African School

Series about the activities and characters of Masindi Secondary School in Uganda

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  African School - Show me the Money

  Mrs Mukasa, the new headmistress at Masindi Secondary State School, finds herself in dire financial straits - three quarters of the students have failed to pay their school fees and the teachers have gone without full pay for three months. She is determined that all children should be forced to pay and instigates a tough new gate policy that is supposed to catch the defaulters. But her students are desperate to get into school. Eddie, an orphan, tries to scrape the school fees money together through odd jobs and support from his brother. Justice, a skilled dodger, crawls under the fence and tricks his teachers with a borrowed payment card to get into class.
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  African School - The Candidate

  Each year Masindi Secondary School runs prefect elections, but this year is going to be different. A change in the rules allows girls to run for head prefect for the first time ever. Susan, a remarkable and strong-willed girl, takes up the challenge and competes for a job that all the boys in the school think can only be done by one of them. Nelson fights against her. 21st century feminism takes centre stage and male pride, female emancipation and girl power are all at stake as Susan and Nelson take to the hustings to fight for the top spot.
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  African School - Football Fever

  The school's pride is at stake, as well as the reputation of its coaching staff and a golden opportunity to promote itself as a beacon of sport and learning. This is the fast moving story of of the school's progress in the highly competitive Coca Cola Cup - it's a chance to experience the dreams of players like Shem wanting to put their skills before talent scouts and support their families with dreamed-of riches. A pitch invasion and a full scale riot unfold as football fever grips the school.
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  African School - Sex Education

  This powerful film shows how early pregnancy forces 6,000 girls out of the school system in Uganda every year. When he took up the post of headmaster at Kamurasi Primary School, Mr Ntairaho introduced a system of surprise pregnancy testing, believing that it protects the girls from prostitution and 'defilement' and reduces the drop out rate. We follow Christine, a final year student who fears she is pregnant, as she is put in for the test.
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  African School - The Womaniser and the Evangelist

  16-year-old Dickson is a schoolboy womaniser in a puritanical country. He risks seven years imprisonment for having sex under the age of 18 and the evangelical Christians ram home the message that sex before marriage is bad. He has already seen his father and over 20 of his uncles, aunts and cousins die of 'that disease', as he calls it. This remarkable film gives insight into why God is so big in Africa. The local evangelical church, the Miracle Centre, promises Dickson spiritual salvation and possibly a cure from AIDS if he'll become born again. He is spurred on by the outspoken schoolgirl evangelist Prosse and a touching friendship emerges. It's a personal journey in which he confronts himself and God whilst facing the consequences of an HIV test.
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  African School - Running For Your Life

  Primary school head Mr Ntairaho is taking part in a survey of displaced children in the Masindi district. The area is full of people who have fled the gruesome fighting further north where the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) is taking on the Ugandan government and terrorising the local population. But ordinary life goes on too. This film is also the story of Opio, an orphan who came to Masindi after his parents were killed in the LRA fighting. Opio is a skilled athlete whose father ran at national level and Opio is striving to run in his footsteps.
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  African School - Boy Meets Girl

  Having a love life in a Ugandan school is not easy. Teenagers face being expelled if they admit to having a boyfriend or a girlfriend, teachers struggle to afford to get married and those that have managed to tie the knot can find themselves posted to schools at opposite ends of the county. But this revealing programme shows how love can flourish despite the challenges.
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  African School - Fred gets to Zed

  Fred is the first ever boarding student at Kamurasi Primary school, which is bidding to become the best special needs integrated school in the district. Fred is blind and spends his first term learning the Braille alphabet from A to Z with his friend Miungo.