Life in Kafunjo: School
The school at The Kafunjo Community Project is attended by about 380 children. As mentioned on our About Us page, Bruno has employed full time registered teachers who teach the National Ugandan Curriculum. Also mentioned is the education taught is of such high quality that it has produced students who have earned some of the highest Primary 7 Leaving Exam grades in the sub-district! Something truly remarkable and humbling about these students is that education is never taken for granted. They may put in many, many hours of hard work every day, but they continue to view education as a great privilege and are extremely grateful for the opportunity to study. They are very thankful to all our donors for giving them the gift of education.
Below is a breakdown of all the different class levels as well as the subjects each level studies - per the National Ugandan Curriculum:
Baby Class, Middle Class, and Top Class: Social Development, Language Development 1 & 2, Reading & Writing, Drawing & Shading (coloring), Numbers
Primary 1 - Primary 2: Literacy 1 & 2, Social Studies, Science, English (teaches students to speak, read, and write in English), Math, Local Language (Runyankole), Religious Education
Primary 3 - Primary 7: Social Studies, Science, English, Math, Local Language (this subject stops after Primary 3), Religious Education
*Social Studies teaches about wildlife, neighboring countries, history, government, and more. Religious Education teaches all the common religions in Uganda.
Prior to the first class of the day, the children at the orphanage work as a team to clean their dorms, clean toilets, and pick up any trash lying around in both the orphanage and school grounds. Once school is in session, each class typically lasts for one hour. The first class of the day starts at 7:30am and the last class, for the higher levels, ends at 10pm. During the day, there are times allotted for each class session (including homework time), lunch, breaks, Assembly, dinner, and Prep Time. During Assembly, a teacher gathers all the children in order to give updates & delegate chores. Prep Time is a late-night class that allows some time for homework and also prepares children for the things they will be learning the following school day.
Below is Kafunjo’s school schedule:
Monday-Friday:
6:30am-7:30am - Breakfast
7:30am-10:30am - In Class
10:30am-11am - Free Time (games, showers, etc.)
11am-1pm - In Class
1pm-2pm - Lunch Break
2pm-4pm - In Class
4pm-5pm - PE followed by Chore Time
5pm-6pm - Assembly followed by Class (for Primary 4-Primary 7 only) *Baby Class-Primary 3 are dismissed and those who live at home will start walking back.
6pm-7pm - Dinner
7pm-8pm - Free Time (showers, chores, and/or help with field work)
8pm-9:30pm - Prep Time
Saturday:
8am-10am - In Class
10am-11am - Free Time (games, showers, chores, etc.)
11am-1pm - In Class
1pm-2pm - Lunch/Free for the rest of the day
The classroom lights are all powered by solar which has proven to be very insufficient for the students who study until 9:30pm each night, especially after a cloudy day. Depending on where the students sit in the classrooms, they may not have enough light to read their books and study well.
“I like the school because it is free education and I am performing well. My favorite subject is science. My least favorite subject is English because it is a very hard language to read.”
- Daniel, a child at The Kafunjo Community Project