Rather no education, than Education mentioning Gayism.....

Dearest, dearest Uganda!

I love my country. Dont know why I should, but...., hell.. (pardon me), it is my country...., and I love messing up the people who would throw me out of the country for being gay!!!

Anyway, my country mates are the world's leading homophobes. No, I am not proud to say that. But, I dont know of any way that I would state it without shading the truth.

It is a phobia. A fear. Unreasoned, unreasoning, totally senseless. But, it is very Ugandan.

Now, Ugandans love education. For most Ugandan families, the most important budgetary consideration is the school fees for our children. Unfortunately, the schools that snag our students are simply substandard.
Am not jocking. I am a product of the system. I managed to get an education...., but, that was exceptional in many ways. These are our schools. 

And, that is a diversion.

Bill Gates, yes, that Bill Gates of Microsoft, and Mark Zuckenberg of Facebook somehow got this interest in education in Africa, and they decided to give the gift of education to African kids.

Bridge International is a private enterprise that runs more than 400 nurseries and primary schools across Africa. The company opened its first school in a slum in the Kenyan capital Nairobi in 2009, and said that it aims to educate 10 million children by 2025. It runs 63 for-profit schools and nurseries across Uganda, attended by fee-paying students.

Oh, yes. They are fee paying. Is a matter of fact that something that costs nothing is never appreciated. So, give a great education, subsidize it, but never completely free.

And, the approach is unorthodox.

Schools run by the company use technological innovations—such as e-readers or teacher computers, which come pre-loaded with lesson plans.

And...,

Bridge International which has expanded rapidly since its inception in 2008 offering cheap, standardised, technology-driven education in developing countries in Africa and Asia.Under the Bridge International model teachers read scripted lessons word-for-word from a tablet computer that also records student attendance and assessments. 

I must confess that I was shocked, shocked, shocked, to hear that the schools in Uganda had been closed. In the middle of the term..., with more than 12,000 Ugandan kids affected. Officially, the reason for the closure of the schools was damning of the investors. And, I was like, surely Gates and Zuckenberg had been duped? Even the British Department for International Development backs the schools. So, if it was a scam, it must be a huge one. 

But a September report by global trade union Education International found that Bridge International schools in Uganda were failing to uphold the national curriculum, using under-qualified teachers and that the schools’ facilities were inadequate. The report found that Bridge International’s “profit-driven, cost-cutting, standardized and internet-based approach to education delivery involves a number of critical shortcomings.” 

I know...., standard reaction...., either duped..., or, or just some 'imperialistic westerners' doing what they always do. 
I dont know of Zuckenberg's track record. But, that of Bill Gates is stellar. And, I was of the opinion that he might have been duped.

UGANDA COURT ORDERS CLOSURE OF 63 SCHOOLS BACKED BY MARK ZUCKERBERG AND BILL GATES

The schools, attended by 12,000 students, are to close immediately in the middle of the school term.

But, the truth of the matter has come out.

The problem might not be the curriculum. Or, rather, it might NOT be sub-standard education.

Gosh, Ugandans crave education. It is an itch and craving that even any education seems to satisfy. Ugandan parents are literally mad to educate their kids, however they can.

But...

A very, VERY, big but.....

The Finance Minister came out with possibly the REAL reason why the schools were closed.

The Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Matia Kasaija has revealed that Bridge International academies were closed recently because government suspected they were teaching pornography and the content related to lesbianism and homosexuality.

 Sigh........

I cannot believe it..., but, I do believe it. 
The powers that be in Uganda will send 12,000 kids home in the middle of the final term in the year, because those kids are having an education that has a hint of content about lesbianism and homosexuality. Oh yes, they will.

The pupils, some of them sobbing, presented their appeal to a team of education ministry officials during the closure of two wings of Bridge International Schools in Rubongi Sub- county and Malaba Town Council in Tororo District.

They even went marching to parliament...., poor kids

You see, when Museveni won his 6th term in office, he made his darling official wife, Janet Museveni, the Minister of Education.
The lady is a fundamentalist Christian. The power behind the throne, and possibly the one who was behind the 'Anti-homosexuality Act'. Hey, that is MY speculation....., but, I doubt, seriously, doubt I am wrong on that.

For the crime of teaching 'lesbianism and homosexuality' those schools were closed. 

the Tororo District education officer who led the team, apologised to the pupils over the closure of the schools adding that the closed school were “giving them poison” which the government could not tolerate

Poor Uganda the Beautiful. Poor, poor students, and parents, and..... those poor, poor students.
The government supported 'Universal Education' has become such a disaster that....., oh, poor, poor, poor Ugandans!

The idealists, the purists in government believe no education is better than one that teaches 'pornography'

The Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, .......

“We could not allow teaching sexual matters in public. Why teaching pornography in Bridge schools? This moral decay couldn’t be tolerated,” he said.

Minister Kasaija, also MP for Buyanja South added: “Instead of using schools to apply and promote sexual education, why don’t we go back to our traditional aunties (ssenga) and uncles (kojja)? Stop conveying the gospel of homosexuality to our children. You should stop and stop.”

I bet Bridge International, Zuckenberg, and Bill Gates must be in shock...., wondering what hit them. How could this disaster have occured? Accused of giving sub-standard education....!!!
I bet it could be only a page or two in the books being read, (How many pages would it take!!!!)

But, it was enough.

Poor, poor Ugandans! Poor students! Poor parents! I dont think you even got to understand what occured. Had they told you what was objectionable in the education you were receiving? Of course not.

government inspectors said children were being taught in sub-standard facilities and unsanitary conditions.Another parent who preferred not to be named said he chose Bridge International for his six children because he appreciated the low fees of around $28 per term, or a third of what he used to pay, and disagreed with government’s decision to close the schools ...."The government says that the facilities are not clean but when I visit the school I look at the kitchen and latrines and they are fine," he said.

But, for Ugandan 'leaders' who can justify such a decision.....

May the curses of our ancestors descend on your heads....., and dullen your minds as you seek to make a generation of the poor education-less because of ideals you hold in hypocrisy.

I really, really, really wish I believed in curses. I would choose the worst to visit on the ignoramuses that made that decision.

gug