Berkley Center

Background: As part of the Education and Social Justice Project, in June 2012 undergraduate Shea Houlihan interviewed John Mary Kirangwa, a teacher and dean of students who has worked at OCER Campion Jesuit College since its formal founding in 2010. In this interview Kirangwa discusses the opportunities and challenges that the school has in providing education, the impact of violence on the school's students, and the role of education in bridging cultural divides and rebuilding communities.

Can you tell me about your journey to your present position, and how you were inspired to do the work that you do? How long have you been in northern Uganda?

I obtained my license to teach while studying in college, which qualifies you to teach young children. I went to Ugandan Martyrs University, graduating with 1-class, to teach secondary school children. I worked in Rwanda just for a year, and then Father Tony [Wach] called me. The students we started with were not enough to sustain a full secondary class. When they went to S1, we looked around for students who had already passed their exams. We help students who don’t pass their exams at other institutions.

Describe to me the state of education in this community, Gulu, from your point of view. What are the positive aspects? What are the challenges?

It is difficult to be objective when you are in the community being judged. But from what I’ve heard from people who should know, there are a few unique things about OCER. People always comment on the incredible view, especially because we are outside of town. There are not many private secondary schools, and most government schools are dilapidated with poor infrastructure and overworked teachers. 

1. The infrastructure—what is here already and what is planned—is amazing. We are doing our best with academics. We try our best to make our students competitive with students in the south and west. All the subjects are covered, and we have a library. When people come to our library, they ask, “Is this a university?” 
2. We have donors and fundraisers. 
3. We feed the students—that is one big aspect that could affect their education. We try to give them a balanced diet: fruit, vegetables, quality beans, but here they even have a breakfast of porridge with milk.
4. We offer counseling to students. It’s possible that the parents, if not the students, have been involved in the insurgency. It’s not all about exams—we want to make sure they have futures. 
5. When we ask for fees, we try to help as much as we can. A lot of students have sponsorships, some from the Kalongo district government. Other sponsorships come from a lot of different friends to the school. Of course we can’t have all the students from the north, but we do our best. Sometimes the help comes in the form of healthcare: recently we had nurses, who were visiting students from Kansas, give eye exams for students, and we tried to offer services for parents. We try to make them feel the school is for the community.
6. We also have a four-star parenting system. Each teacher is responsible for eight to 12 students. They are responsible for their welfare, their behavior, etc.
7. We have the religious side—we try to make prayer meaningful, we just don’t cram doctrine. We celebrate Mass as a community, teachers and Jesuits.

When it comes to the challenges…

1. Considering the resources of the school, we can’t have a full primary school cycle. That affects how much time we as teachers have to form the students, their behavior and counseling. Now we only have one year (P7 level) for primary school. That’s why we have so many exams—we are trying to prepare them and mold them. ​
2. Another challenge is the quality of previous education. The students have a poor educational background. When you assess them, they are not where they need to be. 
3. Even in terms of student behavior, we have a challenge because many have been allowed to roam wild. Under the insurgency, parents shifted focus from rearing children to merely surviving. The moral culture fell apart. In the IDP [internally displaced person] camps, life was free—you go where you want to go, say what you want to do, etc. Some students are not comfortable with rules, so we have counselors and a disciplinary committee.
4. Another challenge is the attitude of people towards the educational system. What matters is passing. They judge the school based on the number of first-graders, but according to our vision, that is not how students should be judged. How does he or she behave? How fair is his or her behavior? How does he or she conduct his or herself? But the question is always: how did they perform? That’s all that parents care about as well. We have that challenge of what people expect from schools and students.

I understand that many students, if not all students, at OCER have been directly or indirectly affected by two decades of violence. Does this affect your classroom teaching and, if so, how?

Hold on: it is important to remember that not all students are from the north, so not all have been affected by the violence. We try to have a diverse body of students, so we don’t just have people from northern Uganda. So that students have exposure to other cultures and to avoid stigmatization, we have students from everywhere.

Jesuits care very much about cura personalis. You care for the student, for who he or she is. A teacher has to be creative and sensitive. You have to care about what you say. Again, this is a mixed school. A teacher has to know how to handle girls and boys—how do I give feedback to each group? Girls are more sensitive, so you have to be aware of that. Boys don’t care as much. Thus, I have to moderate how I deal with different groups. Culturally, I have to know how to deal with certain students and topics. Mostly, being a teacher in this environment is all about communication.

Are you ever worried, for yourself and your students, about violence spilling over from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or South Sudan?

We depend a lot on the media. I think I am not so worried. You can’t really know what’s going on because the politicians will hide what is going on and the media may capitalize on different opportunities, but now, I feel there is peace. The IDPs have gone home to farm and work. When I go to Kampala, people are very worried about this place. But this is my third year here, and I pray peace continues to prevail. Troops have been sent out to capture [Joseph] Kony and others. I think the government is doing its best to invest in defense.

Broadly speaking, what do you think is the role of education in peacebuilding and reconstruction?

Like I told you, people have lost their culture. Education can play a role in resurrecting culture. People need values. If a student has come from a war zone where killing is rampant and the normal thing, then to them, life can end at any time. Education has to make students value life. Life is precious, and everyone has a right to it. That is a big, big challenge. People here think, “I can die anytime,” so when someone dies, there’s a casual attitude to it.

Education also has to go beyond the classroom, particularly when students go outside class to people who don’t have [an education]. Education has to include the community—ideally students find that what is outside is the same as what is in the classroom. Education has to work a lot on leadership. What affects society here is leaders. If leaders are corrupt, students will think corruption is the channel to wealth. If education shows students what is happening in society, then a good leader can point the way. With our motto, if we base all our instruction on loving and serving, going beyond academic excellence, education plays that role. Society can change.

How do you think education, or OCER specifically, can heal the divide between northern and southern Uganda?

I think there are many ways. One is to make the students feel that they do not belong to the north, that instead they belong to Uganda, Africa, and the whole world. Father Stephen [Msele] has started the Undugu Family Groups. There is no Somali word for brother or sister, but undugu means "familyhood." That is why this school started.

The colonials did a lot of divide and rule, this being a British sphere of influence, so that is ingrained in people’s attitudes. I think if we have a general language, like English, that can bring unity. Through cultural activities like drama and dance, to which each culture, north and south, can contribute, that is good. That difference in behavior does not mean one is better than the other.

At OCER, teachers can play a role too. We have teachers from different places, and the students see us sharing the same values and teaching the same courtesy. When you treat students equally, sit blacks next to brown, and make sure they share the same experiences, this is good. During free time, they talk; even eating habits—they all eat the same thing. The students go back home for holidays, and they take the message back to other students. People can’t believe they go to the north, but they say, “Nothing has happened to me; we eat and celebrate together. This or that group is not very different from us.”

Do you have a final comment, perhaps relating to something that I have not touched upon?

The school came at the right time when there were so many needy students. Being religiously based, we hope in the future, when our students have reached the level of being leaders for others, we hope they behave differently so they show justice and care for people and they fight corruption. From the religious perspective, we hope people will be the true Christians they ought to be. We hope a lot of other people will be attracted. We focus on the north now, but we hope that the students will take the message elsewhere. Instead of students always traveling from the north to the south for their education, we hope that students will travel from the west and south to the north. The north is not as poor and violent as we think it is. We want this change in attitude, so the north feels better and the south changes attitude. That is what we hope.