Like Kampala International University, Kyambogo University has resolved to start teaching online.

The acting university vice chancellor, Prof Eli Katunguka, last week reported that the university was ready following completion of relevant infrastructure. His revelation came during a training session for teaching staff on the usage of the e-learning course design last week.

Katunguka said e-learning would help compensate for scarcities of academic staff, including instructors or teachers as well as facilitators and lab technicians.

“The approach and vision outlined in our strategy is to develop online content and have some courses run totally online,” Katunguka said. “We want to move towards a 21st century learning experience, where we blend traditional methods with modern methods of teaching. Our teaching should be student-centered, not teacher-centered.”

He added that e-learning would permit each student to study at their pace, increasing satisfaction and reducing on stress. At the week-long African Development Bank (ADB) supported “e-Content Development” workshop, about 90 staff were hosted at the university’s school of Management and Entrepreneurship computer laboratory.

Katunguka said the staff would engage in transferring the skills to other colleagues from the university’s 37 departments.  Andrew Moore, an IT specialist from South Africa also the chief facilitator, said e-learning is the way to go for Kyambogo, given its historical problems.

“Kyambogo has had a difficult past and found it had to find its unique identity. But through e-learning, the university can reinvent itself by getting the staff to speed up to heal these problems and compete with other higher education institutions,” Moore said.

Moore, also part of the brains behind Muni University’s e-learning policy, urged lecturers to be creative by using audio and video content and share as much information online while interacting with learners. He has also worked with Makerere University on various e-learning projects.

Kyambogo University has adopted ICT as an administrative tool and education management under its e-Kampus platform which focuses on providing education managers and administrators with accurate and timely data. Currently, admissions, registration, results, transcripts processing and fees payments are automated.

According to John Okuonzi, the university information systems manager, all trained staff will be tasked to develop content for at least two course units in their area of expertise and upload it in the e-platform known as the Kyambogo University e-Learning Management System (KELMS).

Similarly, the platform is also being piloted in the faculty of Vocational Studies to teach the master of Vocational Pedagogy (MVP) under the NORHED project. All trained staff shall later be given free mini-tablets basically suited for e-learning and memory sticks of about 8GB to aid their teaching.

“We have already put online a course in Bachelor of Education and hope to start facilitating online by August or January next year,” Okuonzi said, adding that the current minimum ICT infrastructure will make internet access possible across the university.

At least more than 3,000 to 4,000 students and 200 staff can access internet on daily basis. Okuonzi said the bandwidth has also been increased from 42 Megabits per second in 2014 to 76 in 2016 something that has seen 25 wireless spots created across the campus. 

He said since e-learning is bandwidth hungry, more 42 Mbps will be added to the 76 to make it 108 Mbps in the next academic year – thanks to a $216,000 (about Shs 756m) ADB fund for the next three years.

From the latest $1.9m (about Shs 6.6bn) ADB ICT infrastructure development fund, three thin-client based computer laboratories equipped with at least 10 to 15 computers will be created in the faculties of Science, Engineering, and Special Needs Education to enhance e-learning.

“The procurement of these computers is done and starting next month, we have identified a service provider who is going to be doing that,” Okuonzi said.

He added that quite a number of working class students have already expressed interest to study online. For universities that have not yet embraced e-learning, Moore leaves a message to them.

“I think in the next five to 10 years, if your university is not transmitting content online, then you are in dangerous waters,” he said. “We are no longer gatekeepers to knowledge; the universities now have to be facilitators of learning.”

nangonzi@observer.ug

On midnight Saturday, non-teaching staff at public universities went on strike, arguing that they wanted the government to include last year's arrears in the salary enhancement, coming in June. MOSES TALEMWA assesses whether the strike, which was suspended last Thursday, achieved its objectives.

At various general assemblies, the mood in the public universities was charged. Starting in Busitema and spreading to Kyambogo, Gulu, Makerere Business School and finally Makerere, the staff called for the government to enhance their salaries, as promised by the president, in line with their academic counterparts.

Clad in a black suit, the chairman of the Public Universities Non-Teaching Staff Executive Forum (Puntsef), Jackson Betihamah, bellowed that the finance ministry had defied a presidential directive to pay them their dues.

“We are demanding for the resignation of the minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. We are also demanding that the permanent secretary for finance resign first,” Betihamah roared. “We also want the arrears of the financial year 2015/2016 to be paid together with enhanced salaries for 2016/2017 financial year.”

He argued that the salary harmonization effort carried out before the enhancement had also been based on the lowest-paid salaried staff, at Makerere.

“Gulu pays their staff better than any other university, then Mbarara ranks second, [followed by] Busitema, Kyambogo, and then Makerere is the lowest,” he said. “So, when you enhance people using the Makerere payroll, other staff members of the other universities are left in negatives.”

The congregations loved the rhetoric, lapped it up quickly and resolved to go on strike, after they were convinced that the state would only deliver, if they called industrial action.

“I can assure you that once we  go on strike, we shall get the money in less than three days,” Betihamah argued.

And so, all but Mbarara University of Science and Technology resolved to go on strike effective May 1, 2016. The staff at Mbarara did not seem to be as convinced and opted for a go-slow, in their actions.

“We were in solidarity with the strike, but since the government had already shown a commitment to our cause, we felt it was better to continue negotiations,” said one senior administrator, who preferred anonymity.

NOTES OF DISCORD

Betihamah had bitter words for Mbarara’s vice chancellor, Prof Celestine Obua, whom he accused of suppressing the strike by threatening to sack any dissenting employees and have their jobs advertised. “We have written to Prof Obua, asking him to revise his working methods, by respecting the rights of employees.”

For his part, Prof Obua chose to ignore Betihamah, saying: “I have more important things to occupy my mind with”.

Elsewhere, many senior administrators at Mubs, Makerere, Gulu, Muni, Lira, Soroti and Kabale showed up for work on Monday, ignoring the strike call, although many of their underlings were nowhere to be seen. While he was tough on Mbarara, Betihamah had some kind words for newer public universities.

“We respect the differences in opinion, and in the case of Lira, Muni, and Kabale, we understand that they are still new, even the associations are not yet properly constituted – but we embrace them.”

STRIKE NEGOTIATIONS

Satisfied with their action, the Puntsef executive met to chart their next course of action. To ensure the success of their strike, they had agreed that administrators would not answer any calls from senior management. 

“We are the only ones to call you back to work,” Betihamah declared.

With the strike underway on Monday, the phone calls came in, quick and first. Their first invitation came from police chief, Gen Kale Kayihura, who met the Puntsef executive at his headquarters in Naguru from 4pm for three and a half hours.

“He initially complained that we had not alerted him in advance about the strike, but later when we briefed him about the protracted negotiations we had been involved with, he was convinced,” Betihamah told us.

According to other Puntsef executive members, the meeting looked at negotiations with the finance and education ministry over the pending arrears. They told Kayihura that the permanent secretary in the finance ministry, Keith Muhakanizi, had advised that the arrears be included in the 2017/18 national budget, a matter they disagreed with.

Kayihura advised them to meet Muhakanizi again the following day, even securing a midday appointment for Tuesday, by telephone. The Puntsef executive was at the finance ministry by midday, where Muhakanizi reportedly apologised for the inconvenience and briefed them the government would include the arrears in an application for a supplementary budget to parliament in August.

As Betihamah tells the story, “the rest was as we had agreed previously; Shs 28bn had been allocated in the 2016/17 budget for a salary enhancement”.

The team was then asked to meet with the education ministry to harmonise their position on salary enhancement. And so on Wednesday, the Puntsef team met Muhakanizi’s counterpart in the education ministry, Dr Rose Nassali-Lukwago from 4pm, for a two-hour session.

“The meeting was cordial, but inconclusive, since she had another meeting to attend. We agreed to return [today] on Monday to discuss the salary harmonization … wherever the scale is higher – that is what we shall go with and the finance ministry would meet the deficit, if any.”

That out of the way, Betihamah was not done.

“We once again call upon [finance ministers] Matia Kasaija and David Bahati to apologise for the inconvenience or resign.”

mtalemwa@observer.ug

Last week, Gulu University students went on rampage, setting their main hall on fire, in protest at the late delivery of exam results for the last semester. 

The hall is a multipurpose building, also used for lectures, as well as offices, especially the one held by the university spokesperson. Police were called in to intervene and fired tear gas and bullets to disperse the irate students. Unfortunately, they were unable to save the damaged property.

However, the matter has many perplexed as to what could have incensed the students to such a level as to set the university main hall on fire. The argument that the delayed release of exam results irritated the students to that point defies logic. As someone would ask, will the building rise out of the ashes if the results are finally released today?  

It is understandable that the students were frustrated by the delays. However, it also follows that the academic registrar’s office may have genuine reasons for delaying the release of results. Officials at the university have indicated that the academic registrar was keen on ensuring the highest quality assurance system in processing the results.

That fact that these arguments were dismissed by the students now leaves the university in a dire situation. Apart from releasing the results, the university now has the task of refurbishing the building.

It is plausible that the refurbishment will cost the university much more than anticipated, and that this cost will also be passed on to the striking students. At this point, one is then led to ask whether the strike action was worth the task, considering that it was cheaper to leave the main hall building intact. 

school@observer.ug

The authorities at Nsamizi Training Institute for Social Development are asking for government support to carry out practical courses for learners there.

The appeal came as the institute principal, Dr Charles Kanyesigye, hosted the minister of state for education, Dr John Muyingo, at his campus in Mpigi, last week.

“We are requesting government to increase the funding package to our institute with a view that we expand our field hands–on vocational skills training programmes to the student population,” Kanyesigye said.

Established in 1953, Nsamizi is the oldest public tertiary institution in the country, committed to social development training.

“[The institute] employs competency-based learning approaches to students in all taught courses and we also carry out community outreaches that engage dozens of sub-counties in the country,” he said.

“We recently graduated over 270 officers from the JLOS [Justice, Law and Order sector], who include magistrates, prosecutors, advocates, legal practitioners, while another 270 [came] from World Vision Uganda,” he added.  

Dr Kanyesigye lamented that the mushrooming numbers of vocational training institutions across the country were eroding the quality of students’ training. He said these schools had seen enrollment dwindle from 3,000 in recent years to the current 1,500 students.


nambafusafinah@gmail.com

Police in Kabale have heightened the search for a motorist who knocked dead a 17-year-old student of St Mary’s College Rushoroza in Kabale.

Kigezi region police spokesman, Elly Matte, said Derrick Turyahabwe, a senior-four student, was knocked dead by a speeding car in Mwanjari along Kabale - Katuna road, at around 10am last Wednesday as he crossed the road to his home.

The motorist did not stop at the scene, after the accident. Turyahabwe had just left school after the close of the first term.

Police visited the scene, and took the body to Kabale regional refferal hospital mortuary for postmortem and inquiries have been initiated to arrest the driver of the runaway vehicle. The deceased was burried on Friday.

Matte said they had noted the vehicle particulars and were hunting for it. He also implored drivers and pedestrians to take road safety precautions to avoid such accidents.

Just as acountants are taking to Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), insurers are increasingly taking up the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) qualification, also of UK.

Commenting on the recently-held exams, the CII coordinator, George Steven Okotha, said the qualification was increasingly popular.

He cited statistics which showed that enrolment for the CII exams was on the rise since the passing of the Insurance Amendment Act in 2011. From 97 papers in 2011, the institute registered 288 papers last year and the number is expected to increase further. Just last month, 133 students sat for exams. The second set of papers for this year shall be done from October 4 to 6.

Appointed in 1999, George Steven Okotha, has managed the CII as coordinator. However, after 17 years, he has appointed two assistant coordinators due to the growing numbers of students.

“I have appointed Rose Kisaliza [of AON Insurance] and Edward Nambafu [of Britam], as assistant coordinators of Chartered Insurance Institute for exams,” said Okotha.

With an insurance levy that was being collected by Insurance Institute of Uganda  to assist students, 0.5 per cent gross premiums were underwritten, lowering the cost of doing papers from Shs 1,300,000 to Shs 750,000 Ushs. The cost reduction in the papers is  also attributed to the fact that the books are bought by IIU.

According to Okotha, Advanced Diploma in Insurance (ACII) is higher than the degree of Bachelor of Insurance. However, exam malpractice attracts some of the harshest consequences.

“All papers [done by the student] are cancelled and if the examiner is helping a student, all the papers, ACII and the centre get cancelled,” says Okotha, adding that under such circumstances, Ugandans can only study CII  courses in Nairobi.

“Therefore, to avoid such undesirable circumstances and to keep the pass rate high, revision is arranged by IIU,”Okotha says.

The Insurance Regulatory Authority plans to insist on a diploma in insurance for one to become a principal officer especially in bank assurance.

Table showing CII statistics

pbaike@yahoo.com

A week ago, the Uganda Management Institute concluded its series of graduation ceremonies for 2016. Among those receiving accolades was DR GERALD
KAGAMBIRWE KARYEIJA, who was promoted to the rank of associate professor. Moses Talemwa looks back at who this new don is.

Back in mid-1996, he was a fresh graduate from Makerere’s faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and looking for a job, when his father, Ezera Kagambirwe, insisted that he moves into teaching. However, Gerald Karyeija was intent on mapping his own route in life.

“Both my parents were teachers; my father had taught in several schools leading up to Makerere’s centre for extra mural studies, while my mother Nora was a pioneer kindergarten teacher in Kabale,” Karyeija recalls.

And so, to spite them, Karyeija first took up a stint as a radio artiste at Radio Uganda, where he worked for six months. Disillusioned by the job, he left to join The New Vision as a freelance reporter.

“Here I wrote a few stories and features for two years … but it was more of the same,” he adds.

In 1998, he decided to join the NSSF as a compliance officer. Here he seemed to do well, rising through the ranks to become an area manager for Tooro. But the call by his father to further his studies or consider a calling in teaching was persistent.

“I agreed with him that I would pursue a master’s degree from abroad, and so I sent 17 applications over seven years, but nothing came of it,” he says.

But ultimately his resistance grew thin. And three coincidences happened to finally make his way.

“First of all, I was tired of routine work. Secondly, my father had been prodding me on. And finally, my 18th application succeeded,” he said.

In 2001, Karyeija was admitted to the University of Bergen in Norway for an MPhil in Public Administration. Classes would start in 2003, running up to 2005.

“I focused on my studies and passed with what they call a first class,” he adds.

He returned to Uganda and stayed for an eventful six months.

“In that time, I got married to Faustine Nakazibwe and then wrote a PhD concept note, which was accepted and I was granted a subsequent scholarship.”

As he recalls it, Karyeija and Nakazibwe had applied for the Commonwealth scholarship for Master’s degree in 2001. However, as fate would have it, Nakazibwe won the scholarship.

“The organisers communicated the results to all of us in one email and she was surprised that I was the only one who congratulated her on winning it,” she says. “She was moved by this and we stayed in contact.”

She went off to the University of Birmingham for a master’s degree in Human Resource Management in 2001, while Karyeija stayed to battle for another scholarship. 

“Hers was a one-year programme; so, by the time she returned I was already in Norway.”

By 2005 when Karyeija returned, Nakazibwe was working for ActionAid in Kampala.

“After we married, I went back to Bergen for the PhD, and she joined me in Norway after six months and ended up settling for a second master’s degree. I was in Bergen for three years, completing my studies in November 2009.”

Asked about the focus of his PhD studies, Karyeija explains: “I was looking for an explanation as to why the civil service was not functioning well, despite an increment in financial support and so on”. Sitting up in his chair he continues, “I realised that unless there is a cultural adjustment in practice, there is unlikely to be any change in the level of service. There is a need to adjust the mindset of civil servants.”

EARLY EDUCATION

Karyeija started his education at Kigezi High School lower for his primary school, before proceeding to Kigezi College Butobere in 1987 for his S1. He was there until he sat for his S4 exams in 1990, upon which he proceeded to Kigezi High School for his A-levels in 1991 to 1992. Shyaka Mbanda, also a former student at Kigezi High School, recalls Karyeija as a good-natured student.

“Apart from the fact that we knew him as Aunt Norah’s son, Karyeija was a good -natured person and was also known to be saved,” he said.

On this, Karyeija smiles then explains that he is a born-again Christian of the Anglican Church since July 7, 1987.

“I believe that things are the way God has destined them to be. Human beings are inherently evil and are only saved by the grace of God.”
 
LEADERSHIP

In each of the places he has studied, Karyeija has been privileged to be a prefect and a student representative, including at Makerere where he was a member of the guild representative council.

Since his return from Bergen, Dr Karyeija has worked at the Uganda Management Institute (UMI), starting in 2010. According his colleagues, Dr Karyeija is a person who easily gets immersed in his work.

“He gets so focused in his work that if he happens to be your supervisor, he will make incredible demands on you to ensure excellence,” says UMI public relations officer Peter Kibazo.

Today he is an associate professor of Public Administration and Management, as well as acting dean of the School of Management Sciences (which has three departments).

“It gets very busy here. UMI is a very dynamic institution – most of our students are working graduates. Most administrative work happens during regular weekdays, while academic work happens in the evenings and weekends.”

WEARING HUGE SHOES

Dr Karyeija is also fully aware that there are very few experts in his chosen field. Apart from former prime minister, Prof Apolo Nsibambi, Prof Foster Byarugaba (both retired) as well as Makerere lecturers Yasin Olum  and Sabiiti Makara, few have followed his path.

“My promotion [to Public Administration at UMI] means that I’m taking a step into widening the available knowledge in public administration. As a researcher, it is my duty to explain to society how we can improve our governance issues.”

Apart from this, he is a reviewer of several peer research journals and an external examiner at several institutions. He has also supervised 256 master’s degree graduates to completion and is currently looking into the work of six PhD students.

Dr Karyeija has been vocal on several local governance issues, through a KFM radio talk show he regularly appears on. In this show he tends to share many of his findings. For instance he has extensively studied the problems bedeviling the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA).

“There is no way the setup at KCCA can work … you can’t have the KCCA executive director and the lord mayor competing for space. In my opinion, the arrangement is at best transitory,” he says.

“That fusion of local government [new public management] and politics is unworkable.”

When all is said and done, I ask him what he would tell his now deceased parents who insisted his future was in teaching.

“I would tell my father that it was worth it. The work environment here is very conducive for growth.”

mtalemwa@observer.ug

He joined Makerere University as a poor youth with the help of the MasterCard Foundation, the charity supporting their education. But when it came to offering support to others in need, Geoffrey Komakech, a first-year Computer Science student was more than happy to assist.

He recently joined 96 other MasterCard Foundation scholars in cleaning up an orphanage, run by the Missionaries of the Poor Good Shepherd Home, in the Kisenyi slum.

The dark-skinned youth picked a slasher and took a swipe at the grass with a lot of gusto, before handing over to a colleague, Michael Mubiru, after 30 minutes.

“When I came here, I saw that the place was not tended to, it looked like a bush. With such tall grass, these kids here can easily fall sick. That’s why I started with this grass,” Komakech said.

Dorothy Nafula, a first-year student on the Bachelor of Commerce programme, took over picking the slashed grass. “Getting dirty isn’t a problem we are here to bring a smile to these children … as the day goes we are going to do more,” Nafula added. 

The MasterCard scholars programme provides support for academically-gifted but poor youth to access quality and relevant secondary and university education.

On the other hand, the orphanage takes in the poor, needy, homeless, depressed and disabled that have been abandoned by society and need a loving home, food and care. It is run by Our Lady of Good Counsel monastery in Mutundwe.

dkiyonga@obsever.ug

Joseph Opilo carefully moves his hands along two metallic bed rails lined on either side in order to gain stability as he moves.

The six-year-old was born blind and has had to learn to use his hands and feet to ‘see’. When he was four years old, Opilo’s parents told him he could do anything the normal children would and that they would enroll him into a special-needs school when he turned five.

His parents bred Opilo with so much determination that when he enrolled into school last year, he was ready to learn how to read and write, according to Maureen Ayabotho, one of the two special-needs teachers at Pajobi primary school.

“He is a fast learner. In just one year that he has been here, he has been able to learn to tell what type of animal has been carved out of a wooden craft,” says Ayabotho.

Located in Nebbi town council, the school is famed for having one of the oldest units that provide formal education to blind pupils. In line with the education ministry’s policy on inclusive education, the school caters to both blind and sighted learners. The school’s current enrolment is 902, with three of these being completely blind, while another two partially blind.

Gofin Okumu, another special-needs teacher at the school, is an alumnus of the school. The teacher, who was blinded by measles during his infancy, testifies that hundreds of blind pupils from the unit have enrolled into secondary school.

“Anything that the sighted pupils can do, the blind can also do and we are teaching blind pupils to survive and excel amid difficult situations,” Okumu tells The Observer.

The blind unit uses the comprehensive curriculum for basic education and runs the regular school calendar of three terms in one academic year.

BLINDING CHALLENGES

However, testimonies of hardship in this unit are moving. For starters, the blind pupils are restricted to a one classroom that doubles as their dormitory, also catering to both male and female pupils.

When we join the team from ActionAid Uganda at Pajobi, we find Jennifer Atimango, one of the three completely-blind pupils, laying her bed, as she readies herself for class. Atimango shares this room with Opilo and another boy, as well as the partially-blind pupils, a boy and a girl. Thus the room has six beds for the learners.

After five minutes, she has negotiated her way through the narrow path separating the girls’ beds from the boys’, in order to ‘get to’ class. Her classroom, at the front of the room, features three chairs and one desk.

This unit has no library and the pupils have to rely entirely on their teacher’s notes. Atimango, who says she hopes to become a lawyer one day, has no choice but to work with what is available. Paulino Avola, Pajobi’s head teacher, is beside himself with explanations for the trying circumstances.

“There is a big challenge of lack of infrastructure and scholastic materials such as braille paper and braille machines. And we have not received the quarterly funding of Shs 2.5m for the blind unit for one and half years now,” adds Avola.

To make ends meet and ensure that the unit keeps functioning, Avola says, the school administration keeps borrowing money from the Parents and Teachers Association.

To add to the challenges, the blind pupils have to share the school’s only two latrine stances with other children. As if to compound their sight problem, the blind unit does not have electricity to light it at night.

APPEAL

Avola has since decided to appeal to government to provide more infrastructure at the school, such as building more latrines and dormitories.

“[We appeal to] government to fulfill its funding promise, so that we are able to have operational equipment such as talking calculators and braille books availed and on time.”

For now, Avola tells The Observer that the number of blind pupils has dropped from 11 to three in 2015, due to the numerous challenges faced by the learners at the school.

ninsiima@observer.ug

Kampala International University has dismissed as baseless, comments attributed to the State House director of the Health Monitoring Unit, Dr Diana Atwine, and former Mbarara Municipality MP, Dr Medard Bitekyerezo, over its teaching hospital.

The two officials had indicated that doctors graduating from KIU lacked the requisite technical knowledge. Dr Atwine, who was invited to parliament’s health committee to comment on the state of public hospitals, claimed that there was a ‘total breakdown’ in the service.

The comments were published in The Observer of April 13, 2016, titled; State House reveals more rot in Mulago. However, the executive director of KIU’s teaching hospital, Prof Robinson Ssebuufu, said the university had passed an inspection by the East African Medical and Dental Practitioners Council (EAMDPC).

The inspection was called to determine if recommendations made in previous reports of November 2015, in relation to regional standards of health care, are being met.

In March this year, the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), which regulates the school, had also made an inspection of the facility and in their report also commended KIU.

According to Ssebuufu, both the NCHE and EAMDPC had commended the institution for meeting the recommendations cited in their previous reports.

“They advised us to improve on the laboratory and mainly the facilities with the microscope. We had very few,” Ssebuufu told The Observer. “Right now as we talk, we have 160 microscopes for the students to do their practices because previously when they came, they found less than 50.”

Ssebuufu explained that in particular, the EAMDPC was intended to find out how far the institution had gone in complying with new East African standards of practice, since the inspectors have the mandate to advise foreign students against joining KIU.

Prof Sebuufu added that KIU was in the process of expanding its training facilities to cater for more students. More laboratories are currently under construction and the institution had also increased the number of cadavers from 20 to 63 to give students more hands-on practice.

At the moment, students also receive clinical training from other government regional referral hospitals, following memorandum of understanding with Hoima, Kiryandongo, Kabarole and Mubende hospitals.

Currently, KIU’s teaching hospital has an enrolment of 4,020 students. Responding to the concerns, the KIU vice chancellor, Dr Mouhammed Mpezamihigo acknowledged that it was expensive to carry out medical training, and asked for support in facilitating foreign trainer doctors.

“Government may come in to assist especially by providing visa waivers, since it is very expensive to bring international staff especially in the areas of medicine, pharmacy and nursing … so that we can attract many more to train and mentor our very own,” Mpezamihigo said.

The foreign doctors are mainly drawn from Cuba, Spain, Nigeria, among other states.  Other challenges include sustaining the free services offered at the teaching hospital.

The move from private to public hospital was to attract more locals to the hospital to meet the increasing number of students who need physical training on patients.


alitwaha9@gmail.com

Founded in 1902, Namilyango College was established by the Catholic Mill Hill Missionaries. JANE JUSTINE MIREMBE has been speaking to some alumni, as they reminisce about the coming 115th anniversary.

As a young boy, a timid Gawaya Tegule got out of his father’s car and made his first step into Namilyango College School in 1984. The first welcome came from one of the older students. However, the welcome sent chills down his spine.

“Come to my house when your dad leaves. I will teach you boxing,” a young man, clad in a muscle-revealing sleeveless shirt said to him. The then 13-year-old Tegule was shaken at the thought of having to fight this Goliath. He wondered if this was the bullying he had been warned about before leaving his father’s home in Jinja.

A few days into the school, he came to learn that what he had received was not a bullying threat but, rather, an invitation to participate in one of the school’s greatest traditions at the time; boxing.

“Students of Namilyango were crazy about boxing. The school was like a boxing auditorium. We had so many boxing competitions. The school was synonymous with boxing,” said Tegule, now a radio talk show host.

According to Kavuma Kaggwa, an elder and former student, Namilyango had long history with the sport, until it was abolished in the early 1990s by the headmaster of the time, Gerald Muguluma.

Kaggwa was a student at Namilyango College from 1953 to 1955, and is now documenting the school’s history. According to him, the school’s abolition of the sport was intended to encourage more academic prowess at Namilyango. Indeed, the boxing hall has since been turned into a library. But the boys have since adjusted to the loss.

“To make up for the loss, the boys have developed great love for rugby and have won the national schools’ rugby title more than any other school,” Kaggwa says. The school has also sent numerous players to the national team. Currently, the national side has six players, including Brian Odong, Davis Kiwalabye and Justin Kimono who are Namilyango alumni.

HUMBLE ORIGINS

When Kabaka Mutesa I invited missionaries from Europe to educate the people of Uganda in 1875, the first to arrive was Bishop Alexander Mackay of the Church Missionary Society in 1877.

He was followed by the White Fathers, led Fr Simeon Lourdel and Br Amans Delmas, who arrived here in 1879. Ssekabaka Mutesa I passed on in 1884 and his son Ssekabaka Daniel Mwanga succeeded him. Seeing that the White Fathers were French, Mwanga assumed there was no Catholicism in England.

However, White Fathers quickly communicated with the Catholic Mill Hill mission in England to send British missionaries, which is how Bishop Dr Henry Hanlon arrived in Buganda in 1895.

Bishop Hanlon set up at Nsambya hill, with the jurisdiction of the Mill Hill missionaries covering the whole eastern Uganda, up to Mombasa in Kenya. On his arrival, he was quick to set up relations with the Buganda monarchy, particularly Stanislaus Mugwanya, who was the regent of Ssekabaka Daudi Chwa.

By 1902, Mugwanya was the head of the Catholics in Buganda. It was Mugwanya who requested Bishop Hanlon to build Namilyango College as a high school for Catholic princes from Buganda, Bunyoro, Tooro, Ankole and Busoga.

The school was started under the supervision of the then Catholic Bishop Henry Hanlon, who decided to build the college and turn it into a high school for all Catholic Africans from Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Sudan. The headmasters, who took over in the later years, however, allowed students of other denominations.

PROUD ALUMNI

Kaggwa says the school has lived up to its initial billing, producing several alumni over the years. These include Prince David Wasajja of Buganda, Democratic Party President Norbert Mao, Chief Justice Bart Katureebe, author and playwright Austin Bukenya, businessman Emmanuel Katongole, who is also the proprietor of Quality Chemical Industries and Vero Mineral Water, as well as Lawrence Mulindwa, proprietor of one of the best schools in the country, St Mary’s SS Kitende.

He cites the school’s insistence on a two-stream system; the academic stream and the commercial stream, for students to choose, which area of life they wanted to attend.

“The academic stream was for science subjects; Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics, leading one to study Medicine at Makerere. The commercial stream was for one to study commercial subjects like office administration, accounts, marketing and salesmanship, secretarial, public relations, architecture and mass communication,” Kaggwa explains.

Gawaya Tegule adds that the school instilled in them a sense of independence. The students were groomed to be self-reliant, he believes led to a superiority complex.

“There was no spoon-feeding. We had to do research and so we passed without teachers,” Tegule says. “Everybody wanted to excel; so, we worked hard. We did not fear anybody because we knew we were better than anyone else.”

He says that this attitude has helped many of the former students make it in life.

jjmirembe@gmail.com

When Education minister Jessica Alupo was still young, she was supported by her parents, teachers and community members to understand menstruation issues.

Writing in the reader for learners on Understanding and Managing Menstruation, the minister says, “We had books in our school like readers which I used to better understand what menstruation is, why and how it happens”.

“I’m happy to tell you that I never missed school [because of menstruation], [I] participated in all school activities and was able to complete my education. I am now the minister for education and I know you can also make it.”

To drive her message further, Alupo has asked men to support girls during their monthly menstruation period as schools celebrated the Menstrual Hygiene (MH) day last Friday.

Under the theme Menstruation matters to everyone everywhere: Father figures it’s your turn, several schools converged at Mackay Memorial College in Nateete, where girls, female teachers and parents shared their experiences of menstruation.

Every May 28, the world celebrates the Menstrual Hygiene day but it was celebrated earlier this time in Uganda. Rosette Nanyanzi, the education ministry’s research officer in the Gender Unit, said they chose May 6 so school children can participate in the event before they break off for first-term holidays.

Nanyanzi said the theme was intended to draw attention to the need for men to play a role in menstrual management issues.

“Many men shy away from the subject of menstruation because it is perceived to be a woman’s issue. At school, boys and male teachers often find it difficult to support girls in menstruation. Even religious leaders and other opinion leaders shy away from the subject, leaving it to the mothers and aunties,” Nanyanzi said.

A 2012 study conducted by The Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) and IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre estimated that close to four million Ugandan girls live without proper sanitary care.

As a result, girls miss up to eight days of study per term, while others drop out entirely due to lack of menstrual hygiene. According to Nanyanzi, father figures can support girls and women to manage menstruation through keeping them in school and providing the necessary items during this period.

In a circular to schools, the ministry’s director of Basic and Secondary Education, Dr Yusuf Nsubuga, last year tasked schools to provide emergency changing uniforms, wrappers, pairs of knickers, sanitary towels and painkillers for girls, when needed during menstruation.

“All boys and male teachers in schools should be made aware and sensitised to support [female] pupils cope with the challenges they face during their menstrual periods,” Nsubuga directed.

Nanyanzi hopes that with men on board, the silence and stigma around menstruation will end.

nangonzi@observer.ug

When she first decided to change her life, Esther Baroma was just a senior four graduate, struggling to make ends meet in a Kampala beauty salon.

Over time, she has developed into a major education entrepreneur thanks to non-formal learning. MOSES TALEMWA was on hand last week as more students graduated from the Directorate of Industrial Training, which runs the non-formal learning component.

The Directorate of Industrial Training (DIT) last week saw off 23,368 graduands of non-formal training, assessed in 34 occupations. According to the DIT executive director, Ethel Kyobe, the graduands mostly had no formal qualifications before they were trained and later assessed for competence in their chosen fields.

This year’s graduands represent an increment on last year’s performance where 15,198 candidates were assessed in 23 occupations.

“Their performance also improved substantially this year as more than 90 per cent of those assessed were adjudged to be competent,” Kyobe said.

The graduands were assessed in five different categories, indicating various levels of competence. Some of the professions in which students were assessed included bakery, bricklaying, hairdressing, catering, carpentry, cookery, computer applications, domestic electrician, electronics, farming, knitting, leather design, motor vehicle mechanics, painting and decoration, plumbing, welding, secretarial, tour guide, and tailoring.

Responding to the results, Education Minister Jessica Alupo said the sector was working around ensuring that the certificates were recognised in the formal education system.

“Arrangements are being made to make the certificates acceptable in the East African Community so Ugandans can transfer their skills across the region,” said Alupo.

She added that they were working to ensure the establishment of a skills development authority to enable regulation of the non-formal education sector. Commenting on the matter, the chairperson of the Industrial Training Council, which heads the DIT, Dr Joseph Muvawala, said they were in advanced stages of preparing the paperwork establishing the authority.

“The minister directed us to start the authority last year, we are late, but I assure you we shall get it ready by the end of the year,” he said.

To this end, the minister directed the DIT to expedite the process of establishing the Skills Development Authority. Muvawala added that he was waiting to sign off on plans to enable ensure harmonization of qualifications across the board.

Alupo added that DIT would be at the heart of developing synergies with other vocational institutions in the oil and gas sector.

“[DIT] will be given immediate priority because 10,000 jobs can be created directly and indirectly during the initial phase of oil extraction in Uganda,” she said.

She concluded her discourse by charging the DIT with creating and publicizing a permanent labour market information system, which can generate information and statistics on employment levels disaggregated by sector, age, group and gender.

RESULTS OF OCCUPATIONAL AND MODULAR ASSESSMENT 2015

mtalemwa@observer.ug

Suddenly, the children are no longer seated by the carved wood door in ancient Ghana. Now, they are seated on a wood bench.  They are beside a vast garden. Farmers move through the field.  The farmers weed the plants. 

“What do you grow here, madam?” Justinian calls to a woman who comes close. 

The lady stands up. She smiles at the children. She does not recognize them.
“Are you visitors?  I enjoy visitors,” she sounds friendly. “We are raising yams and plantains in this field. We eat this. But see over there?” 
She points to another garden in the distance. A tractor moves through that plantation. “That is where we grow cocoa. We sell cocoa all over the world.”

“Cocoa?” Dingo Pingo is surprised. “We have cocoa at home in America!”
“I think we send it there to you. You don’t grow cocoa in America.” The farmer lady is a good teacher. “Please come to our home. You are hungry.”
“How do you know we are hungry?” Dingo Pingo asks.
“All children are hungry!” the lady farmer laughs.

The children enjoy supper with the Ake family. Justinian talks to them about raising pineapples to sell. The Ake family describes the cocoa business.  They have much in common. Evening comes in Ghana, and the children begin to think of home. 

“We have beds for you here,” the lady farmer is so welcoming. 
“Bed!  I am sleepy,” says Isabella.
“We are tired.  We appreciate your hospitality, madam. I do think that our father is worried.”

The children gather outside the Ake home to discuss how to proceed.

“How do we get home?”
“We have a map of Uganda!”
“Yes, let’s lick the pineapple juice and lick the map of Uganda!  We’ll be home instantly!”

The boys try just that. But the juice is too dry on the pages of the atlas. There is no longer the pineapple juice they need to travel.

“What do we do?  Are we stuck here?”
 “I hope not. I want to go home.”
 “Home!” cries Isabella. She wraps her arms and her blanket around Dingo Pingo and Justinian and cries, “Home!”

anansi99@hotmail.com

The three children discuss how to get home from Ghana. 

“Let’s lick the pineapple juice and lick the map of Uganda!  We’ll be home instantly!”

Dingo Pingo and Justinian try that.  But the juice is dry on the page of the atlas.  There is no longer the pineapple juice they need to travel.

“What do we do?  Are we stuck here?”
“I hope not.  I want to go home.”
“Home!” cries Isabella.  She wraps her arms and her blanket around Dingo Pingo and Justinian and cries, “Home!”
“Isabella!  Too loud!” scolds Uncle Junior.  “You are too loud.  Don’t shout in the house.”
“Daddy!” shouts Isabella.

The boys look around.  They are in their sitting room in Kyamulinga!  Anansi, the little black dog, lies on the verandah outside the door. The pineapple plate is still on the table.  The pineapple chunks are still juicy.  They had been gone.  They had been in Ghana.  But no one in Kyamulinga has noticed.

“The blanket,” whispers Dingo Pingo.  “The little pineapple.”
 “Now we know how to travel…” starts Justinian.
 “…and how to get back home,” Dingo Pingo finishes his sentence.

“Okay, I think we understand now.”
 “We had no pineapple when we arrived in Ghana.”
“That’s right.”

They look about them in the sitting room.  The pineapple is on the floor where Isabella dropped it.  The knife is gone.  The warrior now has the knife.  The plate is there.  The backpack is there. The blanket is there.

 “The blanket.  That’s it!”
 “The pineapple takes us.”

“A bite of this amazing pineapple takes us to anywhere in this atlas.”
“And the blanket returns us home.”
 “Let’s go!” Dingo is excited to see Africa.

With the tiny withered pineapple and the atlas of Africa, the children set off.  First is the island of Zanzibar.   They travel to the third century CE.  They visit the thriving Indian Ocean port.  They see the fishers in their boats.  They see the Asian and Arab traders on the dhows.  They watch the Germans and British try to participate in the trade.  

“Let’s go!” Dingo is excited to see more of Africa.
“Let’s go go go!”  Isabella is always excited.

anansi99@hotmail.com

Kampala High School has partnered with Zainab Baby and Junior School to support the growth of the boy child in society.

The call came last week as Ellon Kiwumulo Mwegombi, a psychologist and teacher at Kampala High School, presented a paper titled Importance of family bonding during a breakfast meeting for parents and teachers of Zainab baby and junior school Kavule in Kawempe division.

In his paper, Mwegombi called for a massive public sensitization campaign on family bonding, specifically to address recent challenges that boys are having in getting used to society.

“We intend to promote parent-teacher family bonding relations with a view to helping the upbringing of the boy children among families by nurturing and instilling in them positive societal morals,” she said.

“As psychologists, we found out that the boy children have not been given all the necessary counseling support by their parents at home, which has exposed many of them to negative challenges in society such as participating in criminal activities.”

Challenged about the relevance of the programme, Mwegombi said, “We believe the parenting methods employed by parents to the boy child at household level have not helped these boys grow up well with discipline. That is why we are coming out to help bridge this gap”.

The matter attracted the interest of the officer in charge of Kikoni police station in Kampala, Joshua Kananura, who said they were aware of the problem.

“As police, we are concerned at the increasing  cases of criminality in society being perpetrated by young people which  is a result of poor  parenting of these people. Therefore, we appeal that something be done to save situation,” he noted.

Zainab Baby and Junior School’s director, Ali Kaggwa Damulira, urged schools to try ensuring that children are given the necessary basic parenting skills to be able to live positively in society.

nambafusafinah@gmail.com 

Chantal Sarah Kataike, a 12-year-old pupil at Tororo Parents’ primary school, had never in her life imagined that she would travel outside Uganda. 

In fact the closest she ever got to this dream was visiting Entebbe airport during a school trip. Although she was excited to see airplanes, the little girl from Nyangole in Tororo did not know she would soon board one.

Kataike’s fate changed last year when she enrolled into a spelling competition, which saw her and two other pupils, Leticia Namwadiko and Livingstone Kibumba, emerge the best three. Their English teacher informed them that they would take part in regional competitions in which they also emerged victorious.

The winning team then moved onto the national competitions held in Kampala and organized by Enjuba, a local social company. This contest, they also won. The trio is now preparing to represent Uganda in this year’s African Spelling Bee in Johannesburg in July. 

“I will be the first person in my family to step out of East Africa; so, I am very excited. The chances of me getting a scholarship to Monarch University in South Africa are even more exciting,” Kataike says.

Three other pupils will later join Kataike and her friends. That is thanks to another Spelling Bee competition organized by Enjuba in partnership with Dstv. 

According to Aaron Kirunda, the chief executive officer of Enjuba, this year’s competition will see 600 schools in all regions of Uganda, conducting Spelling Bees in English, and sign language for P4 to P7 pupils; and in Runyakore-Rukiga, Runyoro-Rutooro, Lusoga, acholi, lugbara, lango, Japadhola, Rukonzo and Ateso for children in P3 in line with the thematic curriculum.

“With more than 50 per cent of our population being children under the age of 15, we believe the future belongs to these young stars and it’s our responsibility to help them become the best they can ever be. Innovations like these help unlock children’s imagination, develop key life skills and also helps them stay in school,” Kirunda said at the launch of the competition held on May 17th at the MultiChoice offices in Kololo.

He also said that unlike past editions where pupils have been given handbooks with words that are likely to be asked during the national competitions, this year’s participants will be given books to read.

“Children will have to read the books and internalize them; so, they will not be able to cram words. It is now about understanding word usage and meanings rather than just their spellings,” Kirunda said.

HOW IT WORKS

The format for this year’s competition will start in schools across the country in second term, where every registered school will conduct a school Spelling Bee competition.

This will be followed by district and regional spelling bee competitions that will take place towards the end of second term and beginning of third term. The national spelling bee championship will take place in October in Kampala.

The winners will take home a cash prize of Shs 1m, to help with the next term’s school fees. In addition, they will also represent Uganda at the next continental African spelling bee.

The spelling bee commences on July 2 with the following schools in Kampala hosting school spelling days; Kampala Parents school, City Parents school, Hillside nursery and primary School, Victorious primary School. In Mukono, Budo Junior school, Greenhill Academy, Tawhid primary school and Lorencia junior school will be the hosts.

jjmirembe@gmail.com

The Uganda Mathematics Society (UMS) has whittled down the number of finalists for the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) to six, from the initial 12 semifinalists.

According to UMS President Godwin Kakuba, the selection saw only two of the original Namilyango College students left, as well as just one female.

The final six students are Joseph Ssekitto of St Mary’s College Kisubi, Sunday Lucky of St Mary’s College Rusohoroza, Ivan Musingo of Namilyango College, Sharifah  Naigaga Kirunda of Nabisunsa Girls’  School, Brian Victor Waiswa of Namilyango College and Timothy Musoke Muwambi of Turkish Light Academy. All the students are A-level mathematics students.

The team, which will be accompanied by Assumpta Kasamba, mathematics teacher at King’s College Budo, is set to travel for the IMO in Hong Kong, on July 9, 2016. However, team leader Jasper Okello will leave for the IMO on July 6 for preliminary meetings.

Dr Kakuba, a lecturer of mathematics at Makerere University, indicated that they were working to ensure this year’s performance was markedly better than their last two showings at the IMO.

“Unlike in the past, we have set up regular trainings for the students, in a bid to improve our performance by bringing in trainers to help,” he said.

The trainers he is referring to are Ivan Ezeigbo and Stanislav Chobanov, previous winners of the IMO.

“The trainers are from Minerva School, which is part of the University of San Francisco … and their being here is an arrangement between their school and UMS.”    

The trainers were at Makerere for one week, in which they took the team through drills and offered tips on how to succeed in the grueling exam. Later this month, the team will also have a session with last year’s best contestant, Isaac Owomugisha, now a computer science student at Makerere University. He scored six out of seven points; the only grades obtained by the country’s team of six. 

During the IMO, students are provided four papers in Geometry, Number Theory, Combinatorics and Algebra, with each paper having three numbers, each of which takes a minimum of three hours to solve. The exam is marked out of 42 marks over the four papers, whereby the gold medal is ranked at 26-42 marks; silver at 21-25 marks and bronze 18-20 marks.

HUNT FOR FUNDS

Despite the preparations, the team is hunting for funds to get them to Hong Kong. According to the mission chief, Jasper Okello, the team needs at least Shs 48m to pay for air tickets to Hong Kong.

“If we can get the air tickets and some upkeep that would be alright … living costs are usually covered by the host in this case Hong Kong,” Okello explained.

He added that they had made an appeal to the education ministry and were awaiting a response.

LONE FEMALE

During a break in proceedings at last week’s training camp in Makerere, it was difficult to ignore Sharifah Naigaga Kirunda, the lone female contestant on this year’s team. 

The student, offering Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics in her S5 at Nabisunsa Girls, is on the IMO team for the second year running. According to Okello, Naigaga surprised the examiners with her performance at last year’s Uganda training camp at Turkish Light Academy. At the time a S4 student, she was taken to the IMO in Thailand, as an observer. This time, she has forced her way onto the team and is expecting great things.

She is calmly confident when I ask her what drives her.

“I have loved mathematics ever since I was in my primary school. My teacher, George Haumba, inculcated the love in us at Victoria Nile primary school,” she says.

“People who fear mathematics in general are also afraid of confronting problems in life. For me, I’m an optimist, I know whatever I confront, I will get an answer.”

Only time will tell how the team performs later this year.

mtalemwa@observer.ug

Makerere University’s Prof Grace Bantebya Kyomuhendo has been elected the first chairperson of the Rubaga Girls’ SS old students association.

Prof Bantebya Kyomuhendo’s election followed the first-ever meeting by former students at the school, recently.  Some 400 former students attended the function.

The school, formally known as Our Lady Queen of Africa Rubaga Girls’ Secondary School, was started in 1967 by the Catholic Church. The school’ mission is to train young girls who will serve the church, the nation and themselves as God-loving and God-fearing women, mature citizens, responsible future mothers and capable leaders.

According to the head teacher, Sr Clare Nakubulwa, the meeting was called to help involve the former students in improving the school. The meeting started with mass, before the old girls toured the school facilities, held the election and then had a luncheon.

Responding to the poll results, Prof Kyomuhendo, who lectures in school of Women and Gender Studies at Makerere, commended the old students for entrusting her with the responsibility.

“With this mandate, we shall team up with the school administration to ensure that we put our brains together in planning for the expansion of this school which made us what we are today,” she noted.

For her part, the head teacher commended the old girls for honoring her invitation, saying the executive board would help in planning the school’s 50th anniversary celebrations, due next year.

Allan Najuma was elected Prof Kyomuhendo’s deputy. Other members are Patience Birungi as secretary with Gloria Nalule as her assistant. Jane Tumuhairwe was elected treasurer.

namabafusafinah@gmail.com

Ever heard of two schools sharing the same building? Well, RACHEAL NINSIIMA came across such a situation on her recent trip to Nebbi and reports.

Limited physical space at Angir primary school in Nebbi district has forced two schools to share a building. A short drive from Nebbi town led me to the two-in-one schools At the entrance, there are two signposts standing opposite each other.

One reads - ‘Angir Primary School: Education pays’ while the other, ‘Angir COPE Centre.’ COPE stands for Complimentary Opportunities for Primary Education, a programme offering non-formal education for primary school pupils. 

The two signposts point to three buildings in one compound. Two of the three buildings belong to Angir PS; while the other marks COPE.

The conditions at Angir primary school may be described as hellish; no library, a tree shade for a classroom and no office space for the head teacher. When I arrived at the school on a rainy morning, I found Jane Kabalisa Onangiu, the school’s head teacher, marking scripts in a congested room, which doubles as a library for her school. The room, in which she is sitting, belongs to the COPE school.  

She tells us that sharing premises with COPE is a remarkably complex issue dating from the school’s history. 

“[Angir] started in a grass-thatched house under the leadership of the Catholic Church in 1980, but later collapsed due to neglect,” she narrates. “It was later taken up by the Protestants but not much changed and it collapsed again until it was taken over by government in 2002.”

Angir started in another part of the town council before transferring to to it’s current place in 2002. On the other hand, COPE was introduced there in 2000. The decision for the two schools to share the buildings was made by Angir’s Parents Teachers’ Association, requesting COPE to share premises.  

The government has constructed only two classroom blocks for Angir, forcing the school to borrow one more classroom block from COPE school. 

“We only use the COPE centre until midday to allow the children signed up for COPE to use their premises in the [afternoon]. Angir primary has 525 pupils at the moment and they cannot fit in the two blocks,” she laments.

Coexistence is clearly an uphill task and to minimize the inconvenience, parents of Angir primary are now soliciting funds to complete a classroom block. 

“In March this year, the school administration requested parents to contribute Shs 3,000 per term in order to build a new classroom block. We hope the building will be completed by end of year,” the headteacher says. 

TREE SHADE FOR A CLASSROOM

Bogged down with inadequate infrastructure for all the pupils, the school management has been forced to teach primaries one to three together under a tree. When I arrived at the school, I saw hundreds of pupils clumped together under a mango tree trying to recite a few lines from story books.

Although it was drizzling, the pupils went about their routine recitals unabated. Some sat on the muddy floor while majority were on bricks. 

“These bricks are what we use as furniture here. I have never sat on a bench. When it rains, we do not come to school and when it is too hot, it becomes uncomfortable for us too,” says Mungu Acen, a P3 pupil. 

Acen envisions becoming a teacher in future just like many in her class, but their teacher Godwin Orombi is afraid that these ambitions will not come to fruition if the pupils have to study under such unbearable conditions. Many of them are struggling to learn and speak English and thus; so, most of the lessons are conducted in Alur. 

Kabalisa Onangiu says it is difficult and unsafe to conduct lessons during the rainy season, as it exposes children to complications such as pneumonia. She says two pupils had to drop out of the school early this term due to chest complications. 

According to her, the school which has 13 teachers, currently also lacks other amenities required for learning, including desks and chairs. This has forced parents to withdraw their children from the school. She notes that enrollment is usually high in P1 but this tremendously reduces in higher classes. 

“We are struggling to offer free uniforms, lunch and education to these underprivileged children. Seeing them grasp what we teach is enough motivation to keep us going,” she says. 

To solve the school’s problems, Kabalisa urges government to construct two more classroom blocks and a staff room. She also calls for increased quarterly funding which is currently at Shs 1.5m.

ninsiima@observer.ug