clashed with the exams. Going in February/March means that we can meet all the newly sponsored children and encourage all the students to study well.
While we were there we met the new students and had several meetings with the school management, the Chair of the Board of Governors and the teachers. The exam results from 2022 were freshly available and there were some disappointing results in several subjects, the sciences and English. A few changes have been made in the school to address this and we are hoping for an improvement in the results, so the mock exam results will be helpful to assess the improvement. The number of students this year is more than last year with about 170 across the 4 year groups.
This was a class underway with a group discussion, which Shelagh assisted with some useful pointers. The teaching method has been changed slightly from the traditional ‘teacher at the front writing on the board and the students copy’ which is still common in most lessons. This is an initiative by the Ministry of Education.
The other change we saw was that the dormitory accommodation has been 
improved a bit so that the girls’ and boys’ dormitories are now separated (see the picture with the new wall, right) and have their own entrances. It has always been a concern that there was little to separate the boys and girls, which did make some of the girls uncomfortable.
We also met the new temporary headteacher, who seemed to be working well with the staff and we hope he will improve the school performance. The post will be advertised and a permanent headteacher is planned to be appointed by the start of next school year.
Once again, the local situation is not very good with poor harvests, although the latest one does promise to be an improvement for some foods, maize seems to be better than recently, but the bean harvest is not great because the rains were late and so a lot of seeds died in the ground. This has a knock on effect because people do not have enough food to be able to sell their excess and so cannot pay the school fees. It also means that the price of food in the markets has increased and the latest restriction on exports from Ukraine will have an effect on food prices in Uganda.
Our Ugandan contact, Tonny, has been working hard for the sponsors, not only did he recruit 22 new students, in addition to the ones the school recruited, but he has been looking after them and checking on their progress during the year. He acts as our eyes and ears when we are not there.
During the year Keframa hosted the local woman MP, Linda Auma, for International Women’s day celebration. In the picture left.
Then in June the Ministry of Health conducted Yellow Fever vaccination for the whole school, free of charge for students, the local community were helped as well.
The next term will start at the end of August/beginning of September and runs until December. The S4 students will be sitting their Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) exams at the end of October/early November.
Looking ahead
Phase one of the school development was opened in March 2019, just a year before lockdown closed all Ugandan schools for almost 2 years. Going ahead there is a need for girls accommodation on the school site as well as some accommodation for teachers. There will soon be need for more teaching space and for the boys to be accommodated on the school site.
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