Description

This story was documented by Mr. Ssonko James the CVA practitioner in Ntwetwe ADP Kiboga cluster.


Kambuzi primary school is located in Kikolooto A LC I, Sirimula Parish, Ntwetwe Sub-county in Kyankwanzi district. From Kampala the capital city of Uganda you take Hoima road and you travel 120 km to Kiboga town council where the cluster offices are located. You continue along Hoima road 3 km from Kiboga up to Masodde where you branch off to Ntwetwe town council headquarters. From Ntwetwe you take Bukuya road and you move 12 km to Kigalama trading centre or kateerandulu catholic sub-parish. Kambuzi Primary school is built on approximately 4 acres of land given by the sub-parish.
In 2008 Kambuzi Primary school management committee, had withdrawn from the management of the school. The SMC, Staff and parents meetings could no longer sit, monitoring was not being done, staff, parents and SMC were divided, teachers would arrive late, leave early and absentee themselves, the school enrolment had dropped from 600 to 110 pupils. There was little teaching and performance was poor because even the head teacher would come once a month.
At this time World vision started working in Ntwetwe Sub-county and one of its focus areas was education using the (CVA) Citizen Voice and Action approach. School Management Committee members and head teachers of all primary schools were trained in their roles and responsibilities using the CVA approach. After this training SMC members came up with action plans to improve service delivery in their areas. The action points included holding SMC, parents and staff meetings, monitoring school activities and mobilizing community to bring children to school.
SMC, parents’ and staff meetings were conducted every term, SMC members allocated duties of monitoring per week and local leaders were engaged to conduct village meetings to mobilize and motivate citizens to bring back children to Kambuzi primary school. As a result citizens started bringing back children to the school and the enrolment went on rising steadily as indicated in the table below:
YEAR BOYS GIRLS TOTAL


2008 70 60 130
2009 132 120 252
2010 156 142 298
2011 167 148 315
2012 192 166 358
2013 232 216 448
2014 245 285 510






Increased enrolment in Kambuzi P/s by 2014











Pupils during one of the assemblies



Due to increased monitoring by the SMC and improved relationship between teachers and parents performance also kept on improving. Parents contribute money for monthly examinations and teachers give weekly tests for continuous assessment which has led to improved performance. The results indicated in the table below translate tremendous change for a rural school like Kambuzi.
PLE RESULTS SINCE 2008
YEAR DIV 1 DIV 11 DIV 111 DIV 1V U X TOTAL
2008 00 02 05 05 04 07 23
2009 00 06 08 02 07 01 24
2010 00 09 07 04 06 05 31
2011 00 14 05 06 01 01 27
2012 00 10 07 07 09 01 34
2013 01 12 06 03 00 03 25

Parish councilor addressing children during one Director of Studies presenting monthly
Monthly marks reading in assessment performance during assembly

Parents’ contribution towards monthly examinations
Has led to improved performance




The functionality of the SMC has created a conducive teaching and learning environment in the school. They are friendly to their teachers as they visit and sit with them in joint meetings to discuss issues pertaining to welfare and performance. This has resulted into teachers enjoying staying at school working and showing high cooperation amongst them. The photo above shows an occasion where teachers exchange gifts at the end of the year.








Kambuzi SMC advocated and engaged the local leaders like councilors to attend their meetings,
Invite them to parents’ general meetings, involve them in school activities like monitoring, open days
Share decisions and recommendations with them. This has facilitated the observable and sustainable
Results in the school.

Secretary education LCIII Ntwetwe addresses Chairman SMC addresses assembly together
SMC meeting on one occasion with other members during a monitoring visit
Chairman SMC in a suit listens
Attentively






The provision of lunch to pupils and teachers by parents is one result of the functionality of the SMC. Parents contribute maize for pupils’ porridge p.1- p.6 and solid food for P.7. They also pay money for grinding maize, paying the cook and feeding teachers. The SMC has allocated a piece of land for the school garden where food is grown to supplement parents’ contributions. Because of this pupils and Teachers stay healthy and comfortable in school as they don’t think of escaping to look for food.









Teachers getting their midday meal A healthy P.1 child moves away with a cup
Provided at school of porridge every day









P.7 pupils ready for the midday meal in Kambuzi


There are reasons why Kambuzi has had steady improvement in enrolment, performance and functionality seems to be sustainable. The major one is the promotion of dialogue in parents’ meetings where parents are given opportunity to talk, identify gaps themselves and make informed decisions making implementation a collective responsibility. Social accountability where income and all collected items are read in general meetings and defaulters are pinned by fellow parents is a useful practice tested and recommended. Holding planning and evaluation meetings where they set targets and measurements at various stages through periodical monitoring done by the SMC as they allocate roles for themselves, is another practice that has proven suitable. Others tried and found effective include conducting consultative meetings with teachers and pupils which has improved communication and relationship in the school. I recommend that schools facing a challenge of poor management committee functionality read the story, pay a visit to Kambuzi P/s or call 0777149447 or0773674128.