BORDER SCHOOL REGISTERS HIGHEST ENROLLMENT IN KASESE DISTRICT

Kamasasa primary school is a government aided school in Karambi sub –county Kasese district Bordering with DR Congo.Kamasasa primary school is among the schools with a highest enrollment in Kasese district of   2082 pupils ( 1108 females  and 974 males) with an enrollment of  50 children with disabilities (PWDs).The school has a general  teachers enrollment of 40.

In an interaction with the head teacher Mr.Zeverio Muhindo, he said the school was faced with a number of challenges that hinder the smooth running of education as well as improving on the hygiene and child protection strategies.Among  them was the inadequate number of classrooms and enough furniture alongside the increasing number of pupils in the school.The school  has a total number of 15 classrooms in use with only 1 permanent structure with 4 classrooms. The classroom pupil ratio is 1:139which is far beyond the recommended ratio of 1:55 

Six classroom block under construction at Kamasasa Primary School, April 2016

 A visit to one of the classrooms at Kamasasa primary school revealed that, the children were barely learning given the condition and environment under which they study. One of the pupils in primary 4 said  “ we  sit on the floor due to lack of  desks and other classes are congested so some pupils study under trees where study with birds in the tree” .As a government aided school ,this draws our concern  on how much funds the sub-county allocated to the education sector in the 2015/16 FY .When  I shared with the sub-county chief Mrs Ruth Masika, noted that in the 2015/16  sub-county budget of sh88,000,000million,  sh.5,301,939million was allocated to education which represents 6% of the sub-county budget.  The big question is how con we improve the classroom ratio in schools in Uganda and particularlyKamasasa primary school .

The school management  committee, and parents teachers association of Kamasasa primary school has started on a project to decongest the classrooms by constructing a 6 classroom block with 6 stance latrines with funding support from the diocese of Kasese.

KALI a pro poor NGO operating in the Rwenzori region advocates the right of children under which a project on prevention of violence against  children is  piloted to work with communities, leaders and children to voice out the plight of the children in Uganda.

BIIRA RHITA

A volunteer at KALI