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Schools raise alarm over costs for new curriculum materials
Struggling.
Senior One students attend a lesson at Crested High School, Mukoko in Kalungu District on February 18. Schools have raised the red flag over high costs. PHOTO BY MUZAFARU NSUBUGA
What you need to know:
Challenge. Teachers say unplanned expenses might have an impact on their already strained budgets and hinder effective implementation of the curriculum.
School authorities in Luweero and Buikwe districts have raised the red flag over the high costs incurred in downloading instructional materials from the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) website.
The schools that have not yet accessed textbooks for the revised lower secondary curriculum were advised to download them from the NCDC website.
The teachers said the expenses might have an impact on their already strained budgets and hinder effective implementation of the new curriculum.
Mr Julius Namansa, the head teacher of Katikamu SDA Secondary School in Luweero District, said the delay by government to dispatch instructional materials to schools is hindering implementation of the curriculum.
“We have to download instructional materials from NCDC portal to ensure that teachers have the right learning materials to teach Senior One students. We have to foot the expenses since the children we are teaching are Ugandans who need to get the right knowledge, just like the children who are in government schools,” Mr Namansa told Daily Monitor in an interview on Tuesday.
“We have been waiting as promised by government to have some instructional materials delivered for effective teaching of our children but we are yet to get the textbooks. We pray that our concerns are addressed,” the head teacher told Luweero District Resident Commissioner, Ms Phoebe Namulindwa.
Earlier, Ms Namulindwa had indicated that the new lower secondary curriculum is part of government efforts to address the missing link within the education sector.
“The concern the head teacher has raised is genuine because our children must learn at the same pace with all the other children at the different schools. I believe that government is working on this matter...” she added.
Mr Leonard Ssali, the head teacher of St Noa Mawaggali SS, Buikwe, said they are spending a lot on buying manila papers and markers daily.
“Each subject requires a minimum of 10 manila papers and markers and we had not budgeted for that as a school,” he said
The MM College, Wairaka head teacher, Ms Hilda Namutosi, said the school incurs in downloading, printing and photocopying learning materials. “We are yet to compute and know how much money we are spending, but it is a lot of money,” she said.
Ms Namutosi said they are not sure when government will dispatch curriculum books to schools.
“Students have been at school for more than a month now and we could not leave them idle, we had to keep them busy as we wait..,” she added.
Mr Mathias Mutabaazi, the head teacher of Glory High School in Luweero Town Council, said: “We pray that the private schools are brought on board as government considers boosting the education sector through the revised curriculum.”
Government implemented the new curriculum last month despite resistance from a section of parliamentarians and other stakeholders.
Last month, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education, Mr Alex Kakooza, appealed to schools that were yet to access materials to improvise by uploading from the official NCDC portal as distribution arrangements for more material is done.
“It is true that not all schools were covered but we promise to deliver the material. The final textbooks would be ready by July 2020,” Mr Kakooza said last month.
Ms Grace Baguma, the NCDC executive director, revealed recently that they had prepared to distribute materials to about 4,000 secondary schools across the country only to discover that there were more than 4,000 others.
