Because of the educational rules set by Ugandan government (and I believe many other African governments), the children learn by rote. They learn things so specifically, they can talk for hours without actually knowing what they're saying, they simply make the sounds they have heard in one long never ending sentence. Everything has to be answered by the textbook. Spelling mistakes aren't allowed. For example, answering "What are the names of Adam's son's?" with "Cain and Able" is wrong, but it will simply gain a red cross rather than the correct spelling of "Abel". If you answer "The pen is under the table" and the textboook answer is "The pen is on the table", that is wrong, which means the children will then adamantly tell us native English speakers that you can't say "under the table". When they learn the answers off by heart, it makes it difficult to tell how good their skills actually are. No.1 will be answered to perfection, but a slight variation asked by me will be greeted with blank faces. The result of these rules means that anyone with a textbook can teach, and children are encouraged not to question anything. Understanding is not the aim, learning the correct sentence is.

The children are incredibly well behaved, but are lost when they have to think beyond what they have been taught. If they don't understand, they just say yes. They are taught purely to pass exams, because if they fail, they don't move up a class. It seems that even in Africa, we can't be taught simply for the gift of knowledge.

But, despite educational flaws, children are children. The P5s swagger with an air of cool indifference, the little ones laugh with delight at clown faces and mzungus being silly, and all of them dance and sing almost as an unintentional force of African nature. Their smiles light up my day, their giggles warm my insides and the feel of a little hand gently slip into mine, as a skipping child appears beside me, is simply impossible to resist. These children are little bundles of gold.