by Bernard Butare Buteera: The woes of a practising classroom teacher in Uganda are innumerable, from the poor remuneration to inadequate accommodation and deplorable working conditions, surely to define your profession as a teacher in Uganda is like writing a litany of negative titles upon oneself. However, for some teachers who are in partnership with Fredskorpset (FK), teaching has become such an enjoyable profession than any other.
Peter Hormisdas Sssenyimba and Geoffrey Kizito together with Norwegian Colleagues
The FK is an exchange programme between the Telemark inNorway and that of Uganda, which gives an opportunity to Ugandan teachers to go and teach in Norway likewise those of Norway to come and teach in Uganda.
In Uganda the Programme is in three participating schools, that is to say, Mengo Senior School, King’s College Budo and St. Joseph’s Technical Institute Kisubi. In Norway it is in upper secondary school Rjukan.
The few teachers who have had the opportunity of benefiting from this programme had all the good words for it. Mr. Kasamba Godfrey from King’s college Budo who was one of the first people to benefit from the programme in 2005 had this to say…
“I was excited when I received the news that I had been selected to go and teach in Norway. I was excited because it was going to be the first good thing to happen to me ever since I joined the teaching profession.”
Mr. Kasamba continues to say that he was exposed to new methods of teaching and received international exposure in a number of other aspects.
Another Beneficiary Wasswa John from St. Joseph’s Technical Institute, who went in the third lot in 2007, didn’t defer from Mr. Kasamba, he also praised the programme, that it gave him an opportunity to compare the two systems of Education, the one of Uganda and that of Norway. He also pointed out that the programme gave him International exposure which made him a better teacher afterwards.
Jane Nansubuga from Mengo Senior School, another beneficiary who went in the second lot in 2006, has all the praises for the exchange programme. She said that ever since she went to Norway she will never be the same again. That she learnt new methods of teaching and got so many International friends and exposure.
However all the former participants I talked to cited the weather, that is the winter season and the fact that most books they were using were in Norsik as the major challenges they faced. They thanked the sponsors for the opportunity they had and wished that more teachers could get it.
They particularly thanked the administration at Rjukan upper secondary school, especially Ms. Ingrid Kjelsenes and Tom Nilsen for being such wonderful coordinators of the programme.
Fk.exchange teachers;Kajubi Mark William and Kasozi Daniel 2009-2010
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