Kasiisi Primary School is supported by the Kasiisi Project, a not-for-profit organisation that has been working with schools near Kibale National Park since 1997. The school consists of 1400 students, with classes consisting of 80 to 90 students per teacher and is hailed as the “best public primary school in Uganda”. Kasiisi Primary School was a struggling establishment before the project got involved and helped it to construct new buildings, add roofs to existing buildings, and now, construct a dormitory, which will house up to 300 of the school’s 1400 pupils – hopefully in a years time. Originally when the school first opened the buildings were not strong and every time a heavy wind came the children would have to evacuate for fear the building would collapse.
The school is in the process of cataloging a school library that is stocked full of English language fiction, non-fiction, and classical books all provided by a multitude of Western donors. They hope to be able to lend out the books to the children soon so they can practice reading English which in turn will hopefully improve their test scores (the tests are also in English). In the library we were introduced to Mathew Koojo who was sponsored by the Kasiisi Project to go on to secondary school and teacher training college after his primary education at Kasiisi from P3 to P7 between 1996 to 2000 and now helps out at the school.
