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BY RICHARD DRASIMAKU
ARUA: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2025
A school that was born out of the redundancy created by the Covid19 pandemic has generated a sense of pride and excitement in Ajono-Yivu, village in Arua district.
On Thursday, community members gathered to celebrate the graduation of the nursery school children of Seeds of Grace to mark their entry into the primary level education.
Cheers beamed from across the gathering as one troop of the children churned out new crop of entertainment after another. From creative dance, to catwalks, poems and riddles, they set the Paflox Guest house alight.
In return, the children were showered with gifts by parents, relative, and family friends.
They received encouragemt and words of wisdom from Charity Lenia, a candidate for the Vurra Constituency parliamentary seat who is the flagbearer of the National Resistance Movement.
She said she also started like these children and is now able to contest for leadership because of education and pledged that ensuring improvement of the education standards in Vurra will be one of her priorities should she succesifully navigate the campaigns and win the contest next year.
Lenia advised the parents to ensure that the children are supported in their education upto the Unersity or higher levels so that they become professionals and leaders to steward their society in the future.
It was a remarkable day for the locals and more so for Emmily Ayikoru, the school proprietor whose humble demeanor reflects the delicate journey that Seeds of Grace has walked since its founding.
The school started as a home learning center in 2022 as communities emerged out of the ravages of the Covid 19 lock-down.
With schools closed and teachers sent on leave in one of the longest lock-downs imposed by a government in the world, teachers of private schools were severely affected as such schools do not pay teachers during holidays.
Ayikoru, a nursery school teacher, was redundant at home that she began asking parents to surrender their children to her to teach in the sitting room of her house.
She got twelve children whom she taught and cared for and when the lockdown was lifted, Ayikoru asked the parents to allow her continue to teach those children.
Six of the parents accepted but the other six took their children to other schools that were established before the pandemic.
However as the six left her home, three more children were brought to join the remaining six and together, the nine formed the pioneers of the nursery school, thus the Seeds of Grace was born.
Currently, the school employing six teaching and non-teaching staff enrolls children from Baby Class to P.2 and starting next year, P.3 will be added.
A new premises has been acquired but Ayikoru said that will be entirely a parallel school as she intends to keep the current facility at her home operational to complete the history that is underway.
“To reach such as milestone required resilience, tolerance and goodwill. I appeal to all teachers to use difficult circumstances as a learning experience,” Ayikoru advised.
