English school gives Kampala’s visitors a reason to dream

It has been eight months since Abdullahi Abdikariin Hassan, 22 started to take an English class at Old Kampala Adult School.

He is completing “level one” the first of six levels beginners take as basic literacy. Hassan hopes to graduate in 2025.

“Once I finalize, I am able to speak freely and with confidence. This gives me an opportunity to take up any activity for money. Communication has always been my problem since I arrived in Kampala,” he says. 

He is part of a community of urban migrants who stroll into this school to learn English on top of other social skills to improve their competition in the job market.

According to migration experts, although Uganda has an open-door policy for migrants from across the continent, one of the chief obstacles they face in trying to build new lives in Uganda is the language barrier. 

Uganda currently hosts over 1.741 million refugees and asylum seekers 79% of refugees are women and children, with 55% under 18 years old who come from non-English speaking countries including but not limited to; Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea

Some of the estimated 150,600 asylum seekers that live in Kampala reportedly have limited English skills but not enough to hold jobs or move easily through Ugandan society.

According to Fatuma Nafuna, a Senior Administrator at Old Kampala Adult School says that many of these refugees have many problems upon arriving in Kampala and these are worsened by their inability to communicate with their hosts and especially as they seek means of livelihood.  

“When you get closer to them you feel their pain of being unable to communicate,” she says, emphasizing that need to enrol most to communicate effectively. 

The Kampala Adult School was established 15 years to enable Ugandans who had missed education to enrol for primary and secondary levels. When the refugee crisis struck, the school opened its gates to the asylum seekers. 

Upon enrolment at the school, a learner is set to undergo three levels where they are introduced to literacy and numeracy, communication, writing longer stories and public speaking. 

“We want to walk the journey hand in hand with our learners. We believe that in a space of two years, someone is able to walk out of here with the ability to communicate effectively,” says Henry Lucky, the Proprietor of the school

The journey has however not been an easy one. According to Nafune, the trainers in the institution face setbacks of dropout rates.

“The refugees are a floating group of people. They keep moving to different locations. Some start the course and don’t finish,” she says.

However, Hassan is confident he will finish the two years because learning how to communicate has made life better. 

As Uganda continues to strive meeting the targets of Quality Education Sustainable Development Goal four (SDG4) of an accessible, quality and inclusive education for all, the fruits of a yet to be formalized.