Inspiring Positive Learning
When Abel, 13, was asked to imagine any meaningful English word to represent the letter ‘L’ that made part of the spelling for his name, he was quick and confident to think of his school name, Laminayo. Abel’s story is not in isolation. Twenty kilometers away from Laminayo primary school, at Koch Lutuk Primary School, Sarah was confident that the local name ‘Adyero’ is an English word. This experience in Nwoya, the northern district of Uganda, speaks volumes of the sad reality that many children going to school throughout Uganda don’t interact with as many English words as possible in the process of their early learning which hinders their abilities to read and comprehend. As a result, this negatively affects their academic performance and general learning. A lack of both books and the positive motivation to read in homes and schools is, by and large, thought of as the reason for this unfortunate circumstance.
Imagine if a child in primary four reads 10 new English words and learns their meaning each day. That would mean a total of 3650 words learnt in a year. By primary seven, this child would have accumulated 10950 words, enough to enable them to communicate effectively in English or read to learn. But this is not the case. Like Abel and Sarah, going to primary school not so long ago (and the school spirit has not changed in a while), there was this time known as prep time when teachers with sticks would herd us in classrooms to make us read by coercion. I remember as little boys and girls, afraid of torture, we would put our books on the desks and open our eyes widely pretending to read but actually monitoring the steps of patrol officers disguised as teachers. Under the desks, we would be kicking each others’ legs, politely fooling the teachers who thought we were reading.
The old adage that you cannot force cows to take water is very applicable when it comes to promoting reading. Like a herdsman who wants his cows to drink water so he gives them salt to eat first (because that’s what they love most), thereby instantly making them thirsty for water, children too need positive motivation to appreciate reading. We don’t force learning. We inspire learning.
STEPi’s Uncle Books through the outrageous Road Trips for literacy transformation is promoting such transformative conversations on reading, learning, education and parenting. During his week-long reading caravan in Nwoya district from the 12th - 17th September 2022, dialoguing with more than 150 teachers and parents in 9 schools on positive teaching and parenting whilst putting transformative books in the hands of children, it became evident that teachers and parents lack resources to inspire positive learning in their spaces. And this makes STEPi work even more important because we develop and distribute tools for everyone willingly to learn and grow and/or help children thrive. These tools are impactfully reaching the far distant corners of the dusty African roads through STEPi coordinators.
Written By:
Micheal Nelson Byaruhanga “AKA Uncle Books”
STEPi Engagement Coordinator: Uganda