Secondary School in Kamanzi

I got a brief and impromptu tour of the only secondary school in Kamanzi, just a short walk from the main church. It is was built within the last decade and currently has 180 learners from grades 9-12 (or Forms 1 through 4). From what I could understand, there are 12 teachers to cover the 9 subjects for the four grades. Considering the classes have between 35-50 students, it's still a ton of work to prep and mark for the 4 courses being taught.

I was particularly impressed with a grade 11 learner who was helping out some classmates during a break. He was completing the square to solve a quadratic equation. There were maps and information tables covering walls and black boards in all 4 classrooms.

40 female learners board at the school too so they don't have to travel home every night. In fact they only return home during term breaks.

Textbooks are a real issue. Each course has only 1 or 2 textbooks to share between the teacher and the few dozen students. You can imagine the condition of theses textbooks too.

Ken and I got to explain a bit about wheat to a senior geography class as they study the great plains of Canada and the main crops. They had never even seen a picture of a head of wheat. It was fun explaining the size of a harvester to them. And check it out - they even have chinook (the snow melter wind) on their great winds map.