AuguryAgainst the Odds in Bweyale: How Headteacher Joselyn Keeps Classrooms Alive
This article was written by the Augury Times
Morning routines that mean more than lessons
Just after dawn, Joselyn moves through a thin row of classrooms in Bweyale. Children gather on patched benches. Some arrive clutching exercise books, others without shoes. The room smells of chalk and cooking fire from nearby homes. For these children — refugees and local children mixed together — the school is more than a place to learn letters and sums. It is a refuge from the uncertainty of displacement.
Joselyn, the headteacher, spends her mornings checking that teachers have lesson plans, that the smallest children have someone to help with reading, and that the makeshift classrooms are safe enough to stay open. She greets nervous parents, calms a child who arrived after a long walk, and improvises when the copier breaks or the teacher misses a day because they must care for a sick relative. Her work is practical, hands-on, and deeply human: keeping learning spaces calm, predictable, and ready for the next lesson.
How an ECW-funded initiative supports learning in Bweyale
The program backing this work is funded through Education Cannot Wait (ECW), a global fund that channels money into emergency education. In Bweyale, ECW’s support is delivered through partnerships with Save the Children, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and a network of local NGOs. The aim is straightforward: keep children in school, make lessons meaningful, and reduce the harm that long gaps in learning cause.
The program focuses on teacher training, basic school repairs, learning materials, and psychosocial support for students and staff. It is shaped to fit Uganda’s broader refugee education response, which tries to include refugee children in national systems while adding targeted support where the need is greatest. In practice, that means trying to get classrooms open quickly, supporting teachers who are working with large mixed-language groups, and giving children a chance to catch up after disrupted schooling.
Leading by doing: Joselyn’s ways to steady a school
Joselyn’s leadership is practical and low-key. She divides small tasks among teachers so no one burns out. She runs short in-service training sessions that focus on classroom management, simple ways to teach reading aloud, and how to spot children who need more emotional support. She pairs newer teachers with experienced ones and organizes weekly meetings where teachers swap simple classroom activities that worked that week.
Her methods show up in the students. Younger children are learning basic sight words through songs and repeated reading. Older pupils, who missed months of school during displacement, are put into short, focused catch-up groups so they don’t fall behind entirely. When a parent describes their child as “less frightened” now that school is predictable, that is the kind of outcome Joselyn counts as progress.
Practical fixes also matter. Joselyn helped repurpose an empty store room into a quiet corner for children who need a break. She worked with local volunteers to repair leaking roofs after the rainy season and to stencil learning posters on classroom walls. These small changes make the day-to-day feel safer and more hopeful.
From donors to classroom: turning funds into learning
ECW’s funding is channeled through Save the Children and UNHCR, which work with local community groups to get supplies and training to schools. On the ground, that means the program pays for teacher training sessions, basic kits of books and pencils, and small repairs. It also pays for psychosocial support workers who visit classrooms to help teachers manage trauma-related behavior.
Field coordinators describe measurable outputs such as multiple teacher training sessions, distribution of learning packs, and community meetings to explain school schedules. Local NGOs handle community outreach, recruiting volunteer teaching assistants and organizing parent groups that support school maintenance and meal rotations.
What still needs fixing: barriers to lasting learning
Despite these gains, big problems remain. Classrooms are overcrowded. Funding is designed to be short-term, so long-term needs — like building permanent schools or paying more full-time teachers — are still unmet. Teacher retention is fragile: many teachers work on short contracts or with little pay, and life pressures push some to leave.
Children also carry heavy emotional burdens. The program provides some psychosocial help, but the demand far outstrips the supply of trained counselors. Language differences and gaps in foundational skills mean catch-up programs must be ongoing rather than one-off. Parents complain about the cost of materials and transport, even when tuition is free, because those small costs add up for families scraping by.
Teaching is a shared task — and what comes next for Bweyale
Joselyn’s story shows how leadership and small local fixes keep classrooms running. But her success also highlights a truth the funders and partners keep returning to: education in emergencies works only when funds, technical help, and community effort come together. Immediate next steps include steadying funding cycles, expanding psychosocial services, and investing in more permanent school spaces and stable teacher pay.
For readers moved by this work, local NGOs and international agencies welcome attention, advocacy, and support for longer-term funding models that treat education as essential even in crisis. In Bweyale, children show up because someone like Joselyn makes school feel safe. The challenge is to make sure those efforts can last beyond the next rainy season so more children can learn and plan for a future that feels possible.
Photo: Ahmed akacha / Pexels
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