Stella Nakakande
6 October 2008
Children can be seen running around, joy written all over their faces. In their hands are Daily Monitor newspapers. I am soon informed that the pupils of the Bright Day and Boarding School in Kawempe have just been handed each a copy of the paper, which comes with their favourite NiE.
They are spread all over the compound; under trees, on verandahs and in class, and from their facial expressions, one is safe to assume that they are critically reading the papers.
So how do they find Daily Monitor?
Karen Nassuna, 10, says: "I like the facts about countries like China recently," she says, "The paper has a bit of everything."
From the look, everything anyone can say that given that perhaps China was the last word they read before I landed them a question. Nassuna though went ahead to explain. She talked about the one child policy in China developed because of its large population. There were no further questions to ask, she was clear on what she had found.
Chance on the other hand could have had it that I got a bright pupil, hence a call to ask another one. Joan Luwagga, 11, liked something else about the paper. "I like the different ways to use the newspaper," she said. Quite an intellect, so what else did she like about the paper? "I like the stories. My best was about the Leopard and the Hare," she said, a smile lighting up her face, "the hare actually taught the leopard all about hospitality after being treated otherwise on a visit to the leopard's parents." The narration was more detailed and convincing enough; she must have enjoyed the story.
And the paper is definitely not for the girls alone. Isaac Sekatawa, 11, talked about his areas of interest. "NiE briefs us about sex and other matters, it tells us we should not have sex before we are 18 years old," he said, "it also helps us revise. Many times, the teacher gets questions from the paper and we do them as homework, more so there are interesting stories as well."
Ssekatawa speaks with such precision that his passion for reading is evident, a pride of his teachers. With pupils like him, teaching is worthwhile and true to this Mr Joseph Mugera has his own view about the paper. "We have sincerely liked the paper. It has improved the children's learning, they find out about current affairs, they enjoy the stories and articles which in turn teaches them the art of summary writing," he said.
From these insights, one can conclude that NiE is bringing a whole new perspective to learning. The sponsors on the programme have seen fruits, especially during the last three terms and they have expressed their satisfaction in as far as corporate social responsibility goes.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
