Trinity Integrated Academy: An overview

Carla — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:47:00 GMT

In response to a need for skilled labour in the area, the secondary vocational school was set up in 2007 to provide a grounding for students in agriculture, tailoring, electrical instalation, computiung and child care, among other professions.
At present the school caters for 91 orphans* and other students who say their needs are not met by the Universal Secondary Education (USE) programme in the area, claiming over-crowding, inadequate classrooms and teacher absenteeism as reasons for dropping out. In addition, learning in English has proved to be a barrior for some students, while at Trinity, instructions are given in both English and the local language of Masaba.
Students are keen to use of their skills to make the school self-sufficient, and plan to grow their own food, build their own classrooms from home-made bricks and construct desks and benches, selling additional pieces of furniture to provide funds for textbooks.
Director Mr Gilbert plans to be farming a five-acre piece of land by 2011, have built two dormitaries for the orphans and be supporting 300 students by 2012, and to be a fully-fledged institute by 2015.
In the meantime, he has to find salaries for nine teachers and support staff and an annual rent of 3.5 million Ugandan shillings, the equivalent of £1,150.
Despite these financial pressures, he is hopeful that the aspiration of the academy will become a reality.

*At the time of visit in August 2009