Govt commissions seed school in Buliisa
The newly-commissioned Ngwedo Seed School in Buliisa District. It has an enrolment of 220 students. PHOTO | ANDREW MUGATI
What you need to know:
- The Minister for Education, Ms Janet Museveni, who was represented by the Minister of State for Bunyoro Affair, Ms Jenifer Namuyangu, at the commissioning decried child marriages.
The Ministry of Education has commissioned a Shs2.5 billion seed school in Buliisa District even as the institution’s student enrollment dropped by end of first term.
The head teacher of Ngwedo Seed School, Mr Samuel Muponda, said at the beginning of first term in January, the school had a total of 380 learners, but by the end, only 220 students were present.
Many school dropouts have been married off, while others are casual labourers.
“Students prefer making quick money and look at education as waste of time,” Mr Muponda told Daily Monitor at the commissioning last week.
Mr Muponda is, however, optimistic that the newly equipped science and computer laboratories will be able to attract more learners.
The Minister for Education, Ms Janet Museveni, who was represented by the Minister of State for Bunyoro Affair, Ms Jenifer Namuyangu, at the commissioning decried child marriages.
“We have the new facility here, let parents bring their children, why do we marry young girls off? Many girls are getting pregnant and worse still, they [some are] impregnated by their biological fathers,” Ms Museveni said.
She asked district leaders to start a campaign to ensure that every child of school-going age returns to class.
“Do a campaign to ensure that we don’t leave anybody left behind as long as they are of school-going age so that we support the young generation,” Ms Museveni said.
The district chairperson, Mr Fred Lukumu, promised to embark on the campaign next term .
“The work of looking for students has been left to us. We now want parents to bring their children to school, and as leaders, we have the capacity to mobilise parents so that enrollment in this school goes high,” he said.
The chairperson of Ngwedo Sub-county, Mr Oringi Kennedy, attributed the problem to high levels of illiteracy among parents .
“Many parents in this sub-county are not educated, they don’t value education and they don’t look at education as a best investment. The discovery of oil in this region has also taken our students to work as casual labourers in the industrial areas,” he said.
About the school
The newly-commissioned seed school has a fully-equipped science laboratory, computer lab, library, new three classroom blocks, three staff houses, administration block, multipurpose hall, and pit-latrines.
Many students in the area previously used to walk more than 20 kilometres to study in Bugungu Secondary School in Kigwera Sub-county. The school was constructed with funding from Uganda Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer programme.
