Pop star, nurse, and secondary school are the ambitions of three Masindi pupils as they enter the most crucial time of the school year: exams. Secondary school would be a dream come true for 10 year old Anifa and her illiterate mother, but only half of her class will qualify for the final year of primary. She failed last year, and head teacher Mr. Ntairaho has given her a last chance. Everybody in Uganda says that education is vital, but reaching secondary is just the start, and it can become a bit of gamble. 18 year old Esther is the highest achieving girl at Masindi Secondary and her farmer family have sacrificed everything to keep her in school. Now her only chance of becoming a nurse is to win a government scholarship to nursing college. She underperformed in her mock exams and sleeps only 3 hours a night to revise and prove that she can do well in her final pre-A Level exams. At the other extreme, 17 year old Patrick is less bothered about his school career than his pop career. He sneaks out of the school's music competition in Kampala to record his hip hop track about teachers. Within two weeks, he's performed live at a club, got onto the local radio, and aquired potentional funding for his next track from a promoter. Maybe, in Uganda, it is easier to become a pop star than a nurse after all.
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About African School:
This lively series from BBC FOUR captures the daily lives, concerns and personalities of young Africans and their teachers in the Ugandan town of Masindi.
African School features two of the town’s schools – Kamurasi Demonstration School (a primary school) led by the resourceful and positive Mr Byoona, and Masindi Secondary School (known as “Massesco”) under the leadership of Mrs. Mukasa (the second youngest female head in the country).
The programs are stories of celebration and challenge that will rekindle memories of school years: teenage romance, exam pressure, football tournaments, special needs teaching, prefect elections, religion and sex education.
But in Masindi, school life is played out against the challenging issues faced by Uganda. Local HIV rates run at 7% and the conflict in northern Uganda has forced people to flee into Masindi district.
Poverty is a part of daily life for many of the pupils, yet the appetite for life is undiminished. There is a thirst for school, where the chance of education and the opportunities it offers can transform one’s life (some children who cannot afford senior school fees even break in to get to classes).
Coupled with the extraordinary enthusiasm and openness of the pupils and teachers, the series gives an entertaining, refreshing and up-lifting insight into understanding what life is really like in Africa today.
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