4. THE SCHOOLS AND THE STUDENTS
The two schools in which the English Block course was used differed considerably. Kololo Senior Secondary school in Kampala Uganda had been in racially segregated pre-independence days an Asian secondary school. With the coming of non-racialism there was now a large African intake (and a few Europeans too) but with the staff and administration still largely Asian. It had a six stream intake which made it one of the largest schools in Uganda, perhaps the largest in a country where rural secondary schools tended to be much smaller - three to four stream intakes being much commoner. Unlike the rural schools it was day school.

The Asian students included some who could be considered as middle class - the children of traders, professionals and civil servants - and who used some English at home. Almost all the African students came either from rural backgrounds (lodging in the town with relatives) or were second generation urban dwellers. Most of them did not use English at home.
Kakamega
The students at Kakamega were almost all of African origin (in the whole school there were three Asians, sons of local traders). Most of them were Luhya-speakers from the Western Province of Kenya. Some were Luo-speakers from the neighbouring province of Nyanza.

Selection In both schools but especially Kakamega the students taken in were highly selected. If IQ tests had been done, they would probably have turned out to have a range similar to the upper streams of a British Grammar school. They had been selected for secondary school from the results of the Primary leaving examination (which had in one of its titles in Kenya been known as the Common Entrance Examination before being renamed as the Kenya Primary Examination). Only a small proportion of Primary Leavers could go on to secondary school. This means that those who did get into secondary school were highly motivated by knowing about the large numbers who did not get in. This selective composition of the student body may have a bearing on the results obtained in that a more comprehensive intake, as would be the case today, might have contained students who would not have done as well because as schools become less rare and more compulsory there are more people in them who don't like them.

The Kakamega students had also been further selected by a selection interview conducted by the headmaster and teachers.

Almost all the Kakamega students belonged to the first generation of their families to go to secondary school. A small number of them were quite old - possibly in the early to middle twenties - people who had missed the chance of secondary education until independence had increased the number of schools and places. Secondary education was at its beginning in their area. Almost all of them had difficulty in raising the fees which were paid by families in the hope that the students would be able to get paid employment which would repay the fees. At the time this was a very rational economic decision, as in the immediate post-independence period there were large numbers of jobs which could be filled by people with O-level passes. The last year all school leavers with O-levels got jobs was probably 1967.

These conditions produce great pressure on students to succeed. The knowledge of the family investment and the difficulty of entry to secondary education made for a hard-working student body. There is little doubt that this situation made the English Block easier to operate than it would be nowadays in a school with a more reluctant or less selective membership. But changing conditions should always require changing responses.