Members,
I agree with Charles that doing a research would delay action. I agree with
Obaa that taking action based on a research done some years ago and only in one
area (Yumbe) may not only be counter productive but also misleading. According
to Charles, a similar research was done in Koboko and the findings were the
same. Someone should tell me whether or not action has been taken since those
researches were done. If yes, then those findings may not be valid now. If no,
then we have a point to start from. Obaa presents a professional view point of
how a problem is identified, turned into a re-searchable topic with a view of
addressing the problem. Charles presents a pragmatic approach, of taking action
on what we already know.
I want to believe that all of us appreciate this crystal clear fact that
education performance in our schools has gone down and is getting worse. I also
want to believe that we know why this is the case in our schools today, a
picture that has not been so in the past. More research as Charles contents
will mean our actions come later, maybe after we have seen two or more sets of
poor results.
As we go in for more research or action, I would think we need to also research
in areas and schools where performances are constantly good and improving every
year. I think that is where we need to learn so that the findings in such a
research would inform our interventions in our schools. Doing research in our
schools among other things will authenticate our poor performance, a fact we
already know. Whereas doing a research in schools with good performance will
enable us understand how they do it for that we may emulate them. Not so?
Ismail
-------------------------------
________________________________
From: Caleb Alaka <[email protected]>
To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, 3 March 2013, 9:46
Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] Research on poor academic performance in West Nile
I am touched with all the views being expressed, I have also seen the magnitude
of the work on our shoulders as leaders of West Nile Foundation, I think this
name was appropriately given to our organization looking at the tasks ahead, I
thank all those who have volunteered here and there to be part of the
anticipated committee in charge of either the fact finding committee or the
organizing Committee of the intended conference, John Jackson has always been
instrumental in summarizing action points, as we continue generating more
ideas, I pray John is going to work hand in hand with Drani Francis Xaviour our
SG to summarize our agreed points, thanks for all those contributing, lets air
out our different views, let us not forget that we too are part of the West
Nile Community. Some of you are experts in conducting online research, when
time comes for the committee to carry out research, it will definitely require
researches of the Yumbe, Koboko reports
and our own input. Thank
s. We your leaders are already having series of meetings and you will soon be
informed of the outcomes.
Sent from my iPhone
On Mar 3, 2013, at 3:14 AM, Charles Male <[email protected]> wrote:
> Dr Obaa,
>
> I agree with Mr. Jackson Avudria that the results of the study in
> Yumbe district can be extrapolated across the rest of west nile
> districts. Mr. Stephen Todoko (former Chair of Anticorruption Koboko)
> and the Koboko Joint University Students Association (KOJUSA)
> undertook similar but separate studies as a result of concerns arising
> from poor performance in PLE, O and A levels. The results mirror those
> seen in Yumbe District exactly. Just substitute Koboko for Yumber and
> everything remains the same. Plus, in my opinion if you really, really
> want to find how bad our education system has gone...Yumber and Koboko
> districts are the best case studies for I think they are at the bottom
> if you ranked perfromance in west nile districts/counties. Sure, you
> will hear that St Charles Lwanga performed well in some years but do
> not forget that the majority Lwanga students come from outside of the
> district! It may be different now but that was always the situation.
>
> So to me undertaking further research will delay action and the good
> will that is arising now! Action is what is needed now.
>
> Part of the preparation for this conference should be concurrent one
> on one (if possible) meetings between WN Foundation leadership with
> all WN MPs to ascertain their take on the deplorable performance and
> what action(s) they intend to take to addres the situation.
>
> There should be targeted meetings either now or after the proposed
> conference with different groups -- for example, religious leaders,
> CSOs, college and university student associations etc.
>
> All our leaders and especially the religious and community leaders
> should use their previledged positions to talk to their congregations
> and stakeholders about the importance of education.
>
> Even as a young and interrupted student who was not able to finish his
> A level due to the Ugandan war, I personally took the opportunity to
> talk to many many of our younger students in the refugee camps in
> South Sudan when I worked as a research assistant for Dr. Harrell-Bond
> who conducted research among Ugandan (read Madi, Lugbara and Kakwa)
> refugees in South Sudan in the early 1980s. Like the many
> contemporaries I have on Koboko and West Nile nets, education was
> something that was imparted upon my mind at an early age from home.
> Children will never succeed if parents think they will outsource their
> responsibilities to other people.
>
> Over the past two or three years KOJUSA played an important role
> during their long vacation in speaking to elementary and secondary
> students in Koboko district. In addition, KOJUSA and other Koboko
> youth were supported by the community both in and outside Koboko to
> organize annual youth conferences where the importance of education
> was discussed.
>
> You will all recall that the children we are lamenting about are the
> children of our contemporaries -- most of whom were children who spent
> their chilhood as refugees. It is not surprising therefore that we are
> reaping the terrible consequences of the civil war(s) in west
> nile/Uganda!
>
> We have many a time asked our politicians to work together for the
> good of west nile but unfortunately, you never hear about a West NILE
> CAUCUS in parliament when you constantly hear about Acholi, Lango,
> Buganda, Teso etc etc who are pushing for development for their
> regions. So we should not be surprised when you hear bad performance
> year in year out!
>
> I recall Hon Moses Ali spearheading a west nile development conference
> in the early 1990s. I thought that conference would take root but
> unfortunately, it never did!
>
> WNF leadership should consult with him as well for the way forward.
>
> Education, like all other forms of learning starts right from home.
> The days when parents outsourced their children's learning ended in
> 1978/9 before we left our respective villages as refugees to Congo and
> South Sudan. In the good old days, parents could rely on the
> educators, church, clan and community leaders, uncles etc to
> discipline errant children. As I stated in these two fora before,
> parents, uncles, teachers, religious and other community leaders lost
> their influence on children when they were in exile. Those among us
> who succeeded did so mostly on their own determination.
>
> I could go on and on and on but I will stop my rumbling here for the
> time being hoping that it will also ignite a flicker in others...
>
> Charles
>
>
> On 3/2/13, Bernard B. Obaa <[email protected]> wrote:
>> My people,
>>
>> Thank you Jackson for volunteering to retrieve a research report on poor
>> performance of schools in Yumbe district. It would be great to read that
>> report. Whatever the results of that study, I think a study conducted four
>> years ago should not stop us from doing a related study. In fact, that
>> study can provide some comparative perspective to a new study.
>>
>> There is another problem from relying on that study for our purpose.
>> Yumbe is not representative of conditions in West Nile. It is not right to
>> generalize findings from a study done only in Yumbe for the whole region.
>> To make such a generalization, one may have to do the study in more than
>> one district in the region with a good justification for the selected
>> districts.
>>
>> If we choose to commission a study, which I feel we should, I would like to
>> be part of the research team. The results from the study could form the
>> basis for presentations/discussions/resolutions in the proposed education
>> conference.
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> Bernard Obaa, PhD
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 1, 2013 at 8:48 PM, JohnAJackson <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> For the benefit of people who are new to this forum,
>>>
>>> Yes, Research was done By Dr. Epiphany Picho (Fr.), who is currently
>>> coordinating Muni University set up. Dr. Picho did a study on Poor
>>> performance in Schools in Yumbe District. This was part of core Team of
>>> Task Force for Education.
>>>
>>> The results of the study was distributed on this forum 4 years ago. The
>>> issues analyzed can be extrapolated to all districts.
>>>
>>> As a reminder, I can fish this document out and re-post for anyone who
>>> did
>>> see the research results
>>>
>>> On Fri, Mar 1, 2013 at 9:57 AM, <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Send WestNileNet mailing list submissions to
>>>> [email protected]
>>>>
>>>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>>>> http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet
>>>> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>>>> [email protected]
>>>>
>>>> You can reach the person managing the list at
>>>> [email protected]
>>>>
>>>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
>>>> than "Re: Contents of WestNileNet digest..."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Today's Topics:
>>>>
>>>> 1. Re: A-Level Results WN Results - Pg 8 Monitor (Sam Aderubo)
>>>> 2. Re: Thank you (Robert Ejiku)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> Message: 1
>>>> Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2013 06:36:55 -0800 (PST)
>>>> From: Sam Aderubo <[email protected]>
>>>> To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile <[email protected]>,
>>>> George Afi Obitre-Gama <[email protected]>
>>>> Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] A-Level Results WN Results - Pg 8 Monitor
>>>> Message-ID:
>>>> <[email protected]>
>>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>>>>
>>>> Let us re-arrange a few things in the mail from our Broder;
>>>> ?
>>>> Research apparently is a process to answer a question such as "..SO
>>>> WHERE
>>>> IS THE PROBLEM?".?It sometimes starts as an ABSTRACT.You literally
>>>> develop
>>>> some THEORY in your mind. Quite often, this thought process may be
>>>> SKEWED
>>>> and sometimes it appears UNREALISTIC, but as you progress,you fine tune
>>>> your thoughts and finally it makes sense.Meaning, you NEVER say NEVER.
>>>> ?
>>>> In other words, when you are desparately looking for a solution(as we
>>>> are
>>>> in this case from a point of anger and annoyance), you are bound to say
>>>> or
>>>> reason things that don't please others(.....talking abstracts, never
>>>> realistic, theoretical
>>>> and skewed reasoning....).The constructive and honorable approach to
>>>> help
>>>> your brother in such a situation?is to?reoarganise their reasoning to a
>>>> more sensible piece.
>>>> ?
>>>> Ok, all words are good. But depending on how we use them,?they can turn
>>>> out to be?offensive. Let us kindly moderate our own contributions so we
>>>> gather as much to willow.
>>>> ????
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ________________________________
>>>> From: Acidri Ernest <[email protected]>
>>>> To: George Afi Obitre-Gama <[email protected]>; A Virtual Network for
>>>> friends of West Nile <[email protected]>
>>>> Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2013 2:20 PM
>>>> Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] A-Level Results WN Results - Pg 8 Monitor
>>>>
>>>> Members in this forum,
>>>> You have raised some questions about UACE performance in West Nile.
>>>> For some time, we have been discussing these issues on radio with head
>>>> teachers, parents, students, political leaders etc. There are several
>>>> factors that cause the decline. I agree with some of your suggestions,
>>>> but some of you are talking abstracts, never realistic, theoretical
>>>> and skewed reasoning on the topic. Let us have conference here in Arua
>>>> and we shall examine all the options. There are some of you who have
>>>> really helped through the OBs and OGs associations, so where is the
>>>> problem and by the way, some of these schools mentioned will NEVER
>>>> recover!
>>>> Alfodi
>>>>
>>>> On 2/28/13, George Afi Obitre-Gama <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>> Brethren,
>>>>>
>>>>> I have gone through the today's Monitor list(pg 8) of A-level rankings
>>>> one
>>>>> by one(1-273) without seeing our prominent schools in West Nile apart
>>>> from
>>>>> Mvara SS which is ranked a whooping no. 187!!! I don't see Ombaci,
>>>>> Muni,
>>>>> Nyapea? and others and they happen not be listed - probably my eyes
>>>>> are
>>>>> getting old!!
>>>>>
>>>>> Tabu Butagira should probably clarify if another list exists -
>>>> otherwise I
>>>>> see the performance as already pathetic not withstanding the fact that
>>>> the
>>>>> best P7 Pupil in West Nile got an agg 7.
>>>>>
>>>>> I am very angry and annoyed. What is happening? Are we not engaging
>>>>> our
>>>>> youngsters enough!!
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
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>>>> The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including
>>>> attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any
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>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> Message: 2
>>>> Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2013 18:56:46 +0300
>>>> From: Robert Ejiku <[email protected]>
>>>> To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile <[email protected]>
>>>> Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] Thank you
>>>> Message-ID:
>>>> <
>>>> cafactgvcxagynznvts6uu7bmoxc-fzu2wqgnbm2d1b1zmrt...@mail.gmail.com>
>>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>>>>
>>>> Way to go Andama James. That is the commitment pledge everyone needs to
>>>> make for any of these efforts to succeed.
>>>>
>>>> Thank you.
>>>>
>>>> Ejiku
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Mar 1, 2013 at 5:06 PM, James Andama <[email protected]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Dear all,
>>>>> I would like to join members of this forum in raising important
>>>> questions
>>>>> about the declining performance of schools in West Nile region. At
>>>>> the
>>>>> same time, I would like to introduce myself to this forum as a son of
>>>> West
>>>>> Nile who obtained his primary, secondary and tertiary education in
>>>>> West
>>>>> Nile before coming this way for further studies. Before I left west
>>>> Nile I
>>>>> had an experience of teaching in Yivu Primary school for at least
>>>>> three
>>>>> years.
>>>>> I have been following the discussions on this forum very closely and I
>>>>> would like agree with following suggestions:
>>>>> 1. conducting a study to ascertain the root causes of the problem and
>>>>> share it with the various stake holders in conference in order to
>>>>> forge
>>>> a
>>>>> way forward.
>>>>> 2. Forming a task force/ education committee to organise the study and
>>>> the
>>>>> conference and any other activity that will lead us to finding
>>>> solutions to
>>>>> this problem.
>>>>> I, therefore would like to declare that I'll be willing to
>>>>> participate
>>>> in
>>>>> activities that will be organised to address this problem.
>>>>> Regards to you all.
>>>>>
>>>>> *Andama James,
>>>>> Ndegeya Core PTC
>>>>> P.O.BOX 63, Masaka
>>>>> +256 772421661
>>>>> [email protected]
>>>>> [email protected]
>>>>> Skype: andajam*
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 1 March 2013 04:44, Aseamque Basilorum <[email protected]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi Dear West Nilers,
>>>>>> I would like to thank those who initiated such a group email where
>>>>>> we
>>>>>> can contribute ideas to develop our region. No one outside West Nile
>>>> will
>>>>>> come to do it for us. That should be our main focus. I also would
>>>>>> like
>>>> to
>>>>>> thank Dr. Obaa Bernard of Makerere University for introducing me to
>>>> this
>>>>>> group email.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I am a teacher trainer by profession currently pursuing masters at
>>>>>> Makerere.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> My passion is the decline of our schools in the region. I am sure you
>>>>>> guys must have talked about education in our region, but we should
>>>>>> not
>>>> give
>>>>>> up.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I look forward to contributing in this forum.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> God bless u all.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ASEA BASIL
>>>>>> 0772655255
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --- On *Fri, 3/1/13, Robert Ejiku <[email protected]>* wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> From: Robert Ejiku <[email protected]>
>>>>>> Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] WEST NILE EDUCATION CONFRENCE
>>>>>> To: "A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile"
>>>>>> <[email protected]>
>>>>>> Date: Friday, March 1, 2013, 4:02 AM
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thank you Vasco,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The word is commitment and most of our ideas will actually work.
>>>> Perhaps
>>>>>> we try address how to get 10-12 people committed and they will help
>>>>>> us
>>>> in
>>>>>> understanding later how to get in and make a difference.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thank you once again.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Ejiku
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Fri, Mar 1, 2013 at 2:04 PM, Vasco Oguzua <[email protected]<
>>>> http://mc/[email protected]>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Dear Folks,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The commitment issue Robert has stressed in my view is the gist of a
>>>> lot
>>>>>> of our dilemma in addressing most problems we have talked, discussed
>>>> and
>>>>>> recycled. Commitment and a very careful planning I think in this
>>>> particular
>>>>>> issue is as important. That is why I suggested a committee of at
>>>>>> least
>>>> 10
>>>>>> -12 people be established to conduct hearings in each district and
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> report from these committees be the basis of organizing the
>>>>>> conference.
>>>>>> This will of of course require a careful planning and time and
>>>> commitment
>>>>>> from people to take the initiative to volunteer themselves in these
>>>>>> committees.
>>>>>> One of the problems we have with our people is their lack of interest
>>>> in
>>>>>> volunteering their time to help their own communities.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Vasco
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Fri, Mar 1, 2013 at 1:40 AM, Robert Ejiku <[email protected]<
>>>> http://mc/[email protected]>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Caleb,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> You have said it even better. A convention, workshop oof any type
>>>>>> wo
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