Schools struggle with shortage as Zombo classroom deficit hits 580

Primary school pupils in most government aided schools are struggling for learning space as Zombo District faces a deficit of at least 580 classrooms.

As a result of, dozens of pupils study under trees or in makeshift tents.

On Monday, Zombo District Education Officer Nicholas Odeba, said the district is not only facing classroom challenges but also has poor latrine coverage with a deficit of 600 latrine stances due to budget cuts.

“The national standards require that there should be a 1:40 learner per latrine stance and 1:53 learners per class. For us, we have one stance latrine serving more than 100 learners and a classroom accommodates over 200 learners,” Odeba said.

According to local authorities, a classroom built to host 90 learners accommodates over 200 pupils in some schools.

Odeba says although government has planned to send Shs240 million to construct four classroom blocks in different schools in the FY2024-25, the “money will not be enough because there are many dilapidated classroom blocks.”

Under the Universal Primary Education (UPE) arrangement, the government pays Shs 20,000 per learner in a school, making it hard for administrators to implement major projects.  

According to the 2022 district education statistics, classes from P.1-P.3 had a 90% retention rate while the dropout rate of girls stood at 40 percent in the upper classes “because they travel long distances to look for schools with better structures.”

Zombo District has 83,000 primary school learners registered this year and 4,000 learners in secondary school. The district also has 92 government aided primary schools, but none has adequate classrooms, according to district leaders. 

“We have learners studying under the trees because the number of learners is overwhelming the district budget. This has made parents make temporary structures to accommodate the learners in many schools,” Zombo District Chairperson James Oyulu, said.

Meanwhile, three Non-Governmental Organisations are undertaking a project on development of infrastructure like classrooms in selected schools to tame the space deficit.

The NGOs include Life Concern, Nebbi NGO-Forum and Community Empowerment for Rural Development (CEFORD). They are implementing project under CO-OPERAID, a Switzerland based non-governmental organization is

According to Life Concern executive director Emmy Kakura, Shs690 million was injected under phase one of the project for infrastructural improvement in 21 schools across Zombo District.

Some beneficiary schools of the modern classrooms include Oturugang Boys, Mvugu Lower, Mvugu Upper and Zombo Upper Primary school.

“We selected the schools which are overwhelmed with the number of learners and have dilapidated structures. This is because administrators and parents are financially handcuffed,” he said.

This year, the district approved and allocated Shs17 billion to the education department.