KAGOMA EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

P.0 BOX 241 MUBENDE- UGANDA

BEGINNING OF YEAR 2009 REPORT

Greetings from St. Zoe School. We express our gratitude for the visit you paid us at the beginning of this year. We thank you for all the gifts you gave us and most especially the ideas that came in the meeting. These will continue to inspire us in our work.

ST. ZOE PRIMARY SCHOOL

We thank you in a special way for the 2,000 pounds you gave us towards teachers’ salaries. This has already been given out to the teachers.

ENROLMENT

By the end of the year, the enrolment was 347. We have received more children and now it stands as follows.

DAY SHOLARS			BOARDERS
CLASS	BOYS	GIRLS	BOYS	GIRLS	TOTAL
PRE	14	23	08	09	54
P.1	09	17	12	13	51
P.2	08	05	19	15	47
P.3	06	07	21	12	46
P.4	03	06	25	19	53
P.5	06	11	15	22	54
P.6	06	03	15	21	45
P.7	01	01	18	16	36
TOTAL	53	73	133	127	386

The increase has been due to improved performance in primary leaving examinations where got 8 first grades, 35 second grades and 1 third grade. All or pupils passed and qualified for secondary education.

CHILDREN WELFARE

Our children came back healthy. The school nurse is working very hard to maintain their health. We still feed them with 4 meals a day.

We were able to harvest enough maize corn for this term. This has reduced the cost of buying food for this term. We are now planting for the new season.

THE STAFF

All our teaching and non-teaching staff are working and determined to improve on our standards. We have planned to do everything with a strong teamwork.

AREAS OF EMPHASIS THIS YEAR

1. Improvement in academic performance at national examinations.
2. To streamline our financial management. Already we have got a qualified bursar for this.
3. Production of our own food by planting maize and vegetables.
4. Finishing our existing structures.
5. Beautifying our compound.

ST. ZOE SECONDARY AND VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

The school opened on 2^nd February 2009 for the senior two students and on 9^th February for the senior Ones.

We thank you for the financial support given to us recently. We received the twenty one thousand pounds (21,000) for the secondary school building.

As promised, we have used 2,000 (Two thousand) pounds for the salary arrears for the primary school staff and 400 (four hundred) pounds for purchase of some essential books for secondary section. We thank Dennis and Richard for this contribution.

ENROLMENT

Currently the school has a total of 32 students. That is to say, 23 in senior one and 9 in senior two. Out of these, 15 are boys and 17 are girls.

15 students are in boarding section while 17 are day scholars.

STAFFING

Now we have a total of 14 teachers, 6 of whom are full time teachers and 8 are part timers. We have also recruited a qualified bursar for KAGOMA EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT CENTRE.

For other support staff, the existing group for primary is still able to handle all the necessary work.

ACHIEVEMENTS

In this short period of time, we have registered some successes as listed below:

(a) Much as we started with only 12 students, the number has steadily grown to 32 and

we expect more in 2^nd term.

(b) We have also bought furniture for the school. That is to say, 18 desks, office chairs

and chalkboards.

(c) Some essential textbooks for sciences and technical drawing have been bought.

In addition, our store has been equipped with materials for technical Drawing.

(d) We have purchased sports equipment like balls and volley ball nets.

(e) The construction work for the classroom block commenced well on 19^th February

and now the foundation and slab are finished. In 2 weeks time, we shall be on the

ring beam.

(g) We are planting a one and half acres of banana plantation project being done by the

Secondary School students. This is done as a remembrance for the 10 years

exisistance of St. Zoe. By the time of cerebration, we shall be yielding.

CHALLENGES

We have also faced some challenges in this period of time as seen below.

(i) Lack of enough accommodation facilities for our full time teachers.

(ii) Our office is not yet well furnished.

(iii) Lack of lab. Equipment to re- enforce sciences.

WORK PLAN

Below are the things we expect to do immediately;

1. After roofing the classroom block, we are going to embark on finishing work.

2. We also want to fully furnish the new building because we expect the number of students to increase by next term.
3. We want to start serious practical in Vocational subjects; this term has been orientation and theory work.
4. Compound setting shall go hand in hand with construction.

CONCLUSION

The staff, students, parents of St. Zoe schools together with the community around are very grateful for the continued support HUGS U.K is extending to our project. May the almighty reward you abundantly.

YOURS,

ANDREW SSEMPIJJA

Hullo Peter,

It is true we have taken long without sending estimates for finishing the primary school block. This has been delayed by the construction group that we requested to take up the measurements, calculate out the materials to be used, cost them and also cost the labour required. They have promised to be ready by Thursday 5^th this week.

We will send the estimates as immediately as we get them.

About the promised solar powered computers, we are very grateful for this as they will be appropriate to our situation since we are not connected to Government Electricity mains.

Since we now have two main offices, one for secondary and for primary, can we apply for two? If not, two per office?

Computer lessons have also began at secondary section as one of our main subjects, in future we will need to have a good number of computers for our students.

We are attaching picture showing the progress in construction work and also pictures of our secondary school students in classes.

We once again thank together with all HUGS members for your tireless effort for the good of our young generations.

Yours truly,

ANDREW SSEMPIJJA