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We are a student-centred learning institution, with a well-trained and professional team of teachers, caregivers and instructors.
Our teaching is based on the Ugandan National Curriculum, using the syllabuses directed by the Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports.
There are 3 classes in the Uphill Junior School Kindergarten (aged 3-5 years): Top, Middle and Baby Class. Our Primary School section has 7 year groups – Primary 1 to 7.
The school is supervised and monitored by the Director, Headmaster, School Management Committee and Parents Committee. Trustees from The Uphill Trust visit the school each year and provide financial support for the development of the school.
My upbringing was a long struggle of life experience.
Grown and raised by a single mother, life was hard - living without regular food and attending poor schools. As a child of 9 years, I was going out with my mother to work for food and money to pay for our education and for simple basic needs.
We didn’t attend school regularly, as we couldn’t pay the school fees for all 3 of us children, so my 2 little brothers were forced to drop out of school in Primary 5 and 7, something that haunts us still.
I look back at how it took 4 years cutting firewood for St. Pauls Biharwe High school, in Mbarara, as the only way I could attain my secondary education.
I did all sorts of small work to get through Secondary School - cutting firewood, collecting water for teachers, cleaning the dusty classrooms every weekend, working in a stone quarry with my Uncle Kumuhangire, assisting classmates with coursework and receiving in return bread from the canteen - and not forgetting walking 18 km to school every day and coming home in the dark, hungry and tired.
I look back at school systems that discriminate against children and orphans with poor financial backgrounds, causing the majority to abandon their dreams. I look at how hundreds, thousands, a million rural Ugandan children still struggle to achieve an education, access food and live a better life.
I look at how majority of rural girls unwillingly drop out of school for marriage, so that parents can get the money to educate their siblings.
I look at how many rural communities have no graduate women to offset the gender inequality in the Ugandan employment world. I look at how many girls with good educational backgrounds are married young, and have their dreams cut short, when their parents or guardians can no longer afford their school fees.
As I struggled with my own educational journey, along the way I lost many of my friends and classmates who had started school with me in 1994 - most of them dropping out as they had no one to support their education.
As young graduate teacher I moved to Kasenda sub-county - a community with challenges beyond my own life experience.
One day I grabbed a pen and notebook and wrote down as many ideas that I could think of that might make a difference. At the top of the list was starting a school. I shared this idea with my neighbours and Uphill Junior School was born.
A small school on a hill by the roadside, with just 12 pupils in the first week and 60 by the end of 2011.
God looked down on the small school with its dusty-faced children and no desks, just mats on the ground, as one teacher and me stood tall.
I thank God, the parents who lifted my hopes, and The Uphill Trust - a small Scottish charity founded to to support the development of our little school - which has made my dream a reality.
From the bottom of my heart I deeply thank the Uphill Trustees, the Scottish people, British people and everyone around the world who has supported the long journey of building the best school ever. It hasn’t been a journey of roses, but a journey walked by wonderful people full of love and compassion.
God bless you abundantly.
Elius Muhimbise
Founder and Director of Uphill Junior School.
My upbringing was a long struggle of life experience.
Grown and raised by a single mother, life was hard - living without regular food and attending poor schools. As a child of 9 years, I was going out with my mother to work for food and money to pay for our education and for simple basic needs.
We didn’t attend school regularly, as we couldn’t pay the school fees for all 3 of us children, so my 2 little brothers were forced to drop out of school in Primary 5 and 7, something that haunts us still.
I look back at how it took 4 years cutting firewood for St.Pauls Biharwe High school, in Mbarara, as the only way I could attain my secondary education.
I did all sorts of small work to get through Secondary School - cutting firewood, collecting water for teachers, cleaning the dusty classrooms every weekend, working in a stone quarry with my Uncle Kumuhangire, assisting classmates with coursework and receiving in return bread from the canteen - and not forgetting walking 18 km to school every day and coming home in the dark, hungry and tired.
I look back at school systems that discriminate against children and orphans with poor financial backgrounds, causing the majority to abandon their dreams. I look at how hundreds, thousands, a million rural Ugandan children still struggle to achieve an education, access food and live a better life. I look at how the majority of rural girls unwillingly drop out of school for marriage, so that parents can get the money to educate their siblings. I look at how many rural communities have no graduate women to offset the gender inequality in the Ugandan employment world. I look at how many girls with good educational backgrounds are married young, and have their dreams cut short, when their parents or guardians can no longer afford their school fees.
As I struggled with my own educational journey, along the way I lost many of my friends and classmates who had started school with me in 1994 - most of them dropping out as they had no one to support their education.
As young graduate teacher I moved to Kasenda sub-county - a community with challenges beyond my own life experience.
One day I grabbed a pen and notebook and wrote down as many ideas that I could think of that might make a difference. At the top of the list was starting a school. I shared this idea with my neighbours and Uphill Junior School was born.
A small school on a hill by the roadside, with just 12 pupils in the first week and 60 by the end of 2011.
God looked down on the small school with its dusty-faced children and no desks, just mats on the ground, as one teacher and me stood tall.
I thank God, the parents who lifted my hopes, and The Uphill Trust - a small Scottish charity founded to to support the development of our little school - which has made my dream a reality.
From the bottom of my heart I deeply thank the Uphill Trustees, the Scottish people, British people and everyone around the world who has supported the long journey of building the best school ever. It hasn’t been a journey of roses, but a journey walked by wonderful people full of love and compassion.
God bless you abundantly.
Elius Muhimbise
Founder and Director of Uphill Junior School.
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