The story behind “Out of Sight” book
For the longest time, I have struggled to tell the Out of Sight story without getting ridiculed. And for that reason, it has taken me a while to curate a write up defending my stand and views on this primary boarding school issue.
You see the thing about dismissing a subject as slippery as this is, “A nation is always a reflection of its education system.” As much as I have tried to tread cautiously every time I am asked about my opinion on boarding schools, the truth is, some things cannot be kept off the record — facts exist because they need to be stated.
About 3 years ago, I decided to tell my personal account of my experience in a Ugandan primary boarding school…ah! One of the hardest stories I’ve had to tell because of the intensity of the emotions that came along with recalling all those memories from over 15 years or so ago.
As you can already tell, my heart is burdened for our country, our education system and the little children subjected to this boarding school routine that is breaking them. I barely have words, but allow me borrow words from an article by a friend — Reagan Turakira titled, “Boarding school does more harm than good to children”
As the breadwinners and decision makers in the lives of children, parents/guardians have reasons why they send their children to boarding school.
The purpose of this piece is not to downplay any of those reasons but rather an attempt to bring to light the lifetime negative impact that boarding school life has on children.
If, as a child, you were sent to boarding school, I know you have your own traumatising experiences from there. However, let me share a personal one I will never forget before telling you Byamugisha Lindzy’s.
In senior three, I had a classmate who was really talented in drawing (I will call him Mugere). In putting his artistic gift to use, Mugere drew pornographic comic books which he rented out at UGX 200 per read/view. Was it right for a child like Mugere to be drawing and renting out pornographic comic books to fellow children? Of course not.
At the tender age of eight, Lindzy Byamugisha was separated from her family and ferried to a boarding school. Now an adult, Byamugisha, in her book, Out of Sight, offers a glimpse into the abuse and horrors she experienced while in boarding school and the devastating effect they have had on her life.
From being asked to sleep on the grass while it rained on her to being introduced to labia elongation by the dormitory matron, the abuses Lindzy endured should not be endured by any child.
Since I completed reading her book early this year, I haven’t stopped thinking about Uganda’s education system and wondering why we (as a society) continue to embrace a system that does more harm than good to our children.
Childhood is like a building’s foundation — anything added [to it] becomes part of the building for its lifetime. It’s a stage of life where everything a child sees, hears, does, tastes, and feels, becomes part of their life, for life.
The lifetime implications of one’s childhood should make us all exercise great caution when deciding what and what not to expose [our] children to.
To appreciate how boarding schools view children, we need, first, to remember that the most important parameter those schools track is their cash flow with a goal to minimise expenses and maximise profit. And, in case you did not know, taking care of or nurturing any child is an expense for any boarding school.
Secondly, studies show that it takes 59 to 70 days for a new habit to become part of a person’s character. Each school term in Uganda lasts an average of 84 days.
This means that if a child is introduced to a vice while in boarding school such as reading Mugere’s pornographic comics, the duration of a school term is ample time for that vice to become a lifetime habit/addiction.
On the other hand, if a child attends a day school from 08:00 to 17:00 each day, the cumulative time they spend at school comes to only 23 days each term which is only 27% of the total time a boarding school child spends at school.
The rest of the time that children in day schools spend away from school–which adds up to 61 days each term (which is 73% of the total time a boarding school child spends at school) — provides ample time for parents/caretakers (who genuinely care about the child) to observe any picked-up vices and [emotional or psychological] wounds created and correct them before they take root.
To become loving adults, children need to grow up around loving adults who do not see them as an expense. Children need to be trained and instructed in the way of the LORD by their parents for effective spiritual nurturing.
For children to love and bond with their siblings, they need to grow up with them. Children need to practise their culture and traditions if they are to be proud of them and also p ass them onto their offspring.
Children need to grow up seeing how adults relate as couples and in a home if they are to build strong families.
Children need to feed well if they are to have healthy bodies.
Children need to interface with the problems in their community regularly if they are to innovate solutions for them. Etc.
Formal education is not the only form of instruction and training that children need. As a matter of fact, a child can grow up and become productive without formal education but if they miss the informal training and nurturing from their family and the community, those chances are significantly reduced.
There is so much more to a fulfilling life beyond academic excellence.
Parents and caretakers should not be accomplices in the destruction of the futures of their children simply because they want to bask in the limelight of their academic excellence which lasts only for a moment. It’s not worth it.
Today being the first official school day for term 3, as a parent, guardian, caretaker or even relative, you might want to reconsider your school choices…get it from a child, now adult that has been there and tells these stories from the silent majority.
Here I am, almost 2 years after publishing this memoir, trying to explain the adverse effects of joining boarding school during a child’s formative ages. Trying to convince a multitude of decision makers that boarding school is really not the solution to whatever problem we think we are trying to solve or whatever expense we are trying to reduce…at least not at the cost of someone’s childhood.
Just like Out of Sight, every story deserves to be told.
