Saint Joseph's College Layibi

St. Joseph’s College Layibi (SJCL) is an all boys secondary school. In Uganda, secondary school consists of 4 years of ordinary levels (S.1 through S.4) and 2 years of advanced levels (S.5 and S.6). Students receive a national ‘O’ Level diploma at the end of senior 4. This diploma allows them to go on to vocational school and teachers’ college to become a primary teacher. If a student goes on to complete ‘A’ levels, they will be eligible for university. Their scores determine which programme they will follow. Students who receive above a certain threshold are given a government scholarship covering their university tuition at a public (vs. private) university. SJCL had seven S.6 students earn government sponsorship last year. The school is held in very high regard in the district.

There are 1200 boys at the school ranging in age from 12 to 25 years old. The reason for the presence of older students is that some students missed years of school due to the conflict or family obligations. SJCL is a boarding school, in fact all students are boarding. There are ‘O’ level and ‘A’ level dormitories. The campus is huge with blocks of classrooms, dormitories, an assembly hall, church, dining halls, and lots of green spaces. Students and teachers are often dragging chairs and desks out under the trees to study, plan, or mark in the shade.

In the ‘O’ levels, the class sizes are approximately 80 students. In ‘A’ levels, students have more choice in the courses. For example in S.5 there are 131 students who’ve chosen a Science programme and 38 who’ve chosen Arts. There are 108 students in the S.5 Physics class I teach with Robert.

The students are remarkably quiet in class. I guess they have to be. For S.5 the students line up at the door, some carrying chairs, and race in to sit as close to the front as possible. Generally the lesson involves a description of the concepts followed by dictation of notes and then some worked problems solved on the board. Students do not have text books so the dictation provides them with notes from which to study for their exams at the end of S.6.

The staff is primarily male. There are only 4 female teachers and 60 male teachers. Many of the teachers live in staff quarters. The quarters include a small plot of land where most grown corn to be dried and ground into flour. Classes run from 8 am until 4:30 pm but a full-time teaching load is 24 forty minute periods per week. At 10:40 am there is tea and corn or chipati for staff and porridge for students. Lunch is served at 1:50 pm (officially, although sometimes it is not actually served until 2:20 pm – 10 minutes before the end of the lunch period).

We are spoiled at SJLC. Most schools serve beans and posho (called Ugali in Kenya, a mixture of corn flour water – Blake says it could be describes as homemade playdough, but I think it is a little more granular than playdough). We have posho almost every day, but there is also rice or potatoes. When we are served beans they are mixed with cabbage. We are also sometimes served a ground nut stew (ground nut is similar to peanut), a spinach-like mixture with eggs, eggplant deliciousness, and once a week we are served meat (beef or goat). We are also given banana or pineapple for desert.

Overall, our school and teachers seem really excited to have us here and are very keen to work with us. The students are also remarkably hard-working. Even though the school is technically a public school, schools fees are quite high especially since boarding costs are not covered. The PTA raises funds to hire more teachers and supplement government teacher salaries, pay for maintenance and more. Families sacrifice a lot to educate their children and the students know it.

Just a side note, SJCL is one of few all boys schools, there is a sister all girls school called Sacred Heart. Most schools are co-ed.