You've probably bought all the things on the requirement list, your child has packed their suitcase and you've checked over and over again to make sure they do not forget anything.
Just before you start that car engine...think twice, maybe thrice or as long as it takes to think about that decision.
Before you drive off miles away with your child, only to return without them, give it a second thought.
Are they in safe hands?
Is the school a conducive environment for holistic growth?
Is boarding school the right place for them during their formative ages?
After you’ve thought again, is it worth it?
Let me tell you a story...
My friend, let me call them Pye, joined boarding school at the age of 6 in a school that is about 130kms away from Kampala.
Curious to know why, I was told that this school had produced the best students in the country for decades. That is also why all the siblings had gone through the same school, and my friend was no exception.
Today, while writing this post, I checked the newspapers for the recently released PLE results of 2023 and this school was no where on the top performing schools in the country. Not even the top 50. Nevertheless, I was still curious to find out why it was called the "best" back then.
During our conversation, I found out that when one got to P6 & P7, they only returned home for the Christmas holiday.
This meant that they reported to school in January and studied throughout the year until November for the candidates and December for the semi-candidates.
Insane, right?
There were designated visitation days and times throughout the term and outside them, a walk in parent was not allowed to see their child.
So let me get this right, parents get their hard earned money, pay a school for their child to get the "best" education and they are not allowed to see them whenever they want?
Let me break it down for you...
On average, a Ugandan child in primary school attends three terms in the year. A school term that usually lasts 90 days.
That is 270 out of 365 days every year. That is averagely 1,890 days for 7 years, if your child joins boarding school in P1.
That is 665 days for the holidays in 7 years. Which is equivalent to less than 2 years in all their 7 years of primary school.
In 7 years, an average parent gets to spend less than 2 years with their child. A child that is going through their formative ages.
And that is with the assumption that parents create time for their children in those 665 days 🙊 Because we know those days become less and vary from one household to another.
Sad! And yet that is the reality.
They will get the good grades, but at what cost?
At what age, if ever, is it appropriate for a parent to take their child to a primary boarding school?
We all know the story about certain schools nurturing children in a certain way.
We know about the schools that will by all means force the good grades out of your child.
They will train them to wake up before the cock crows and how to clean after themselves.
They will polish their shoes brand new like they are not returning to the dust and lay their beds with hospital corners.
They will be yes men without no in their vocabulary while covering it up for respect.
Chimamanda A. Ngozi gives a widely watched Tedtalk entitled, "The danger of a single story."
One that I like to watch every time I start to fret at my purpose of passionately talking about boarding schools.
As Chimamanda narrates her experience reading white people stories as a child, she says,
"How impressionable and vulnerable we are, in view of a story, especially as children..."
All this to say that the stories we are told, easily form most of our perspectives towards life and major decisions.
It's not always snow, rosy and happily ever after.
There are stories we are not told and those should be the ones we are interested in and are keen to give a listening ear.
We know about it but we don't want to see it, hear about it or even speak up about it.
#SayNoToPrimaryBoardingSchool and let your children be raised in healthy environments.
That is a choice you can make.
