Prime
A school without desks, latrines
Pupils seen using a dilapidated toilet that filled up at a school in Uganda. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- At the end of the day, the bricks are heaped in one of the corners of the classroom. Every morning when pupils enter the classroom, each picks a brick from the heap and places it in the same position where they always sit.
- The sorry state of the school has resulted in poor academic performance. Last year, out of the 80 pupils who sat for Primary Leaving Examinations none passed in Division One.
Manjeri Kisakye, 9, sits uncomfortably on a brick as she writes in her exercise book.
Her legs are not stretched out so she is actually squatting. She has to make sure she does not squat inappropriately as she struggles to balance the book on the knees.
“Sitting on the brick always makes my uniform dirty. My handwriting is poor because writing while squatting is not easy,” she tells me when I later talk to her during break time.
Indeed the part of the uniform that gets in contact with the brick is dirty.
Kisakye is a Primary Three pupil at Buyemba Primary School. Like Kisakye, each of her classmates sits on a brick.
The government-aided school lacks desks so pupils, especially those in lower primary have to use bricks.
“We sat and agreed that at the beginning of the term, each pupil carries a brick from home on which to sit. The challenge is that they make them uncomfortable and the concentration reduces,” says Clare Mukyala, one of the teachers at the school.
At the end of the day, the bricks are heaped in one of the corners of the classroom. Every morning when pupils enter the classroom, each picks a brick from the heap and places it in the same position where they always sit.
Eriabu Mukisa, 9, another Primary Three pupil says sitting on a brick makes him feel uncomfortable during lessons.
“I feel pain after sitting on the brick for about one hour; sometimes the buttocks get paralysed,” he says.
Lack of desks is not the only problem. A number of pupils suffer from jiggers because the classrooms are not cemented.
Sometimes teachers ask pupils to wet the floor with water before conducting lessons.
The school with more than 130 pupils also lacks pit latrines after the only two they have filled up.
Whereas the latrines filled up, pupils continue to use them because they have no alternative.
“There is a problem of poor sanitation due to lack of better latrines and a number of pupils are contracting diseases,” says Eliot Lwana, another teacher at the school.
He reveals that they have had cases of children having stomach aches and they suspect the cause to be poor sanitation.
Constructed in 1956, Buyemba Primary School which is in the Grade One category has had only a two-classroom block built by government 10 years ago.
Teachers say most of the buildings were constructed by parents. All the buildings are now dilapidated; some of the roofs leak and it is difficult to use them during rainy seasons.
The school head teacher, Samuel Balikowa, says parents have also refused to provide lunch for their children.
According to him, only 67 pupils take porridge at school and the rest study on empty stomachs.
Each parent is required to provide three kilogrammes of maize flour and Shs1,000 for one child every term but most of them refused to comply.
He notes that in order to have a better learning environment they require more 120 four-seater desks, two pit latrines and general rehabilitation of the school.
The sorry state of the school has resulted in poor academic performance. Last year, out of the 80 pupils who sat for Primary Leaving Examinations none passed in Division One.
Luuka District Education Officer Moses Galandi says the education sector in the area, just like other parts of the country, is limping as a result of inadequate funds.
Money to the district
He says, on average government sends Shs250m every financial year to the district for the construction of classrooms, pit latrines and purchasing of desks.
Luuka has a total of 88 government-aided primary schools that are either in similar or worse state.
“It means that every financial year we have to construct two-classroom blocks and two pit latrines in five schools which are badly off,” says Galandi.
He adds that this financial year some primary schools will neither get a single desk nor have a latrine constructed because there are other schools where the situation is worse.
“There are a number of schools where pupils are studying under trees and with one latrine serving 1,000 learners,” he explains.
He says government needs to increase funds allocated to the education department.
Andrew Mawejje, the former chief administrative officer Luuka, told Daily Monitor last year that to streamline education standards in the area, the sector needs more than Shs16.2b to enable them build classrooms, pit latrines and buy desks in all the 88 government-aided primary schools in the district.
