Katine school pupils receive blog training - guardian.co.uk - 8 April 2010

It is hoped the computer training will improve young people's communication skills and their school performance.

Twenty young people in Katine sub-county were last month given basic training on how to blog.


Three primary schools and Katine secondary school were contacted and asked to identify pupils for training. Katine primary school sent 10 pupils and the secondary sent another 10.

It took quite an effort to convince the schools, and the pupils, to take up the idea, as they were not familiar with the internet, or with computers.

Of a population now close to 29,000, less than a quarter of Katine residents have any computer skills or have ever had the chance to use a computer.

As Richard Kavuma wrote in his blog on citizenship journalism earlier this week, it is more likely that government officers at the sub-county, health workers or young people visiting Soroti or studying in the town will have seen or used a computer before.

This explains why, over the last year since the media resource centre was set up to encourage more people from the community to engage with the Katine project and learn new skills, it has often been those not in school who have turned up at the centre. When people do come they usually want to read sports news, and possibly listen to music. Getting them to learn the skills usually takes more of an effort on my part.

Despite the formal training that the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) has organised for Katine residents to build their IT skills, the online chats between schools and the wider community and the contribution of some residents to debates on the Katine website, community participation is still low, even though the media centre was designed to support them in raising matters of concern in their daily lives.

Those who have visited the centre have often had their views recorded and transcribed by a journalist or have written them on a piece of paper that the journalist has typed up and uploaded on to the web, which means at least some local voices have been raised in regard to the Katine way of life.

It is hoped training on how to blog will increase young people's confidence to champion their cause and articulate the issues that are of concern to them.

Telling their story

The purpose of offering basic journalism skills to students and pupils in Katine stems from the rational that every individual has the capacity to tell a story ─ and would be the best person to tell it if given an opportunity to do so.

Language barriers do remain a challenge. Interestingly, the primary children have a better command of the English language than secondary students.

Since the blog training, young people from Katine secondary school have agreed to form a writing club where they can learn how to express themselves through the written word and to share ideas.

During the training it was apparent that most students have a problem communicating their views, which could affect their school performance.

I hope the training will, therefore, build on their ability to communicate and reason in class and lead to higher achievement. Whether they will actively contribute to the Katine Chronicles blog is another issue.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/katine-chronicles-blog/2010/apr/08/education-empowerment