'They have similar problems to ours with tests and quotas'

A Glasgow headteacher�s visit to Uganda brought home issues faced by teachers globally. By Tom Sewel

Lynsey Russell travelled to Uganda to offer some professional guidance to local teachers on how to improve the performance of their schools. She returned to Scotland having learned valuable lessons about what can be achieved with determination, cheerfulness and unity in the absence of resources.

In July she travelled with 14 other education professionals to schools in the country's rural Masindi district, 130 miles north-west of the capital, Kampala, under the auspices of Learning and Teaching Scotland and Link Community Development - a charity which has long been associated with improving schools in African countries.

Russell is the headteacher at Garnetbank Primary School in Glasgow and this was her first LTS study visit as well as her first trip to Africa. The two-week trip was an opportunity to study the methods employed by Ugandan teachers dealing with a different set of circumstances but many fundamentally similar problems.

One of the first things that struck her was the attitude of the children. In schools which cannot afford food, clean water or transport for their pupils she discovered a spirit and enthusiasm often missing in this country. She says: "The children were all in school uniform, there was a real sense of identity and they were all proud to be there. I think that is something that we can learn from. They start at seven in the morning, stay until maybe six o'clock at night and have classes at the weekend. They work until the work is done rather than until the bell goes."

Language was not a problem as the children are taught in English from primary three onwards, but there were plenty of other adjustments that had to be made for life in the Ugandan countryside. Eating with fingers was the least of it, recalls Russell: "The latrines for the schools were pretty terrifying, they're just huge holes in the ground with a sheet of metal stretched over them. There are all sorts of bugs and flies around."

Classes of 100 or more puts our own worries about class sizes into perspective, and the fact that the children in each class might differ in age by as much as 10 years seems even more extraordinary.

Primary seven classes often had pupils in their early twenties, and study time is flexible as most of the pupils have to help support their family as well. If crops need to be harvested or a relative is unwell, education has to be put on hold. And with life expectancy running at 46 for men and 48 for women, they will be looking after their parents by the time they get to school finishing age.

Despite these different pressures and priorities, it was easy for Russell and the other Scottish teachers to find common ground with their Ugandan counterparts because their curriculum covers many of the same areas as Scotland's. She said: "They have similar problems to ours with tests and quotas. The more children pass their exams, the higher in the local league table the school will be and this creates a danger that teachers will simply teach to the test. That has been a problem in this country too and it was interesting to see the same pressures in operation under such different circumstances."

The most stark differences from the Scottish system are to do with access to resources. Many of the textbooks owned by the local Muslim primary school at Kihande and shared by four or five pupils at a time were inconsistent or obsolete. The hot dusty environment and a desperately poor population also had an impact on whatever teaching materials were present. Russell commented: "They had only two lockable buildings to store materials in so resources were not something that could be kept safe.

"Having said that, they have access to the outdoors. They've literally got fields to run in and that's a fabulous resource that we don't have here. My school has a couple of potted plants and that's it."

The main purpose of the visit was to provide a platform for the Scottish teachers to offer guidance on how they felt school performance could be improved. Russell and her colleagues found that the quality of teaching was inevitably compromised by the lack of infrastructure and without access to resources there were few easy answers so they tried to suggest strategies and techniques that do not require additional resources to implement.

However, Russell believes the Ugandan education system is much more responsive to the community it serves than the Scottish equivalent, with regular community meetings where anyone can make their voice heard. She says: "The community meetings are for all stakeholders; founding members, parents, teachers, representatives from the local church or Muslim organisation if they helped with funding. It's a much more transparent and community-focused approach to developing the school.

"This way encourages people to become a part of the process. If a parent makes a suggestion, that carries just as much weight as anything a teacher might say. There's a recognition that every stakeholder's involvement matters and I think that's a very important lesson for us to learn in Scotland."

Another striking contrast was in the focus of classes, with a lot of focus on African geography, African history and Africa's place in the world, giving the children a real sense of their own identity. Russell said: "That's something that's really missing from primary education in Scotland." She feels the next generation of Scots need to have a proper understanding of where and how our country fits in to the bigger picture if the country is to become a global player.

On a more personal level, Russell was awed by the commitment and the cheerfulness of the people she met. "We have got so much to learn from them. How selfless and welcoming they are. Their generosity was very humbling. There was no culture of blame - in the two weeks I was there, I never once heard somebody say that's not fair' when they have so much to deal with that they have every right to complain about."

Getting teachers out of the classroom

Lynsey Russell's visit to Uganda was organised by Link Community Development in conjunction with Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Scottish Continuing International Professional Development Programme.

Study visits are intended to broaden teachers' horizons by providing an opportunity to look at different approaches, reflect on their own practice and develop a global perspective.