Classrooms under pressure as refugee schools reopen

After two years of closures, longer than anywhere else in the world, Ugandan schools reopened this week and  refugee children were among those who returned for studies across the country.

Home to 1.5 million refugees, Uganda has the largest refugee population in Africa, and over half of them are aged under 18 according to the United Nations.

As the schools reopened on Monday, many of the classrooms that were crowded before the pandemic were seen struggling to accommodate more students who have entered the system while schools were closed.

” While out of school, many students worked to support their families, so they have not progressed. At the same time, others have started school, this means that classrooms that were at capacity before the pandemic will now be crowded,” says Wycliffe Nsheka, the Country Director for Finn Church Aid (FCA) in Uganda.

”We have built new schools to accommodate the increased number of students, but I don’t think it will be enough to relieve the pressure on teachers. Before the pandemic, we had 160,000 refugees enrolled in the schools we managed in partnership with UNHCR. Our teachers sometimes had classrooms with up to one hundred students and many fear that the class sizes will be unmanageable once the term gets underway.”

Finn Church Aid the largest non-governmental organisation in Finland working in development cooperation, and second-largest in humanitarian assistance.

In Uganda, the organization’s operations span across the rights to quality education, sustainable livelihoods and peace.

According to some of the headteachers in schools assisted by Finn Church Aid, the resumption of learning will see the number of students increase.

” Teaching refugees is never easy. They struggle with trauma and poverty inside and outside the classroom. We fear that now that schools are open, even more students will come - we all have a lot of catching up to do,” said Vallence Tukacungurwa, the headteacher at Bukere Secondary School which was built by FCA with funding from the U.S.Department of State during the pandemic and opened for the first time on 10 January 2022.

While schools were closed, Finn Church Aid provided home learning packages, textbooks, exercise books and pens to students so that they could continue their studies at home and lessons were conducted via radio so that they could still participate.

Yet, as economic opportunities declined due to the pandemic, many students were forced to work to support their families, particularly in refugee settlements.

Isaac Munyuza ,18 who lives in the Kyaka refugee settlement says he has worked digging holes for a dollar day during the lockdown and hopes for the best after the reopening of schools.

“I am excited to go back to school. I like my new school,” Munyuza who enrolled at Bukerere High School says.

However, the Finn Church Aid Country Director, Wycliffe Nsheka hopes the organisation can help students like Munyuza fulfill their dreams but is concerned about the pressure on teachers in the classroom.

”It’s one thing to build new classrooms, but we also need more teachers so that we can reduce class sizes. After missing out on school for so long, we need to do everything we can to help these students catch up on their studies so that they don’t miss out on other opportunities,” Nsheka notes.