Pupils bring money home

“While other parents of pupils in other schools say schools consume money, our pupils at certain times are able to go and withdraw money from their own bank accounts and take the money home.”Teacher Kawooya Benard

Yes, On Friday 18^th March 2022, I was fortunate to meet Teacher Kawooya Bernad of Mathematics Science Technology (MST) Junior School, together with a bus load of his pupils at the DFCU Bank Entebbe Branch banking hall. He and another teacher had chaperoned their MST pupils to do actual banking of the pupil’s hard-earned cash.

“MST, located in Kawuku, is a hands-on school. Whatever is taught theoretically, we make sure that our pupils go to the field and practice it. It is part of the school policy. Every child is supposed to have a bank account where he or she banks money. This is because we believe that a child needs to know what a banking system is. It is not a matter of having a bank account, but you need to know how you execute the activities on that bank account. So, we bring pupils to the bank so that they themselves fill in the necessary information in the deposit slips; queue up and then hand over the slips and cash to the cashiers.”

Teacher Kawooya Benard

Banking done and they board the bus to go back to school.

That is not all. According to Teacher Kawooya, at MST, they organise other sessions, like how to check bank balances; how to acquire a loan; and on everything that is related with banking. This, according to teacher Kawooya, is so that “a child is built from the primary levels up to the higher levels of life when he or she knows banking.” Apparently, even pupils from baby class are taught and with the guidance of their teachers are helped to do their banking themselves.

You might be wondering how the pupils actually make the money that they bank. Well, Teacher Kawooya educated me that at MST they have a farm – piggery, cattle, aquarium and growing of assorted species of crops. And that each child has their allocated portion of the farm where he or she practices farming. The yields from the farm are sold and a portion of the income that is generated from the farm belongs to the pupils.

Whereas, MST puts emphasis on teaching mathematics, science, and technology, they offer the full Uganda National Examinations Board Curriculum as well. Very impressive indeed. And so, this is an invitation to you all my readers and followers, support and advocated for innovative schools, such as MST, to become the norm – learners learning through practice. Thank you!