Old squeaky wooden desks in a dark room with tattered floors and broken windows are typical of the learning environment children experience in low-cost schools. Limited resources and perpetual teacher absenteeism stemming from little to no motivation is a song that the learners are accustomed to. The story was no different for Ivan Agaba; the founder of Imani Academies, who had himself gone through a low-cost school for his primary education. He and his classmates had all hoped to become individuals of influence in society but unfortunately, most of them have never seen the fulfillment of this dream. Agaba was born and raised in Kisubi, a small village 34 kilometers away from the capital city, Kampala. His mother had no choice but to take him to this substandard school as it was the very best that she could afford in their neighborhood. With his father away at the time pursuing further studies overseas, his mother who was a secondary school teacher at St Mary’s College Kisubi and the family’s only breadwinner at the time could only do so much for the young family. The irony of reality is that despite all these challenges, children from Low-income schools are expected to sit the same national exams and undergo the same grading system as their counterparts from more privileged backgrounds and thus experiences.
A few years later, Agaba’s life took a turn for better as he was able to enroll in the prestigious secondary school where his mother was a teacher. As part of the benefits, she was afforded a bursary that enabled her to only pay a fraction of the exorbitant fees. It was only then that Agaba was struck with the extreme disparity that existed between his primary and secondary education. Furthermore, he found himself struggling to keep up with his peers both intellectually and in matters of self-confidence. “My confidence was low and this really impacted on my ability to learn and find my place in this new community.”Fortunately, Agaba was able to eventually catch up with the rest, excel at his national exams, and make it to University. All this set him on a path of success and for many years he pursued a career in corporate business till he encountered another life-changing moment. While volunteering at a high school in Nansana. He interfaced with his past when he met students who, just like him, had experienced a poor foundation in primary school and were thus timid and unable to express themselves clearly. These were brilliant students, most of who had made it on merit. They reminded him so much of himself and he empathized with them.  He also noticed that the impact of a poor quality foundational education still manifested its ugly face years later when these young adults were faced with the daunting task of competing for the same job opportunities in the workforce with their peers who had enjoyed a more privileged educational background. It was this realization and sense of belonging that inspired Agaba to do whatever he could to change the narrative of children living in low-income communities by offering them high-quality low-cost education. This was the birth of Imani Academies. The pilot project first opened its doors in January 2017 in a densely populated area in Nansana, a suburb on the outskirts of Kampala. It mainly focused on addressing a host of issues such as: 

Despite the challenges it has encountered over the years, Imani Academies keeps growing and adapting to the communities that it serves. The school is impacting the lives of several children from low-income communities, shifting their narrative, and thus changing their destinies and propelling them towards a successful future.