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How school in Mukono village started
Forensic police officers are seen in front of a burnt dormitory at Salama school for the blind in Luga, Uganda, on October 25, 2022. Eleven people, mostly children, have perished in a blaze that tore through a dormitory at a school for the blind in Uganda in the early hours of Tuesday as pupils were sleeping. PHOTO/ISAAC KASAMANI
What you need to know:
- The government gives the school Shs600,000 as capitation grant every year – money that both local government and school officials said is too little.
Salama School for the Blind, which sits on a 35-acre piece of land, was started in 1999 in Luga Village, Ntanzi Parish, Mukono District. It was a private school catering for children with special needs. It started with only 45 pupils.
Then came the 2001 General Election in which the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), pledged in its manifesto to take it over and turn it into a government school.
“The school has featured in three NRM manifestos since 2001,” Mr Francis Munubbi, the head teacher, said yesterday.
The government took it over and promised to build classrooms, teachers’ houses and meet the standards of the Ministry of Education and Sports.
Mr Munubbi said between 2003 and 2006, the government built classrooms at the school.
After the Monday night fire that killed 11 pupils, attention yesterday shifted to the status – and safety standards – of the school’s boarding section.
Mr James Nkata, the Mukono chief administrative officer, said Salama is registered as a day school. He said the boarding section was established illegally.
Mr Munubbi disagreed. He said the school was commissioned as a day and boarding facility but the government didn’t fulfil all its pledges.
“The school was meant to accommodate blind children from Buganda region,” he said on Tuesday. “It is quite difficult to have a school for the blind that operates only during daytime because it is impossible to find more than 10 blind students in one village.”
Mukono school fire:Pretty Parwoth, 13, died while saving others
After the government-built classrooms, school officials said funds from well-wishers paid for dormitories and toilets. The dormitory burnt on Monday night was built using money from Christian missionaries in the United States, officials said.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the boarding section was inspected and certified, as is required by Education ministry policies and guidelines revised after a spate of school fires over the past two decades.
Eight of the school’s 10 teachers are on the government payroll; the other two are paid from funds generated by the school.
They teach 75 pupils at the school. The school has one unarmed guard to secure the 35 unfenced acres of the school, which is sandwiched between a forest and plantations.
The government gives the school Shs600,000 as capitation grant every year – money that both local government and school officials said is too little.
Mr Munubbi said he wrote several letters to government officials, including the Prime Minister, for more funding, but received no response.
He said: “In May, we ran out food to feed these children. I wrote to the Office of the Prime Minister. They didn’t respond. I have struggled to get food. I went there and I was bounced. I wrote again in September; I didn’t get any response.”
ALSO READ: How school in Mukono village started
He said many of the parents can’t afford school fees. As a result, the school has not been able to fence at least the five acres on which the buildings are.
Mr Nkata said they would use next financial year’s capitation grant to support the school.
List of the dead
Patricia Nakayima,
Shamillah Kalamu, P.5
Patricia Mudondo P.5
Gladys Namugga P.5
Rebecca Namulondo P.1
Josyline Josephine Namuwonge
Peace Nalumiisa
Agnes Nantume
Pretty Parwoth
Veronica Nassali P.1
Ketty Nagutu P.1
