Building a Humanist School 1: Running and Growing One
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2023/10/02
Payira Bonnie is the schoolmaster of a humanist school through Humanists in Northern Uganda, of which he is President. In this series, we will discuss constructing and running a humanist school. Here, we discuss making a humanist school and running one.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Hi, Payira! It has been a hot minute. I’ve been distracted by an independent project on the horse industry in Canada. Sincerely apologize! Let’s focus on building humanist schools, which will become an educational series in a casual interview format; this is your area of expertise. I find individuals who can build community maintain community, and are impressive. Same with building schools for African and Middle Eastern humanists, generally. It’s easier for someone like me, as I sit in a developed context and historical institutions in place. These individuals start from nothing, or worse than nothing, e.g., persecution and comparative financial deprivation. As Nsajigwa Nsa’sam, from Tanzania’s Jicho Jipya/Think Anew, said in one YouTube video, “This is our reality”. These are the next generations who will take our place, eventually. So, I focus on mentorship and helping younger people as much as possible. When did you first come to running and growing a humanist school?
Payira Bonnie: Indeed, Scott, it has been some minutes, and I am glad you are back and we are here continuing from where we left off. Humanist schooling or secular education in Uganda/Africa is something so foreign in the eyes of the community whose thought processes have been around a supernatural being or witchcraft for so many reasons.
I come from a family that is predominantly Christian. They hold the idea of god as the police of morals in high regard. We were not allowed to think outside god as the creator of all and Satan as the destroyer of that entire god created. The idea of god limited our minds from science and philosophy. One had to be highly different in Africa to start questioning god and the world around them.
In 2014, after the successful completion of the Empowering Venerable Girls (EVG), a project that gave so many young women who returned from the abduction of LRA rebels the opportunity to own businesses, learn life skills (hairdressing, catering, tailoring, baking) and start farming. Some girls returned with children and HIV/AIDS from their captivities.
With no other projects and finances, this allowed us as a Humanist organization to provide the children of these returnees what their parents missed (education) and what we missed (secular education). We cried out, and a few generous individuals across the globe offered financial assistance to build 3 classrooms, desks, tables and a computer to give birth to the first Humanist nursery school in Northern Uganda.
Building a community school with the opposite ideology of what communities know is challenging. Challenges come from the locals and leaders, but our philosophy of “Acquiring knowledge should not be paid for” makes our Humanist School the cheapest school in the region. Sometimes, the parents have no choice but to bring their children to our school. Still, they would not have brought their children to our school if they had any other option.
When we started this, we knew it was going to be a hill so steep to climb, but, at least, the climbing must start.
Jacobsen: What are the principal needs in building and running a humanist school?
Bonnie: Even with the community being hostile to a non-religious idea of education and yet needing better education before the classrooms and anything else, we needed the community on our side.
We then needed teachers who had the qualifications to teach but with secular or humanist ideologies. On the former, we were successful but failed miserably on the latter.
Because we are a humanist school, the demand from the community for us to have beautiful classrooms, beautiful washrooms, and top-of-the-class teaching staff, basically a beautiful school, is the highest. This puts us in a situation we cannot match because of the unavailable finances. To successfully build and run a Humanist School, one needs beautiful classes, washrooms, a playground, and a proper library.
Jacobsen: Many African humanists have a more challenging context than countries with more established humanist traditions. Particularly around religious encroachment from community and stigma, how do you overcome the stigma for pupils and create an accepting space despite the surrounding religious community?
Bonnie: Indeed, secular or humanist education is not something societies in Africa are willing to accept and embrace because of their strong belief in a god. Local religious and political leaders have always made unfounded accusations against the school and the organization wanting to traffic children. After the passing of the anti-homosexuality bill, the charge came in that we are promoting Homosexuality. Fortunately, their constant accusations have not diverted our attention to providing the community with a better education than the government and Christian-headed schools.
A retired reverend has also used this to open up a school near the Humanist school. We lost some learners and teaching staff because of the negativity, but we have some parents who trust our system.
Jacobsen: What are the primary schools’ curricula for a humanist education? How do you set standards and a structured educational progression in academic content?
Bonnie: We follow the Uganda national Education Curriculum for both nursery and primary education, but we are glad that Uganda Humanist School Trust, a charity organization that was founded to raise funds to help build Humanist schools in Uganda, has done more than raise funds but also build Humanist School Ethos that even Humanist Schools that are not under their funding like our school can use to promote the excellent practice of humanism to not only the learners but staff too.
We stick to the national curriculum but continue to push the practice of reason, compassion, accountability and tolerance to the learners and staff.
We also use the Ten Humanist Principles by Rodrique Tremblay that promote Dignity, Respect, Tolerance, Sharing, No domination, No superstition, Conservation, No war, Democracy and Education.
Jacobsen: What are the cases of successful, robust humanist schools in Africa?
Bonnie: We have seen the rise and success of some Humanist Schools like Kasese Humanist School. Mr. Bwambale Robert has done a fantastic job building a successful humanist school where the community trusts in giving their children a good education. He has managed to plant trees, build secondary schools, and provide a tertiary education to the community. All this has been possible because of his unique leadership and endless funding from Humanist organizations and generous individuals across the globe.
With generous funding to schools like ours across the Capital City, Humanist education in Uganda and Africa will register more success stories. Humanist organizations in Africa need to be supported to build good schools, hospitals, and universities to be noticed with actions and not just a movement of sharing ideas.
Jacobsen: What are the big lessons from them? Because exemplars are essential to making humanist schools more prominent in Africa.
Bonnie: Building a system with a team of like-minded people is critical to the success of Humanist Schools in Africa. Another lesson I pick every day from them is the power of social media to report to donors on the progress of our humanities schools.
Our school also needs to mobilize resources to grow structurally and administratively for our school to produce citizens with Humanist values.
Jacobsen: How far do various financial contributions go for Ugandan humanist schools?
Bonnie: There is much financial support from friends worldwide who support secular education in Uganda. Unfortunately, it is concentrated in two locations. Most support is focused on Central and Western Uganda, leaving Humanist Schools and organizations in the Northern and Eastern Parts of the country gasping for survival.
Jacobsen: What are the most important types of human donations for humanist school building, e.g., one-time grants, monthly contributions, or skills and time?
Bonnie: The type of donations depends entirely on the need at the time. For example, our school is looking for gifts to construct classrooms, a library, washrooms and a playground, which means the donation comes with the available need, making it a one-time grant.
If a humanities school has needs like paying for staff, that could be monthly. Our schools and organizations need skills and time every day to help them build sustainable systems.
The humanist schools also need projects, ideas, books, and in-kind donations.
Jacobsen: Payira, thank you for the opportunity and your time.
Bonnie: Thank you, Scott, for constantly engaging me, and it is nice to have you back.
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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
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