When you have school going children in this Kampala you become a student once again by default. This journey begins from Kindergarten all through university. Brace yourself for an average of twenty years of “school going” multiply this by the number of children you have.
Not only does a Kampala parent worry about school fees, you also get involved in your child’s education, the latest you will rise in the morning is 5am daily from Monday to Friday.
Woe unto you if your child’s school is far off and need to beat traffic jam, make that 4am daily. Most schools open their gates as early as 6am So, during a school term we are looking at about 70% of sleep deprived adults and children trying to function normally and still be pleasant as is expected of Ugandans. The parents, children, teachers, support staff, taxi drivers are all sleep deprived Heck, the house helps too are not spared!
A typical day in a Ugandan middle-class household will begin by the parent arising at 4am to get ready, wake the children up at 5am, out of the house by 6am into their Toyota car, off to school in a bid to beat traffic jam, drop the kids off, report to work, device means of leaving work at 4pm to pick kids, hope to beat traffic jam, get home, homework, supper etc. Ideally one would wish to call it a night by 7pm, however since you most likely carried your work assignments home, you’ll be lucky to get some sleep by 1am and then continue the routine the next day for the next three months!
That aside, you must get involved in the children’s homework, projects, concerts, sports days and still ensure that school fees are cleared on time.
What our education system needs today is sleep, yes, we need more sleep, our children, teachers, parents need to sleep! Once a fortnight the government needs to declare a sleep-in day, no school, no work, phones switched off! Families need to be ordered to sleep! People should stop running around for one day and get a minimum of 12 hours of sleep, MPs should debate on this, the President should sign it into law, law enforcement officers should be on stand by to arrest those who do not adhere to this law, police cells should be built to serve this purpose, people should be thrown into cell and put to sleep. Yes, sleep is what we need to revamp our education. We shall have calm, well rested parents humming as they drive their well rested children to school, the teachers receiving our children will no longer sulk, they will smile and engage in small talk as they receive our well rested children, as a result school days shall be pleasant, there will be less homework, since the teachers will see no need to torture the little ones with piles of homework. For once school projects shall be handled at school supervised by the teachers as it should be, and this shall allow us to worry only about school dues!
