Democracy by syllabus

Introducing more domocracy in schools will create more democratic citizens says education lobbyist in Uganda

"it is very difficult to make a bent tree grow straight. But if we can start groeing the young trees straight, there is hope"

When developing as a democratic society a key priority is getting all children to attend school. Children are the fuel of the future, but another equally important factor is what the children learn in school. This has been neglected, says Rita Popo, a teacher who works to include democracy teaching in the Ugandan school syllabus.
“It is not enough just learning to read and write and pass examinations. We need to put more emphasis on understanding democracy in the school system”, says Rita Popo. That is the conclusion she reached after participating in the MS project “Democracy by Bus”, where teachers from all over the world were brought to Denmark for one month to learn about democracy at work.

“Returning from Denmark I realised that democracy is so much more than just politics. It is a whole lifestyle determining how you relate to others and how you make decisions. But here many people, including politicians, only see democracy as definitions that they are unable to explain further,” says Rita  “That is why it is so important to make democracy teaching part of the syllabus. As we all know it is very difficult to make a bent tree grow straight. But if we can start growing the young trees straight, there is hope,” she continues.

Rita Popo's proposal for a new syllabus is a detailed guideline for every school term, carefully thought through to build the pupils self-esteem and make them independent. From when the pupils enter primary one till they leave secondary school, they are faced with ideas of democracy in practice.
Starting with looking at how relations work in their families, then in their class, in their community and towards the end in the country as a whole. And most importantly they learn to participate and act.

“It is very important to make the pupils realise the potential in what they are able to do by their own means. We teach them peacemaking and to ask questions and listen to others’ opinion. Starting with the family we discuss how small conflicts can be solved in a peaceful way.
And we ask questions like: “Why should the mother suffer from the burden of work, while the father is going out?” says Rita Popo. She is fully aware that this is a big challenge with class sizes up to 200 students each. “It is very important to make the pupils realize the potential in what they are able to do by their own means. We teach them peacemaking and to ask questions and listen to others opinion. Starting with the family we discuss how small conflicts can be solved in a peaceful way. And we ask questions like: “Why should the mother suffer from the burden of work, while the father is going out?” says Rita Popo. She is fully aware that this is a big challenge with class sizes up to 200 students each.

“Of course you don't always have time to listen to everybody in a class. But as a teacher it is important that you aim for it nevertheless. It is all about the attitude that you show, and when teaching democracy in schools it is important that teachers take the time to listen to children's viewpoints,” says Rita Popo.

Rita Popo, education lobbyist

In her fight to spread democracy teaching, Rita Popo has spent a lot of time lobbying political leaders both on national and local level. After gaining some support from the minister of education and targeting the teacher training schools, a national democracy syllabus finally seems within reach.
“It has been clear to me all along that if we do not break this through the institutions, it will not be easy to make this break through at all,” she says and identifies yet another target for lobbying which is the donors supporting the Ugandan school system. “51 percent of our school budget is supported by donors. There is no special emphasis on democracy teaching and the way the money is allocated leaves room for many loopholes. So if the donors started following more closely how their money is spent and made demands, it would certainly make a difference”.