St. Denis
St.
Denis Senior Secondary School is a privately funded school in
Makondo, Masaka District, Uganda. The school was
established in 1995 in order to serve the needs of this
subsistence farming community. St. Denis SS is located in
an extremely rural area in southeastern Uganda, not far from
what is considered to be the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In fact, the majority of students attending St. Denis have been
affected by HIV/AIDS. Not only have these families been
ravaged by HIV/AIDS, but they have also suffered the effects of
two wars and political instability. In the Makondo area, families average less than $20 a
month. St. Denis currently serves 250 secondary students of all
faiths from about 100 villages within a seven-mile radius.
St.
Denis is located in rural Masaka District. It is governed by a Board of Governors
comprising of parents and community members. The St. Denis staff is comprised of headmaster Charles Lutaaya,
numerous administrators, teachers, and support staff. The
teaching staff includes four university graduates, six secondary
education diploma holders, and three licensed teachers.
Compulsory subjects include Mathematics, English, Physics,
Chemistry, Biology, and Geography. Other subjects include
History, Agriculture, Political Education, Commerce, Fine Art,
Sports, Gardening, and Music, Dance, and Drama. St. Denis is
accredited by the MOES. It is a Uganda National
Examination Board Examination Center for Ordinary Level Exams
(British system of education.
Currently, St. Denis serves students from Senior 1 to
Senior 4. On average, 35 students graduate from St. Denis per
year. In the future, as its capacity and economic stability
improves, St. Denis hopes to open S5-S6 and serve a total of 500
students. The school has a laboratory, several classroom
blocks, a girls’ dormitory, teacher housing, a library, and
computer laboratory. Into Your Hands is currently building a
boys’
dormitory, and has plans to build a future vocational training workshop and a S5/S6 classroom
block. In order for St. Denis to become more self-sufficient,
it is necessary for St. Denis to explore other sources of income
and empower its families to find their own economic solutions.
St. Denis is looking for ways to diversify its funding through
earned income strategies, such as school-based enterprises, and
through strengthening the economic capacity of its families.
