Holy Cross - District of East Africa

Education

Primary Schools
Secondary Schools
Technical/Vocational Schools
Expanding our Education Ministry

Holy Cross Parish has focused on promoting education in the community by providing quality primary education. The schools strive to provide quality, holistic education that caters not only to the academic needs of the students, but also to their spiritual, physical, and emotional needs. It infuses Christian values and morals in the education in order to promote good citizenship. Fr. Hesse was the impetus behind advancements in the schools, soliciting funds to construct the classrooms and other structural needs. Fr. Mugera and Fr. Wamala have continued this work, as well as holding regular meetings of head teachers and staff from the schools to continue the dialogue of how best the schools can be improved. They also attend to the sacramental and religious educational needs in the schools.

Primary Schools

Holy Cross Parish has a vision of evangelizing the Gospel Message through education. It supports 3 local primary schools which offer a holistic education, catering not only to the academic needs of the students, but also to their spiritual, physical, and emotional needs. It infuses Christian values and morals into academics in order to inculcate good Christian values in its students. Fr. Hesse was the impetus behind advancements in the schools, soliciting funds to construct the classrooms and other structural needs. Fr. Mugera and Fr. Wamala have continued this work, as well as holding regular meetings of the individual School Management Committees and staff from the schools to continue the dialogue of how best the schools can improve. The parish priests also attend to the sacramental and religious educational needs in the schools and run seminars for teachers to promote the incorporation of Christian Religious Education into the curriculum.

Holy Cross Primary School - Bugembe

Founded in 1991 at Bugembe Parish Center, Holy Cross Primary, with classes Primary 1 to Primary 4, replaced a struggling primary school that had been established in 1976. Classroom construction began to replace the thatch roofed mud classrooms, and with the aid of surplus school fees, fund-raising ceremonies, and external contributions, the school complex has grown to include 9 classrooms accommodating Primary 1 to Primary 7 and a boys and girls hostel, administration offices, and a staff room. The nursery school operates in a temporary wood frame building and acts as a feeder for the primary school. There is an enrollment of over 400 pupils in P1-7.

The School Management Committee oversees the operation of the school and cooperation with government standards, thus ensuring quality education. They also promote family involvement, community activity in the school, and strive to create a general ethos of service among teachers and students. Parents and teachers have organized themselves into an active PTA, which sensitizes the community to appreciate education and to promptly pay school fees so that children do not miss class. With demonstrated support from the community, the school has become financially self-sufficient, operating on collected school fees and a small UPE grant that is offered to private schools. The school struggles to offer scholarship aid to orphans and very poor students.

The school only accepts students with demonstrated good academic performance and discipline, as reflected in their previous school reports. It follows the National Primary School Curriculum, and prepares pupils for the Primary Leaving Examination. It has gained a reputation in recent years because of improved performance on these Leaving Exams, and is now placed among the best schools in Jinja District.

The school also acts as a site of promoting positive extracurricular activities by allowing community members access to a football pitch, basketball court, netball court and tennis court. This space provides a meeting ground for youth of all faiths to interact and grow together.

St. Andrew's Primary School - Wanyange

The school was founded under the name Wambuza Primary in 1968 by the Catholic parish to serve the local community. It was temporarily closed during the Amin years, but was re-founded in 1988 for the purpose of providing an affordable Catholic education for children in the Wanynage area. When Holy Cross arrived in 1990, they were interested in continuing to develop the school, and worked with the head teacher to repair the old school buildings and hire more qualified teachers. They renamed the school St. Andrew's in order to emphasize its Catholic character. In 1993, Holy Cross Lakeview SSS was established nearby, and due to its increasing student population, St. Andrew was moved down the hill, and now sits next to the sub-center church.

The school mission is "to educate and produce well-disciplined, self-reliant, and God-fearing citizens" and strives to build a foundation for life long learning among its students. It emphasizes discipline and fosters leadership opportunities through the Pupil's Governing Body. The pupils participate in extra-curricular activities, such as gardening and tree planting, promoting job creation rather than job seeking. The school also promotes evangelization by providing students the opportunity to study catechetics and liturgy. It has nursery to Primary 7, and the academic performance on the National Primary Leaving Exams has been improving steadily since the school began. Currently, the school has an enrollment of 300 pupils and a staff of 13 teachers. The school has a diverse student population as a result of industrial activities in Jinja district, which promotes the use of English, which is advantageous because the Leaving Exams are set in English.

The school is managed by the School Management Committee, and its PTA seek to increase community support of the school. These groups also aim to make the school financially self-sufficient, while ensuring high quality education.

St. Jude Primary School - Buwekula

St. Jude was established by Christians in the community in 1964 with an enrollment of 80 pupils in 4 classes - nursery to Primary 3. Teaching began in grass thatched classrooms, which were constructed by the community, and the school persisted throughout the years despite a cyclical rise and decline in its enrollment. When Holy Cross came in 1994, the school was in a period a great decline, however, the Christians committed themselves to support the school, by educating their children there and contributing to its growth, both monetarily or through labor. Holy Cross agreed to support the school in 1996, and the Center Council was re-energized in their efforts to sensitize the community about the importance of good education. The community responded immediately - the foundation was poured and the community volunteered to transport building materials, which motivated Holy Cross to increase their contribution to the building expenses.

The school now has an enrollment of over 300 pupils with classes from nursery to Primary 7. Its operation is overseen by the School Management Committee, and there is an active PTA and dedicated faculty. St. Jude is surrounded by government schools, which offer free education at the cost of high enrollment, poor facilities, and crowded classrooms. It therefore strives to offer better education, as it works towards self-sustenance.

St. James Primary School - Dandora

St. James Primary School is located within Dandora Holy Cross Catholic Church Compound. It developed in 2000 from the nursery school that had already been in operation for twenty years. Although the school is surrounded by city council and private primary schools, the Holy Cross Religious and lay group in Dandora saw a need for a church run school which would promote Christian living and moral behaviour. The school caters to the children in the area, yet it is not even able to absorb the number of students that come from the parish nursery school because of limited space. Its objectives for the future are to continue to grow to meet the need of the community while still providing quality education, addressing the intellectual, spiritual and moral needs of the children.

The school began from a good foundation and has set the highest academic standard. It is counted among the best school in the area and achieves the first position in Terminal Exams since its establishment.

Secondary Schools

Holy Cross Lakeview Senior Secondary School

Holy Cross Lakeview SSS was founded in 1993 in response to the needs for affordable, Catholic secondary education in Bugembe Parish. Under the direction of Sister Mary Louise Wahler, CSC it succeeded in being the fiftieth best school in Uganda in its first year, and has improved its academic performance each year. Fr. Basil Moreau, CSC once said that "the mind should not be cultivated at the expense of the heart", and Lakeview tries to stress a balance between good academic performance and the development of the whole person by providing a counseling program, career counseling, practical subjects (including fine art, music, home management, business studies and agriculture) and an active sports program.

From its humble beginnings with 1 full-time and 6 part-time teachers of "O-level" (first four years of secondary), it has expanded to add "A-level" education (advanced level), with an enrollment of over 700 students. It has added a boarding section for both boys and girls at the request of parents, and now over half of the students are boarders. The students come from both town and rural environments as the school's reputation has spread. There are a significant number of students from both Kenya and Tanzania, the Kenyans are attracted by the similarity to the British system and Tanzanians are attracted by the higher standard of English language. There is a strong relationship between parents and the school, and the school tries to help parents budget for the school fees and pay fees gradually, as parents who can pay the fees at the beginning of the term are the rare exception. The school offers holiday work programs for students who need financial assistance.

The school has undergone some changes, with the Holy Cross District of East Africa taking over responsibility of the school from the parish, and just this year, the administration changed with Brother John Flood, CSC taking over direction of the school. In spite of these changes, however, Lakeview continues to focus on its mission "Education for Service," and nurture well-rounded students who will make positive contributions to society.

Click here to view the Development Proposal for Holy Cross Lakeview SSS

St. Joseph's on the Hill Secondary School - Kyarusozi

The school was established in 1996 by the Kyarusozi Holy Cross Parish. The school welcomes all students and aims at educating the whole person - intellectually, spiritually, and socially. The students who come to this school are those who would not have the opportunity to go elsewhere for secondary education. The school's enrollment is currently 372, with 143 girls and 229 boys. All the students are day scholars, some of whom on average have to walk as many as 10 km just one way. The school currently owns approximately 10 acres of land, upon which it has built two classroom blocks, a multi-purpose hall (with capacity to hold about 250 students, which is currently being used as classroom), science laboratory, an administration block, staff housing, and a soccer pitch. It hopes to build a boarding section soon so that students will not have to travel such long distances to school, and therefore use their time more effectively for studying.

Technical/Vocational Schools

James Karaffa Business Academy for Women (JKBAW) - Dandora

The JKBAW is named in memory of late Fr. James Karaffa CSC and is meant to empower the poor women of Kibera slum in Nairobi with business skills. It intends to teach business skills through workshops and other means while putting a spiritual value to group work and social living. The community in Nairobi, through their experience of working with slum dwellers, shows that most people live a life of hopelessness and sin due to material pover. Most people, especially women and children are wounded and in great need of healing. The JKBAW aims at making this healing a reality.

Vocation Training School - Kyarusozi

The Vocation School began in 1995 in response to inadequate secondary education facilities in the parish. Its aims are to provide students who left primary the opportunity to pursue further studies and equip these youth with technical skills, thus elevating their socio-economic standard. It grew from a simple carpentry workshop that was established by Kyarusozi Socio-Economic Development Club, increasing enrollment every year, and now providing classes in sewing, handcrafts, knitting, nutrition/home management, tailoring, dressmaking, carpentry, concrete practice, and brick laying. A number of students are employed by the time they graduate, and even those who are not yet employed can assist others in the community to see the importance of education as a tool for socio-economic emancipation and advancement.

Audrey Veldmen Agro-Technical Education Center - St. Brendan's

The Agro-Technical Education Center was founded in 2001 to foster faith in young people and educate on career development. In phase one, the Center began educating young women in skills and academics, including sewing, knitting, crop management, animal husbandry, mathematics, English, civics, home management, physical and religious education. In January 2005, phase two, a young men's division will open, and will include career training in carpentry, masonry and computer literacy along with the above academic courses.

Expanding our Education Ministry

Development Proposal for Holy Cross Lakeview SSS

As Holy Cross Lakeview continues to grow, there are plans for an expansion of the current facilities. The immediate necessities include new dormitories for boarding students and classrooms, however, there are also other long-term needs.

Dormitories: Currently the dormitories are overcrowded with sixty or seventy students sleeping in a residential house suited for a single family. Almost half a dozen triple decker beds are jammed into each room. Study and toilet facilities are very inadequate, and ventilation is poor. Despite these inadequacies, it is more desired than having to walk ten or more miles to and from school and trying to study at home by candle light or a kerosene lamp. The girls' dorm is in greater need than the boys but both need to be done as soon as possible. An estimate for the cost of a dormitory for 250 girls is about $250,000, and funds are yet to be raised.

Classrooms: Although Lakeview began with a single class of 55 students, it has grown to nearly 800 students. The number of streams needed to accommodate the students in each level is increasing each year. Last year there were nearly eighty students in each of the second year streams, with students practically sitting on top of each other.

Kitchen: The current kitchen is a wood and iron sheet shack with primitive fireplaces that result in unnecessary consumption of firewood, which wastes our natural resources and pollutes the environment, contributing to the poor health of our cooks. There is an urgent need for a new kitchen with fuel-efficient stoves.

Laboratories: Two labs were constructed a few years ago to accommodate biology, chemistry, physics, and agriculture. Especially with the establishment of the A-level section, this is now inadequate.

Multi-purpose building: Due to the limited land the school has, a multistory building that could provide adequate office and storage space, an adequate computer room, home management lab and additional classrooms would be ideal. If such a building could be constructed with classrooms, some of the present classrooms could be converted to dorms for the boy boarders, making it easier for them to study at night as well as facilitating the overall management of the school.

Long run: Several other major buildings would be ideal, namely, a chapel, a proper dining hall and an assembly hall. Currently an open air shed is used as a space for all of these purposes, but is subject to weather conditions.