The JGI education program is divided into formal and informal sections.
The Formal Education involves:
- development of materials (such as the Teacher's Guide: Integrated Environmental Education Lessons within the Ugandan Primary School Curriculum...for Primary 5 and for Primary 6 & 7)
- materials distribution (to schools)
- education programs geared towards teachers and tutors (such as the one we will be facilitating next week with primary 5, 6 and 7 teachers)
P.S. Primary 5,6 and 7 is about our grades 5, 6 and 7.
The Informal program involves
- Roots & Shoots
- Forest Education
There are two Forest Education sites that JGI Uganda have been involved with: Budongo (newer and further north) and Kalinzu (south-east, close to where we will be working next week). These are both along the rift valley, and both are part of and managed by the National Forest Authority. Budongo (built with financial assistance from Disney) has been in existence for only 2-3 years yet has already had 2000 students participate in the programs. Kalinzu is older (3-4 years) and was built by the Japanese; this site has seen some 4000 students!
JGI Uganda teaches their material to the National Forest Authority which then delivers it to the various school groups. Students from rural schools spend a half day at the site. JGI pays for all of the transportation costs for the students. The Kalinzu site focuses on primary 5 students from 12-15 schools. In each session, students go on a forest walk with a facilitator then they participate in a number of Environmental activities. JGI has the workshops designed so that students fill out a pre- then post-questionnaire ...followed by another post-questionnaire 6 months later. The results are showing some nice improvements in Environmental awareness among the students. In addition, Tracey has received anecdotal feedback on the positive effect that the environmental sessions have on the students back in the classroom: they are more involved in class. Additional results indicate that illegal tree cutting has been reduced in the areas where the students return to and that more people are acquiring the proper licences to cut trees.
JGI materials have been sent to 2000 schools located between the two Forest Education sites. About 265 different schools have participated in the workshops.
The Ugandan Educational System is set up differently from that in Canada. There is a Ugandan Education Ministry that sets the curriculum for the whole country. There are Centre Coordinating Teachers (CCT's) that report directly back to the Ministry of Education. Then, various District Education Offices coordinate the schools and deliver materials, etc. Teachers are responsible to these. So, in a sense, education itself is more decentralized than in Canada or Ontario.
Jacque coordinates the Roots & Shoots program for Uganda. For those of you unfamiliar with Roots & Shoots, it is a JGI program that is really about empowering youth around the areas of Community, Animal Welfare and the Environment. This program has been in place in Uganda since Jacque joined JGI in spring 2006. Already there are 96 groups functioning around the country! There are several Ugandan organizations which have student clubs, the most useful of which have been the Wildlife Clubs. The Wildlife Clubs have been involved in recommending schools for participation in Roots & Shoots. Jacque then runs introductory workshop for teachers to familiarize them with the program and to train them in the leadership skills needed to facilitate student development of the clubs. Each club completes an activity report form(s). The submission of these is a good indication of whether the club is active or not. New, active clubs then receive more materials to help them develop further. There is a second level workshop for teachers where they learn about practical activities that they can use with their students. Jacque shared some really amazing stuff with us here...
- tip taps are hand washing stations beside the outdoor toilets which are made of only rope, twigs and a jerrycan. These are designed so the jerrycan tips water out when a person steps on the rope (therefore there is no need to touch the can with dirty hands). Hygiene is improved.
- herbal and vegetable gardens are planted by schools providing food ... and flavourings for food.
- one school here in Entebbe makes bulletin boards out of used and discarded paper. These are brilliant! (UTS...get ready to try these out!)
Jacque is currently planning more workshops for both teachers and students. In addition, she is out visiting schools regularly and multiple times.
She has some great positive feedback for active clubs, students and teachers consisting of annual certificates for each active group, certificates for the most active student, the most active teacher, T-shirts and bags. In addition, active groups can receive small grants (from donor funds) for some of their projects.
Right now, the Roots & Shoots students range from ages 5-16 years. Most clubs are in the primary (elementary for us) schools although there are currently 3 secondary schools involved.
Groups are encouraged to make their first activity an observational one to find out issues that exist around their schools. In addition to the individual school initiatives, Jacque provides a suggested activity for each term that all Roots & Shoots clubs can be involved in. The 1st term is Community, the 2nd is Animal Welfare and the 3rd is the Environment. The most recent community activity was for students to think about their own totem and how it affects what they do. In Ugandan culture, people are born into a clan and each clan has a totem. Jacque's is the monkey, so she is not to harm monkeys in any way. The students then write their reflections and send them in to Jacque; she will be collating these for distribution.
This is not all the woman does. Mobile Education involves bringing JGI's video player to different schools to show different videos, especially about what is happening in other areas of Africa.
On top of all of this, Jacque is developing a peer councilling program for girls that will be linked to HIV. This will involve training girls (she is thinking that 2 girls plus 1 female teacher from each school) to work with other girls in their schools around HIV and other issues that keep girls out of school e.g. lack of money to buy sanitary supplies. Ideally, this will also be linked to TESO (Health organization) so that girls who are at high risk for having HIV could be tested and supported.
It is beyond amazing what a couple of dedicated women in an organization like JGI can do for others. Whew! ...and this was only the morning!
We ate lunch with the JGI staff...Ugandan food...yum! Avocado salad, a peanut paste dish, beans, potatoes with some incredible sauce and rice. Wonderful.
The afternoon saw us working on the blog, sharing our materials with Tracey and working through the workshop outline.
Tomorrow, we visit a local school in the morning...then keep going! What a brilliant learning opportunity this it.
I'm of to watch some cool videos on the environment that we will be showing to our teachers next week.
Written by Meg (on behalf of Alie and Emma too)
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