Kusemererwa Jonathan Henry, 16, runs a fruit and vegetable stand that helps pay for school fees. He wants to be an electrical engineer.
Esther Ruth Mbabazi for NPR
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Kusemererwa Jonathan Henry, 16, runs a fruit and vegetable stand that helps pay for school fees. He wants to be an electrical engineer.
Esther Ruth Mbabazi for NPR
Over the next week, we’ll be reviewing some of the Goat and Soda story to see “whatever happened to …”
In January 2022, Uganda ended the longest school lockdown in the world. When the country’s approximately 15 million school-going children were summoned back to class, we spoke to six young people from poor families in one of the largest slums in the capital Kampala. The teenagers shared their feelings about going back to school after almost two years and their dreams for the future. For some, family hardship makes it impossible for them to pay the tuition fees to be able to return. Now, eight months after reopening, we are back in their Kamwokya community and are able to reach five of the six teenagers we profiled to find out how they love.
There are certainly stories of happiness among the teenagers we interviewed earlier this year.
Kusemerwa Jonathan Henry, 16, is a busy kid – enrolled in school but still running the small business he started during the pandemic. With financial help from his father, he opened a thriving fruit and vegetable stand. On a Kamwokya roadside, Henry arranges Irish potatoes covered in fresh mud. “I continue to balance semester and work. So it’s easy to do both,” he says. The next semester in Uganda starts on September 5 and once he’s in class, he’ll be working at the stall after school. “Although I still had a lot to cover, I absorbed it very quickly. I studied hard.”
Babilinda George, Henry’s father, could not hide his pride in his son’s efforts. He says teenagers have saved enough to pay the next semester’s full tuition. George only had to contribute a small amount for supplies and supplements. “He made my life easy.”
But the issue of tuition fees has been an obstacle. At Kololo . Senior High School that some teenagers attend, tuition, supplies, and uniforms cost about $135 per term for three school years.
And global events have contributed to a tumultuous back-to-school season for some of our Kamwokya youth. When the war in Ukraine began, Uganda’s fuel price spike and in turn affect the prices of food and everyday essentials. As a result, tuition fees are already out of reach for some teen families. In some cases, the students we interviewed were unable to start school – or risk being evicted if their families have made the initial payment but cannot afford all of the costs.
Mary Goretti Nakabugo, chief executive officer of Uwezo Uganda, a nonprofit that works to promote equitable quality education, says many parents are struggling to make ends meet. “For some of them, it could be a choice between survival and getting the kids back to school.”
Kisakye Melissa, 15 years old, at home in Kamwokya, Kampala. She was unable to return to school earlier this year because her family couldn’t pay for her tuition, but her school has agreed to an installment plan so she can start classes this month.
Esther Ruth Mbabazi for NPR
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Kisakye Melissa, 15 years old, at home in Kamwokya, Kampala. She was unable to return to school earlier this year because her family couldn’t pay for her tuition, but her school has agreed to an installment plan so she can start classes this month.
Esther Ruth Mbabazi for NPR
Kisakie Melissa, now 15, is one of the teenagers who have not returned to the classroom since the school reopened. Her mother earns money by washing clothes by hand for the locals. During the outage, Melissa helped. But they don’t make enough money for tuition due when schools reopen. And as 2022 goes on, fewer people drop out of laundry, so Melissa doesn’t have to do anything. Her mother sent her to a nearby village to help her grandmother with daily chores.
After reading about Melissa’s family in a February article published by NPR, Street Business School, a nonprofit that trains women entrepreneurs in Uganda and elsewhere, hoped to fund Melissa. But this organization only supports middle school students, and Melissa has not completed elementary school. At 15, she was only about the equivalent of about fifth grade. She must complete seventh grade before entering high school.
“I felt bad and I was afraid that if I had the chance to go back to school, I would be too old. The kids would laugh at me,” Melissa said. Now, however, she has reason to hope that scenario won’t materialize. The girl’s mother went to Sharp Primary School in Kamwokya and asked if the school would accept tuition payments “bit by bit”, she said. It was this ability to return to school that brought Melissa from her grandmother’s village back to Kamwokya. The school has agreed to the arrangement, and so she will eventually return to class at the beginning of the September semester.
Nakabugo hopes other schools prove to be flexible: “We’re not saying schools shouldn’t charge fees, but they should accept installment payments. Because parents also need to know that schools can’t function without money. .”
Naigaga, Rebecca Mercy, says she can’t take all of her exams after the semester because her family is in debt. Tuition is an issue again for the September semester, but she hopes that she can finish high school and pursue her dream of becoming a doctor or lawyer.
Esther Ruth Mbabazi for NPR
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Naigaga, Rebecca Mercy, says she can’t take all of her exams after the semester because her family is in debt. Tuition is an issue again for the September semester, but she hopes that she can finish high school and pursue her dream of becoming a doctor or lawyer.
Esther Ruth Mbabazi for NPR
Naigaga’s parents Rebecca Mercy offered some tuition but ended up lacking what was needed for her entire tuition and supplies. “Even if the balance is just 1 cent, they’ll send you home,” the 14-year-old said. In August, “I was sent home just a few days before final exams,” she explained.
Mercy was eventually able to take some exams but not others. Schools sometimes offer this type of grant to encourage families to pay off their remaining balance. Mercy’s father earns a monthly salary as a factory worker, but it’s not enough for rent, school fees, and other basics. This month, Mercy said her father has to prioritize rent, meaning her school won’t receive the expected deposit at the start of the September term. “When schools reopened, we were given a month before we were sent home,” she said. She is determined to do “whatever it takes” to become a doctor or a lawyer. “I like school. I have to achieve my dream.”
Tusiime Agnes’ parents were able to pay for part of the tuition but not enough to cover school lunches. She’s worried about the fall term: The school requires black leather shoes, “which I don’t have,” she said. “If you wear anything else, you will be blocked at the gate.”
Esther Ruth Mbabazi for NPR
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Tusiime Agnes’ parents were able to pay for part of the tuition but not enough to cover school lunches. She’s worried about the fall term: The school requires black leather shoes, “which I don’t have,” she said. “If you wear anything else, you will be blocked at the gate.”
Esther Ruth Mbabazi for NPR
Tusiime Agnes’ parents were also unable to pay the fees in full. They only pay half the tuition, enough for 15-year-old Agnes to return, but not enough for the school to provide lunch. It is, however, the most unsettling footwear for this upcoming term. The school requires black leather shoes, “which I don’t have,” she said. “If you wear anything else, you will be blocked at the gate.”
Joel Joseph was 15 years old when schools closed due to the pandemic in 2020. He is now back in class but worried about tuition – his mother’s small grocery store just lost its place. He hopes for a future as an engineer and says he won the title of “Mr. Creative” at this year’s science fair.
Esther Ruth Mbabazi for NPR
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Esther Ruth Mbabazi for NPR
Joel Joseph was 15 years old when schools closed due to the pandemic in 2020. He is now back in class but worried about tuition – his mother’s small grocery store just lost its place. He hopes for a future as an engineer and says he won the title of “Mr. Creative” at this year’s science fair.
Esther Ruth Mbabazi for NPR
Joel Joseph is also worried about staying in school for the next semester. His single mother’s little grocery store just closed. “The owner of the place she rented sold it and she had to leave. So money would be an issue.”
During the lockdown, Joseph rented a small partition inside a store to sell clothes, but he said he had to close the business because he didn’t have time for it after school. .
However, at least for now, the 17-year-old feels that he is on the right track to pursue a career as a mechanical engineer specializing in robotics. At his school’s science fair, he submitted two entries – a toy rocket launcher and a bag that could charge cell phones on the go. “As the judges made their choices,” he said proudly, “I won the title of ‘Mr. Creative.’ “
Halima Athumani is a television and digital journalist based in Kampala, Uganda. She has been involved in political, medical, human rights and social issues since 2010, broadcast newscasts on 93.3 KFM in Kampala and has contributed to Voice of America, washington articlesAl-Jazeera and the BBC.
Esther Ruth Mbabazi is a photographer living in Kampala, Uganda. Her work explores changing conditions on the African continent. She is a National Geographic Explorer, formerly a Mentee of Photo Agency VII and a member of the Magnum Foundation for Photography & Social Justice and has been published in New York Times, Time Magazine, The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
