News
Autumn 2007
Pupils at Farah Primary School,
Kikandwa,
enjoying the Learning Paper
September 2007
The Learning Paper’s Uganda project has been ongoing for just over a year and in this time the project model has been established and tested at local level, one which can be replicated in other rural locations throughout Uganda.
In February 2007, the Learning Paper was circulated to 13 schools and has since been used in the classroom and at home by over 6440 children. It has been read in 2,500 households by parents and other family members, resulting in over 10,000 people coming into contact with the Learning Paper.
An impact assessment and evaluation is currently being conducted with results and report expected during October. The feedback received from the 13 schools and Education Departments will shape the content and design of the second edition of the Learning Paper which is expected to be completed in December.
July 2007
Mr David Tenywa (centre), District
Education Officer, Bugiri, with colleagues at a
Learning Paper workshop
A the end of July we had a busy week of meetings in Kampala, moving from one city location to another, we made presentations and discussed the Learning Paper. The response was overwhelmingly positive not least from Hon. Peter Teko Lokeris, the Minister of State for Education & Sports (Primary Education) who was most supportive of the project and introduced us to officials from relevant government education agencies.
Leading from the meeting with the Hon. Minister we are now developing working relationships with the Education Standards Agency and National Curriculum Development Centre in Kampala.
At the District level partnerships have been established with Bugiri and Mubende District Education Officials and Primary Teachers Colleges. The District Education Officer, College Principle, School Inspectors and Central Coordinating Tutors from the districts attended meetings and workshops on the Learning Paper and are now assisting with the evaluation process.
May 2007
Partnership with NFC continues
Buwsa School children with
Head Teacher Winfred Kakowekowe
New Forests Company (NFC) has signed up with The Learning Paper for another year as one of their Community Development Partners in Uganda. NFC donated $20,000 in their support of TLP for 2007 in addition to providing ‘in kind’ support at local level in Uganda. The Learning Paper is one of a range of community based initiatives which NFC are involved with at their Namwasa plantation, to see more visit their web site www.newforestscompany.com.
Partnership with District Education Authorities
John Arnold, TLP Project Director and Paul Wetaya, NFC Community Development Officer met with District Education Officer, Mrs Benny Bugembe and the Secretary for Education, Mr Lubega Ssempa Bashir at District HQ in Mubende.
The Mubende District have confirmed their partnership with TLP to distribute the paper to over 100 schools throughout the Mubende District. The School Inspectors and Coordinating Tutors will facilitate the use of the paper in schools, assist teachers, monitor its use and plan the distribution of papers from the district office to each school.
In creating this partnership it becomes feasible for The Learning Paper to reach many hundreds of schools and many thousands of households throughout the Mubende District.
April 2007
Positive feedback from teachers and pupils
Teachers and pupils views and comments on the first edition were sought during a week long impact assessment conducted at the end of April. For six weeks teachers have been incorporating the paper into around 40% of the classroom lessons to all pupils from P1 through to P7.
Winfred Kakowekowe and John Arnold
at Buswa School reviewing the first edition
- Without exception all teachers reported that the papers were an excellent and much needed learning resource. The fact that it provides subject matter and exercises which can be completed, like a text book and exercise book rolled into one, is seen as great value.
- Most teachers are selecting the relevant exercises for the class being taught before the class begins. This is helping with lesson preparation and planning and the teachers welcomed this.
- All of the content is regarded as very useful as it does sit well with the school syllabus. To build on this it was noted that the inclusion of puzzles and quizzes greatly enhance the pupil’s enjoyment and motivation to learn.
- The inclusion of material in both English and Luganda is highly valued as it is helping literacy in both English and Luganda. It also helps when the paper is taken home as Luganda is widely spoken by adults. Another benefit of having both languages, it transpires, is that pupils can use parts of the paper without instruction from a teacher, thereby promoting self learning and ownership.
February 2007
3,500 pupils using Learning Papers
The start of the new school term during February was the perfect time to deliver the first edition of the paper to the eight schools in the Namwasa area. All 3,500 pupils received a copy and spares have been held at the NFC Plantation offices nearby the schools for local collections. It has been six months since the pilot edition was brought to the schools for trial and it is great to see the paper now being used by children in the classroom and in the home.
November 2006 
Learning Papers ready for Distribution
The first Ugandan edition has been printed in Kampala and is ready for distribution at the start of the next school term, early February 2007. Eighteen thousand copies of the Learning Paper have been produced on tabloid, newsprint so it looks and feels like a newspaper.
Once design was completed we had a small team of translators in Kampala work on translating English into
Luganda so that both languages are used throughout.
This in itself will assist the learning of English.
To compliment the Learning Paper a 16 page community newspaper has been produced which will serve as a newsletter for New Forests Company and provide a means of communication between the communities around the plantation.
Namwasa News will be produced quarterly and local people will be helped to contribute stories and articles of interest.
The medium term intention is that Namwasa News will become self sufficient with both editorial text and financially with advertising and sponsor support from Ugandan companies.
October 2006
Uganda Edition
The current edition of the paper, which will be distributed to eight schools in Uganda, is nearing completion. Design and layout work is being undertaken by Louise Forrester who is working with an illustrator to make the content relevant to the readers. Images from Uganda and the Mubende district will be used throughout and some of the text will be translated from English to Luganda, which is spoken widely in the region. Later this month the paper will be printed in Kampala and then distributed to the eight schools.
September 2006
Suzanne Hay
Suzanne Hay joins The Learning Paper to assist with coordinating the school link with St Georges. Suzanne has travelled extensively in southern and eastern Africa where she has been involved in voluntary work in Zimbabwe providing her with relevant working knowledge of systems at grass roots level. Having been both educated at and employed by the PR Dept at St George’s she has a sound knowledge of the ethos of the school and looks forward to creating a strong link between the Scottish and Ugandan schools and their pupils. ‘Having Suzanne as part of the team is a real boost, it means we can progress with creating a strong link with St Georges School and gain greater public awareness of the organisation as a whole’ says project director John Arnold.
St George’s School
St George’s was founded in 1888 and was a leader in the movement for women’s education in Scotland, the ethos being to ‘promote educational excellence for girls’. To this day St George’s has achieved all of this and much more. Whilst attaining excellent exam results year on year the School actively nurtures student’s international understanding and cultural awareness through the curriculum and personal development.
It aims to contribute to the community on a world wide scale and affiliates with a broad spectrum of schools both in Scotland and worldwide. The learning paper project is particularly exciting as it strengthens an earlier connection with Uganda. In 2001 staff and pupils spent a month building a school in the east of the country.
Initially the school, through project lead person Liz Stewart and a small team of teachers, will contribute to the learning and teaching content of the first Ugandan edition. Their involvement in this process will ensure the relevance and accuracy of learning content and will bring with them expertise and knowledge of how children learn and the various teaching methods which can be applied.
From this starting point the intention is to develop the partnership with St Georges, its pupils and staff with the learning paper and with the range of schools in Uganda at which the paper is distributed. Deputy Head, Helen Mackie who has assisted in creating the partnership commented ‘The link with schools in Uganda through the learning paper will be a two-way, win, win collaboration, we want to learn as much from those in Uganda, the teachers and pupils, as they may want to learn from us’.
