Day to Day Teaching In a Small Ugandan Village, and Other Observations

Day 1:
Today was my first day in the classroom. I had to set aside my 13 months of social studies training and instead rely solely on the 13 months of general teaching skills that I learned, as my first class was beginning algebra. As a matter of fact, I will primarily be teaching math and science the entire three weeks; luckily this is a primary school and I still know the basics of both subjects. The school system is set up such that primary school is P1-P7 and secondary school is S1-S7 with S6&7 being much like junior college in the US. I will mainly be teaching P5 because of the language barrier. Students are taught in their native language up through P3before shifting to English and so are not comfortable with English until P5. The school has just over 700 students making it almost the same size as the school I taught at last year, however, that is pretty much where the similarities end.
There are only 14 teachers at Sseguku Primary School meaning that the student to teacher ratio of 50:1 matches the overall national average. My class today had 44 students, but that will increase greatly over the next few days as more parents come up with the fees to send their children to school. Of course, it is a great struggle for many kids to be able to afford the time and money to attend school on a regular basis, so the student population fluctuates from term to term (3 terms/year) and even day to day. Also, some kids are not able to begin school until age 9 or 10 making it common to have 16 or 17 year old students at the end of primary school.
One of the first things I noticed at the school, which I had a sense of before, is the level of discipline that is expected of the students. Don’t get me wrong, as a new teacher it is certainly nice to have incredibly well-behaved students to teach, but some of the interactions concern me as perpetuating the hierarchical nature of Ugandan society, which I have long seen as one of the roadblocks to development. When I see the students coming into the teacher’s lounge and kneeling before asking a question or taking an order, all I can think of is that from an early age Ugandans are taught to be submissive. I believe this submissiveness is a trait that many hold on to as they grow up and encounter everyday obstacles for which there is no accountability on the part of those who are in authority or power positions (i.e. company managers, police, army, government officials). I understand respect for one’s peers and elders and encourage it, but I also believe it is healthy to be able to question those same peers and elders when fairness or equality is being tested. This hierarchy of power exists from the top level of government down to the village and household level, in my opinion, impeding any sort of progress on important national and local issues. My local friends are always telling me that there is no one that they can confidently approach who can or will address issues that affect their daily lives. From what I have seen, this is the status quo here in Uganda and the continued hierarchical nature of the society only serves to perpetuate the problem.