Implement Active Learning in Schools Across Uganda

Thank you for your continued interest in The African SOUP’s Active Learning Project. Your interest has helped to progress active learning as a methodology in 20 primary schools in Eastern Uganda since 2014. Not only has our team been spearheading on-site supervision, demonstration lessons and technical support to our partnering schools, many of our schools have been noted in their respective districts as “model schools.” Last month, the head teacher of Kakumbi Primary School in Luuka District, a rural government school, received visitors from the District Education Office, the local arm of the Ministry of Education, to explore the ways in which he and his team have mobilized locally sourced materials to make hundreds of learning aids to be used in classrooms for primary school pupils. This initiative from Kakumbi was ignited after the Active Learning Team conducted a series of trainings on how to incorporate and utilize the environment in teaching. Due to the fact that many schools in Uganda are underfunded and lack teaching materials, our team has found ways of encouraging teachers to interact and use the environment as a fundamental teaching aid. 

In the same month, The African SOUP Nursery and Primary School received visitors from three organizations from Malawi that had traversed East of Africa to visit our rural school to identify best practices and observe our active classrooms and style of teaching. The three teams of visitors took many notes and were excited to return to their organizations and implement some of the lessons learned from our school notably the handmade learning aids, demonstration gardens and the approach of holistic teaching. 

Our project has reached over 500 educators in Uganda since the inauguration of the project whose switch from imploring active teaching instead of rote memorization and lecture methods have impacted over 10,000 students. The next phase for our team will be to expand our interventions into 10 new government schools in 2020 as we work on sustaining the active learning culture in our existing partner schools next year. As well, in January 2019 our team will be beginning a supplementary methods course at a Primary Teacher’s College where we will reach 350 teachers in training by targeting six identified themes to implant the necessity for active learning to be a culture in the prospective schools and classrooms. 

Thank you for your interest and contributions to The African SOUP. Your efforts are helping children and communities survive and thrive through quality education.