14 Teachers’ staff houses for Buliisa district

14 Teachers’ staff houses for Buliisa district

Doreen Ayebale is a Primary 5 English teacher at St. Mary’s Biiso Primary School in Buliisa district. She is one of the beneficiaries of the 14 teacher’s staff houses built in Biiso sub county by World Vision Uganda.

In the past, Doreen would trek more than 4 miles from her home to school every day, a thing she says would always affect performance of pupils in her class.

 ‘’Walking to school every morning would take up my time for class’’ she tells me.  ‘’Classes are supposed to begin at 8am but most times i would begin past 9am. On days when it rained, classes would some times begin past 10am’’ Doreen adds.

This would not only apply to Doreen but to almost all teachers in government primary schools across the district. Buliisa is one of the poorest districts in Uganda and as thus, has poor infrastructure like roads and public facilities.Prior to World vision’s interventions, none of the 9 government-aided primary schools in Biiso Sub County had teacher’s staff houses.

‘’There was nothing much we could do to help the situation. Some times our salary delays for 2 months but you would still have to find your way to school.’’ Doreen says.Given the long distances trekked by teachers daily, all the government aided primary schools in Biiso would not afford to have extra lessons and remedial teaching.

‘’Private schools would afford to offer remedial classes especially to candidate students because some of their teacher’s would be facilitated with transport and other’s would be housed near the schools. But ever since World Vision built for us teacher staff houses, we are now able to compete in terms of performance with private schools’’ Doreen tells me.

World Vision, under its Buliisa area development programme has been able to construct 14 teacher staff houses and 4 classroom blocks in 9 government primary schools in Biiso Sub County. The staff houses are able to accommodate 31 teacher’s families. This in a bid to improve staff welfare and pupil performance.

Josham Byenka, the World Vision education project coordinator in Buliisa says the organization’s main objectives in education are; to strengthen the reading culture and to engage teachers on how to deliver effective services to pupils.

‘’We want to see that all children are able to read and write, we want parents to monitor their pupil’s progress in schools and we want teachers to be readily available for classes.  Teachers cannot do much if they are not facilitated to teach and that’s why we felt it was better for them to have decent accommodation next to their schools. This we believe will in the long run improve performance in these schools’’ Josham tells me.  In addition to the staff blocks, each staff quarter has 2 latrine stances.

World Vision is also empowering teachers in Buliisa through various trainings and refresher courses plus setting up school management committees to foster better performance in schools.