Today is the first day of the second term in the 2019 school year at St. Katherine and the girls are returning from their three week break at home with their families. Grades from the first term were fairly weak. We felt disappointed, and we’re sure that the girls feel bewildered and overwhelmed with what is expected of them in secondary school.
The Ugandan school system is a remnant of British colonial days. It is heavy on rote memorization and testing. There is a set of exams at the beginning of the term that places a student in her “stream” and another round of exams at the end of the term. A girl in her first and second year of school takes 15 courses, including Math, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics! Her schedule drops to 10 subjects in the third and fourth year. If she progresses to Advanced Level (last two years of high school), and most don’t, she will focus on a “combination” of just three subjects, which are determined by performance on massive nation-wide exams administered after Ordinary Level. It is make-or-break.
What pressure!
It got us wondering: Do they know how to study? How do they prepare for those all-important exams?
In order to try to help them improve their study habits and academic performance, we sought the advice of another excellent girls’ education organization in East Africa.
AfricAid mentors secondary school girls in Tanzania to complete their education, develop into confident leaders, and transform their own lives and their communities. The organization has two programs, which currently serve 6,000 girls: Kisa Project and Binti Shupavu. Binti Shupavu (which means Courageous Daughters) is a four-year life skills course for lower secondary school girls covering topics such as study skills, personal leadership, health and self-confidence with the goal of increasing graduation rates for vulnerable girls. (The Founder and Executive Director are listed on our Changemakers page.)
The “Study Skills” curriculum for Binti Shupavu is what AfricAid so generously shared with us and what our girls have begun to learn. These pictures show a recent meeting of our students, reviewing the material with our teacher liaison, Ms. Jennifer Nyabober and her colleague in the Careers department, Mr. Godfrey Akao.
Encouraging girls and building their self-confidence is a long-term and ongoing process in order to attain the goal of improving exam results. The Study Skills unit has some reflective questions for every student to better understand the areas she needs to improve. At the beginning of the unit, the girls discussed these questions together:
- What does it mean to “study?”
- What are some of the situations in which you would need to study?
- How do you currently study? What materials do you use?
- What are some of the things that distract you from studying?
- Do you study by yourself or with others? Why?
Here are some highlights of the strategies they are learning, which include time management and prioritization.
Wishing our girls better luck this term. Practice makes perfect. We believe in you.
