Our new Community Empowerment Project will give parents in Western Uganda the power to support their local schools.
Our two year project to help 30 rural communities develop their schools has been so successful that we’re extending it to 28 more in the area.
This is a region where the quality of education taught is often low, with high rates of teachers missing school themselves.
Sadly only 32% of final year students finish primary school. However, our work has shown that by engaging parents in the management of their local school this can be changed, and we’re proud to now help more schools reach their potential.
Through community classes and popular radio shows, we aim to give parents the skills they need to get directly involved in school management and to come up with practical plans to tackle the problems they see.
Smaller groups, made up of experienced community members, will also monitor and support parents and teachers.
Many parents may not have had a complete education themselves, but by engaging them with their children’s learning they can hold schools and even local governments to account – meaning the students can get the quality education they deserve.
We’ll report back on how the communities are doing in a future issue.