UK Friends of Nyakasura
Return to Nyakasura
Equipment being presented to Mr David Ocan and the Lab Technician.
The school gates.
Anne Horsfall's house.
Craig presenting a cricket ball to the Cricket Captain.
by Craig Hampton
As it was ten years since my family and I left Uganda, we decided to return this summer for a holiday, to visit old friends and to show our daughters some of the places where they had grown up. Our visit included Nyakasura where I had been a teacher from 1988-1991. Pat Heathcote made use of our visit to send out a couple of bags containing mainly science equipment plus some books and swimming costumes donated by the Friends of Nyakasura.
Before commenting on the changes which have taken place over the past ten years, I should say that, unlike many of the Friends of Nyakasura who were teachers or Old students in the heydays of Nyakasura during the 1960s and early 1970’s, my association with Nyakasura started closer to its nadir. After the economic downturn of the Amin years and the civil war which followed Obote II, both the country and the school were in poor condition. Power could be off for two weeks at a time, there was no telephone line to the school, the school had no means of transport, the chapel was in ruins and the school was closed when I arrived because of a strike in which the deputy H/M had been chased away. This may make you think that my first impressions of Nyakasura were negative but this was not at all the case as I had come from teaching in Southern Sudan and before that a small Harambee school in Kenya. Compared to my experiences there, teaching Physics and Chemistry in Nyakasura was bliss. I had a laboratory, chemicals and equipment so at last I could demonstrate practically what I was talking about in theory. It is important to stress that, despite the wear and tear over the years, Nyakasura is still a very good school when compared with most in Africa.
So how has Nyakasura changed since we left Uganda in 1995?
It was good to see the chapel completed and being used. The new Joan Perrens girls’ dormitory, posho mill and computers were obvious advances. The school gates were a welcome security measure, I used to have to remove many of the electrical fittings during each holiday to prevent them from being stolen.
The classrooms had been painted and power was supplied by a back-up generator, and a payphone had been installed for the students!
As resources are limited, some areas have not had the same degree of attention. The staff houses and other dormitories looked ten years older and could do with some investment.
There was no water supply to the school during our visit even though it is now linked to a water main coming from the Rwenzoris. As the channels supplying the ram pump have fallen into disrepair, this could not provide an emergency back up. Even more distressing to my wife, in charge of swimming while we there, was the fact that the pool cannot be filled and the students were doing their washing in the little remaining stagnant water!
On a personal level, as I had reintroduced cricket to the school at the request of the then H/M, Mr Basaija, I was glad to see that it was still being played despite the obvious difficulties of lack of local competition.
It is on this topic of the remoteness of Nyakasura that I will finish. It will always be difficult to compete with those schools located in and near Kampala, just as the top private schools in the UK are located close to London. Therefore Nyakasura has to set itself achievable goals. The socio-economic conditions created during colonial times which allowed Nyakasura School to become one of the elite schools in the country will not return. However, with the right spirit and a little help from its Friends, Nyakasura still has the potential to be the best school in Kabarole District if not in the West of Uganda.