How high cost of education is leaving refugees illiterate

Thousands of families in northern Uganda’s Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement camp in Bweyale are struggling to access education due to high costs. 

They say government-aided primary schools are charging Shs25,000 and Shs10,000 for uniforms and Parents Teachers Association (PTA) respectively.

There are about seven government-aided primary schools in the camp, which is home to more than 100,000 refugees from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, DR Congo, Burundi, and South Sudan. 

“Last term, I paid Shs9,000 for the exams of my two sisters’ daughters and additional Shs10,000 for report cards, but the children who are all in Primary One were not given the report cards,” says Ms Mona Omer Mohammed, the camp secretary for education. 

Her neighbor, Mr Mohammed Abubakar’s seven children were on September 16 sent back home after they reported to a nearby primary school without uniforms. 

“We don’t have uniforms and whenever we go to school, teachers chase us away. If you don’t have a uniform, they ask you to pay Shs5,000 to attend lessons that day,” a 14-year-old P5 Sudanese girl says.

Another 17-year-old P5 pupil says they are made to contribute Shs10,000 to make the school a better place.

“And if you don’t pay the money, no report card. My parents are not doing anything and we survive mainly on Shs14,000 that we get for monthly ration. So, where do they want us to get the money from?” he says.

In April 2023, fighting between rival armed factions broke out in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, displacing thousands of people.

Kiryandongo camp is a government of Uganda’s designated facility for receiving, registering and resettling only refugees from Sudan.

Currently, it receives on average more than 1,000 new arrivals weekly, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). 

Mr Leo Okettayot, the senior project manager for EU Humanitarian Aid (ECHO)-funded project, said Uganda’s education policy does forbid pupils or students to access education because if they lack uniforms.

“At the settlement here, we don’t encourage anyone to block a child from accessing education because education is a right. So, if that happened, probably someone has not reported it but we are sensitising the community to know that education is a right for every child,” he said in an interview at the weekend.

Mr Wilson Mungere, the headteacher of Canrom Primary School, said the responsibility of the parents include, among others, sending children to school, providing them uniform and basic scholastic materials: books and pens. 

This school, which was established in the 90s, has a total enrollment of 3,294 (1,446 girls and 1,848 boys), with the biggest number being the South Sudanese. It has 60 teachers.

“We have the school feeding programme at school and we encourage the parents to provide food in kind for the learners to have midday meals or they pack food for them. Well, it has not been very possible because these parents face major challenges,” Mr Mungere said.

He added: “Parents contribute money to pay the cooks and security guards. They are paying Shs5,000 for the whole term.”

Mr Paul Rubangakene, the education project officer for Windle International Uganda, said they have done everything possible to ensure children have access to education.

“We conduct a back to school campaign where we sensitise and create awareness to all the parents. We give them books, pencils, pens, mathematical sets, rubbers and sharpeners depending on the level,” he said.

Mr Rubangakene said the UN Refugee Agency and other partners do not encourage schools to block learners from accessing education.

He added that language barrier, unmatching Sudan-Uganda curricula, and general limitation in access to scholastic materials are some of the key challenges affecting the delivery of quality education in the refugee settlement.

Statistics

Data from UNHCR shows that 26,128 children (18,028 refugees and 8,100 nationals) have enrolled in primary school. At least 3,954 children (3,084 refugees and 870 nationals) are in Early Childhood Education, 2,506 students (1,577 refugees and 929 nationals) have enrolled in secondary.

In primary, there are 371 teachers against the required 493 teachers, with teacher pupil ratio standing at 1:70 against the country’s standard of 1:53. This means there is a gap of 122 teachers.

There are 296 classrooms. Classroom pupil ratio is 1:88 against the standard of 1:53. Additional 197 classrooms are needed to fill the gap.

Statistics also show that there are 5,093 desks, with five children sharing one desk. At least 8,709 desks are required to make learners sit comfortably in classes and additional 3,617 desks are needed to fill the gap.

A total of 278 teachers have no accommodation as only 93 are lucky to be accommodated within the school premises.

In secondary school, for-instance, the teacher student ratio stands at 1:32; classroom student ratio 1:109.

Mr Charles Aporu, the education project officer for Finn Church Aid, said: “As we speak right now, we have registered a total of 615 learners who are willing to join primary, 307 for secondary and there are 806 who are seeking for jobs or further studies.”

Mr Bruno Rotival, the European Union Humanitarian Aid Uganda Head, said they will provide unconditional cash assistance to the most vulnerable refugees.

“As part of this unconditional cash assistance, we provide assistance for daily costs as well as for education costs,” he said.

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