Emilly C. Maractho (PhD)
Sometimes people who know that I am an educationist ask me what it would take to fix our seemingly broken education system. For the most part, I am clueless and barely manage intelligent responses to that question. Sometimes, I just say, like the American writer Alice Walker wrote, that ‘anything we love can be saved’. Education we should not just love, but know that the future of our communities and country, as well as the children also depends on the kind of education we give them.
Increasingly, through the work of one man, I am learning way more than I had imagined, about what kind of education we would need to keep our children safe and to secure their future. Most people know him as the late Father John Scalabrini, an Italian priest with a passion for a mission the size of which we cannot imagine.
He did many things and among those, set up the Bishop Cipriano Kihangire Senior Secondary School – popularly known as BCK in Luzira. There is a nursery and primary school too, and a hospital and several community projects.
On Saturday, October 5, BCK SSS celebrated 25 years of existence but certainly not the only years of Father Scalabrini’s mission in Uganda. Father John died on October 4, 2016.
I have been looking at the excellence in the school and realised that its foundation was laid in Father Scalabrini’s ability to collaborate, celebrate people, and connect with the right people, whether in Italy, the Ugandan government and its people.
I have been fortunate to associate with this work on different levels. Managing the Trust that looks after these entities has been a real joy and challenge too. The Trust contributes to expanding Father Scalabrini’s vision and deepening his passion for social enterprises affecting marginalised children. He set up the Trust to continue his mission.
For those of us who came into his work in recent years, sort of entering the bus late as it sometimes feels like, we are amazed that whatever Father Scalabrini created is still running, albeit with different levels of success. They have stayed standing even after his death. The schools faced a near-existential threat during Covid-19, but a team of great administrators and partners kept it going, to the point that it continues to improve its performance each year, competitive among the very good schools in the country.
We hope that the entities the Trust oversees will handhold one another to promote the faith and passion the founder demonstrated in educating and caring for young people, hoping that these young people would become important change-makers in Uganda. With partners in Italy and well-meaning alumni, the school and the rest of the work continues.
In the coming years, the trustees will be focusing on keeping the generous spirit of Father Scalabrini alive, institutionalising his work that started with the creation of the Trust, and ensuring the sustainability of the entities left behind by drawing on their synergies. Sometimes, it appears to be a difficult task, but not insurmountable.
The BCK SSS has demonstrated great potential. Yet, the total sum of the work of Father Scalabrini is masked by various possibilities and lessons for others. That is what we hope the trustees can harness to discover and develop what remains hidden potential because Father Scalabrini is no longer here to guide and lead.
Leading the Emmaus Foundation Trust has been of great honour and privilege. It has taught me many things that my two decades as an academic have not taught me. It has made it possible to return to learning what it means to transform, institutionalise and live up to other people’s expectations, and to imagine what they want while they are gone.
It is also here that I am learning quickly how much education and health remain core to our development agenda. It has suffered sometimes, and we need to return to the basics, if we should speak of equity and sustainability in our education system.
I know sometimes we are dealing with many things as a nation when it comes to our education. I have spent much of my adult life in education institutions, now understanding the full chain, because of my work with the BCK schools from nursery, primary to secondary, and over two decades in higher education. I feel like a student every single day, sometimes learning more than I bargained for.
Creating a community is one thing, keeping it connected is another. It takes daily hard work. It will take a lot to fix the brokenness in our social systems, but knowing we have broken parts is a good starting point, then willing to fix things and learning from those parts that remain glued together is what makes the difference. I am learning that what is broken can always be fixed, what is created with love, can be saved.
Ms Emilly Comfort Maractho (PhD) is an academic. [email protected]
