By Frank Kamuntu
To boost the literacy rates in Uganda, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Government under President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni introduced Universal Secondary Education (USE) policy to enhance enrollment at the secondary level in February 2007.
Under this policy, every government school is supported with a quarterly grant that is determined by the number of students in that respective school.
The Office of the National Chairman (ONC-Kyambogo) through its coordinators in Greater Bushenyi visited Kyamuhunga SS in Kyamuhunga Town Council in Bushenyi District to assess the situation at this school.
The Headteacher Mr. Tumwebaze Wilson took through Ms. Peace Kansiime the ONC Coordinator on the numerous challenges faced by the school which has a population of 1030 students.
Among the challenges that were registered by Ms Kansiime is that this school has a small computer laboratory that can not match the big student numbers which affects the extension of computer science lessons.
Also, Ms. Kansiime was informed that the school remitted Ugx 64 million as a USE grant from the Ministry of Education and Sports through the Bushenyi District Local Government. However, Mr. Tumwebaze says he is feeling stressed over the continued remittance of USE grants of less than Ugx 20 million every quarter for a long while.
Further, Kansiime was informed that the school has another challenge of limited furniture (desks) to accommodate all students. Also, the head teacher says he has fewer staff on the government payroll which is constraining the provision of services expected.
In her efforts to remind the head teacher about President Museveni’s call to not charge fees to students in all government-aided schools, Ms. Kansiime was informed by Mr. Tumwebaze that the fees charged were resolved by the school management to enable the provision of food to students while at school and meet the school’s developmental needs in addition to the USE grant.
Meanwhile, our efforts to get a comment from the District Education Officer (DEO) of Bushenyi District were futile as his known phone numbers were unavailable.
