SCHOOL FACILITIES KEY IN PUPILS PERFORMANCE

By Nicholas Muhesi- KALI

As we strive to improve the quality of education and performance in primary schools, we should also consider the learning-teaching environment in which our children study in. It is hard for a pupil to perform better when the learning-teaching environment he/she is in is harsh in terms of lacking furniture to sit on in class, studying under trees, scorch temperature and also spending long hours without lunch. Kitsutsu Primary school has enrollment of 1012 pupils with 477 males and 535 females according to second term school compiled list. The school has few desks for the pupils to sit on especially in lower classes.

During the monitoring done in August 2013, we established that, in Kitsutsu primary school-Munkunyu sub county, P1 and P2 pupils with a total of 373 still sit on the floor for their lessons and exams and even then, they are too congested to write what is required of them by the teachers. (in set picture). This means that pupils end up copying each other and even not writing at all due to congestion. 

These pupils are expected to compete with a pupil sited comfortably on a chair with a table which is not possible. Who is responsible then? Some even sit outside the class room to do exams just because of the limited space in their class rooms (pic 2). They end up spending much time looking at passer bys than writing what is required of them. It is very natural that a person can only concentrate when the conditions are favorable and so it is no wonder that performance in schools is deteriorating.

Parents, let us work together with government and other stakeholders to make life in schools better. It is always a parent’s pride when a child succeeds but if we do not invest in these children, and then we shall not yield much from them.

NYAKIYUMBU CITIZENS DEMAND FOR THE SPLIT OF THE SUB COUNTY

NYAKIYUMBU CITIZENS DEMAND FOR THE SPLIT OF THE SUB COUNTY

By Masika Scovia- KALI

The citizens of Nyakiyumbu have expressed their need for the split of the Sub county. This was raised by the citizens themselves as an issue in the Neighborhood Assembly held on 31^st July 2013 in Kaghorwe Parish, Kalongoire catholic church with support from IDF in partnership with KALI. The Neighborhood Assembly which was attended by citizens from different parishes including Muhindi parish, Katholhu and Kayanzi  parishes who specifically want the sub county split into 3 sub counties including the parish councilors and the CDO of this sub county Mr. Bwambale Isreal said.

The Citizens said that the reasons to why they are demanding for the split of Nyakiyumbu was the same reason that had fostered the split of the “great” Munkunyu sub county which stretched from Munkunyu, to Muhindi, Nyakatonzi and Nyakiyumbu, all these as parishes. But now the great Munkunyu has been split into 3 sub counties of Munkunyu, Nyakatonzi and Nyakiyumbu Sub County. So, they argued that “…since the government is promoting decentralization for better service delivery, and the constitution puts the power in our hands, it is high time we split this sub county …” the speaker of the Neighborhood Assembly Mr. Mutoka Jolly said during the meeting.

The citizens during their discussions gave the following reasons,

1.    To speed up development in hard to reach areas like Muhindi and Kayanzi. The community here is very hard working and they need electricity to reach their area and also better roads. So, if they are given a sub county, it would be one of the priorities of “Muhindi Sub county and Nyakiyumbu Lower sub county”

2.    Long distances- The citizens argued that they face a problem coming for any development activity at the sub county. These included the councilors from Muhindi and Kayanzi who said that they use 10000- 20000 shillings to attend a council meeting where they are given travel refunds of 3000 shillings which is unfair to them. Also they said that the distances hinders them from reporting of human rights abuses and violations because by the time they come to report the issue to the sub county, evidence has been destroyed and some citizens have no cellular phones.

3.    That some of the government services in these distant places are either not monitored or takes long to be monitored because the facilitation is either not enough or people fail to reach these areas.

4.    Education- Nyakiyumbu Sub County has one secondary school which is Nyakiyumbu secondary school and students find it hard to come from Muhindi and Kayanzi for secondary education and also, one sub county chief and CDO will become 6 people employed.

Out of the 82 people who attended the E’kyaghanda E’kyabakata, 78 supported the split of the sub county by voting and 4 only disagreed with the split (see photo gallery).

The Citizens of Kaghorwe parish also expressed their need to have a health centre II in their locality. They said that apart from Kaghorwe parish, other parishes have Health centre IIs. This issue was brought by a woman M/S Kabugho Rukia. She argued that the available Mushenene H/CIII is an Integrated church founded health centre but have government facilities like staff, buildings and equipment and therefore they pay between 5,000 -10,000/= for outpatients and 15,000- 36,000/= for admissions. That a delivery of a child is between 10,000 - 25,000/= depending on the condition of the mother and the sex of the delivered child and if they fail to pay, the health centre management retains the property of the patients or caretakers yet they know that government centers have free services.

The citizens therefore, said that they need a health centre II where they can be treated for free like any other citizen of the Republic of Uganda. The citizens pledged their necessary support to get land where it can be established and they suggested to temporarily be using the Kaghorwe parish structures to house the Health unit as a kick starter, so that citizens can start getting government health services for free like other parishes.

Below, a woman explaining her reasons for the split  of the sub county

VULNERABLE GROUP LEADERS DEMAND FOR EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES IN KAMWENGE DISTRICT

District chairman for PWD's giving his remarks

This was during an interface meeting for district leaders and the vulnerable group leaders that took place on Labour Day 1^st .may. 2013 at Kamwenge District Headquarters in the education boardroom. Despite the down pour of heavy rains that rained till mid day, this did not stop participants from turning up in big numbers for the meeting. These included the District Chairperson LCV who was represented by his vice, District Speaker, Subcounty Chief Ntara, District Chairman for persons with disabilities, District Councilors Kamwenge Town Council And Ntara Sub county Chairman Youth , Secretary For Social Services among others.

In his opening remarks, MR Bwambale Geoffrey the program officer Karambi Action for life Improvement told participants to organize themselves in groups so as to advocate for their rights and access government programs for equal opportunities. Under the project; “ROEA104399 Enhancing civic competence to strengthen social accountability in 25 districts, 5 regions in Uganda”, RWECO conducted the Participatory Poverty Assessment in 5 districts of: Kasese, Kabarole, Bundibugyo, Kamwenge and Kyenjojo whose aim was  to assess the applicability of the national policy papers in achieving the social goals of service delivery and launched the policy briefs in the region to share the findings of the participatory assessment. Action point during the policy brief launch was to cascade the policy briefs for the vulnerable groups to make campaigns on issues that pertain to their livelihoods and service delivery.

Thus RWECO in partnership with KALI have embarked on mobilizing the vulnerable groups especially the PWD’s basing on the outcomes of the poverty assessment. The joint annual campaigns with district vulnerable groups on poverty eradication and service delivery monitoring  in Kamwenge district follows a training of leaders of vulnerable groups that was conducted in march 2013.
The Purpose of the Joint Campaigns with Vulnerable groups was to interface with Local government leaders and bring the plight of the poor vulnerable groups on the policy agenda and to mobilize and rally support of the district leaders for increasing budgets to vulnerable groups with specific focus PWD’s and SNE  in the district.

 Issues raised by the participants

Mr. Sam mugisha the chairman of Kamwenge district advocacy group for PWD’s and other vulnerable groups presented a concept note which advocated for equal opportunities, data on PWD’S and meetings with other development partners at the different levels, in his presentation he cited out challenges faced  by PWD’s as;

  Neglect of PWD’s in policy formulation and  implementation

 Lack of empowerment and advocacy strategy in place to enable the vulnerable to voice out their issues

 Ignorance of the disabled they are not aware of their rights

  Low budget allocation for the PWD’s and the youths

  Inaccessibility of the allocated funds especially the youths

Addition to the above, He said, Disability is not inability” citing out examples of PWD’s who have excelled in their career despite of being disabled, District speaker kayunga,woman Mp Koboko and the Head Of ICT Department Uganda Martyrs University Mbarara Campus.

Action points agreed upon during the meeting;

  Advocating for the implementation of different articles and laws that promote the plight of people with disabilities and other marginalized groups

 Sensitization of PWD’s to participate in budgeting, planning and resource allocations at different levels of local government.

  Follow up on budget performance for the allocated funds to the PWD’s in a given financial year

 Lobby and advocate for user friendly pavements on all public places

 Identifying and funding talented PWD’s

 Creating a rehabilitation center for PWD’s and orphans

 Conducting integrated meetings between PWD’s and development partners on a quarterly basis

 Support the building of a rehabilitation and resource center for PWD”s

Tibimpama Rovence the Vice Chairperson LCV who represented the District chairman in her remarks promised the involvement of people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups in decision making forum such as budget formulation and policy advocacy for special considerations. She thanked RWECO/KALI for reawakening awareness campaign on policy advocacy for the vulnerable persons.

Radio talk show programme

To sum up everything the meeting ended up with a radio talk show at Voice of Kamwenge from 9:00pm-10:00pm where the District Speaker, District Councilor People With Disabilities, KALI staff  And The Chairman Advocacy For Vulnerable Groups  In Kamwenge District respectively  discussed the outcomes of the meeting and sensitized the entire district to rally and support PWD’s at their different capacities.

KAMWENGE DISTRICT COUNCILORS PIN CAO OVER SHODDY WORKS

CAO Kamwenge District Mr Muhenda Rujumba responding to the issues raised in the council  

On 30/4/1203, KALI was invited to attend a district council meeting as a follow up of the exposure visit on SNE from Kasese district.

Findings/Observations: A report on social services standing committee was presented to district council by the Committee Chairperson Honourable Kamiri Anthony.  The social services comprised of Education, Health and Community Based Services departments.

Under Education and Community Based Services Department/Sector as KALI’s area of concern, the following were noted:

Education Sector

Achievements for FY 2012/2013

·         The District Service Commission has recruited 30 teachers for UPE including SNE programme for the declared vacancies to beef up the ceiling gap;

·         200 hundred teachers have been compiled for confirmation

·         Conducted stakeholders meeting in all sub counties in the district targeting all teachers, head teachers, Sub county chiefs, Parish chiefs, LCCIII chairpersons, SMCs, and PTAs

·         Received inspection grant of 7,039,000/= (Reading Seven million thirty nine thousand shillings only);

·         Received SFG 124,375,913 which gives a total of 465,990,913/= for the three quarters and yet they expected 547,092,000 by the end of 3^rd quarter.

·         Received UPE 187,118,000/= and USE 309,433,000/= deposited directly on school accounts;

·         Construction of teachers’ houses has began at Kyehemba, Mirembe K and Mwora B

·         An education Ordinance has been compiled to tackle some of the issues affecting academic performance in Kamwenge district and it is with the Attorney General for corrections and put into ordinance supplementary legal language,

Challenges noted:

·         Many teachers were deleted from pay roll and this has affected the teaching and learning process in the schools;

·         Conditional grants like SFG are dwindling

·         UPE releases come late and inadequate

·         Dropout rate is still high,

Specific recommendation

Meetings should be held at sub counties to enact byelaws to address problem of poor performance and low completion rates in schools.

Community Based Services department

The department is comprised of Community development, with components like youth, women, PWDs elderly, culture, labour, probation and social welfare.

Observations made: Women councils had spent a long time without holding council meeting due to lack of funds.

Hon. Ngazoire David asked the heads of departments why the international day for PWDs is not celebrated in Kamwenge district and his concern was noted.

Challenges:

·         Insufficient funds to carry out planned activities;

·         Insufficient funds for youth, women and PWDs councils.

·         Limited funding to train or orient women leaders

Verbative Quotes from Honourable District Councilors

 For PWDs Mr. Ngazoire David   

On Education-SNE report

As we were in Kasese District for Exposure visit, the visiting team has briefed and told council how the journey was successful and a lot is admired from Kasese District on SNE. The council has agreed to lay the issues on SNE and recommendations from the learning event in the next council sit scheduled in June, 2013.

On Works Department: Roads

Hon Ngazoire David: The culverts on Kabuga road and pavement are very high for PWDs using wheel chairs to climb over. He asked the council to intervene into the poor work man ship of the works department. He tasked the CAO to explain why roads are in bad state yet we have the Road unit equipment from Kampala.

The council asked CAO if there is an engineer specifically for Works-roads.

Honourable members asked that there is parity in road maintenance allocation/schedule where they said that the grader is more in Kitagwenda county than in Kibale county.

It was from this argument that the council asked the CAO to compile a detailed status report on the works department in the district.

Hon Councilor for Nyabbani S/C:

Nganiko road in Nyabbani Sub County should be pot filled with murram as they wait for the grader to come. The lorry tippers should be used to ferry murram to enable farmers, traders to access the market.

Hon Councilor for Buhanda S/C Mr. Ngabirano: Why are our roads in Buhanda S/C not worked on? Are we not part of the district? The district has failed to maintain the 1.5km road.

On Community Based Services:

Hon Ngazoire told council that the budget for PWDs is not clear in the budget and the International day is not budgeted for, why?

He was invited to preside over a function for PWDs at Kyamingo Primary school but he did not have a budget where to get the money for the activity.

Responses from CAO

The CAO responded as follow: There is a full constituted Works Committee chaired by Hon. MP Dorothy Nsaija. Therefore, the secretary for works should liaise with the MPs so that there is equal parity of resource utilsation in both counties of Kibale and Kitagwenda.

The CAO told the council to have a symbiotic relationship with the office of LCV, CAO and the works department in order to foster development in the district.  

The water engineer doubles as works engineer so there is shortage of staff in the works department. And the current water engineer is a diploma holder.

Force on Account is being used to open community access roads

Lesson learnt

·         The CAO’s office is always open to everyone to share information and all the reports in regard to the development of the district than waiting for the council sitting and is when you report an issue or concern and yet the issue needed an urgent attention by the relevant person. This is not communication but accusation which should be avoided in future.

·         The CAO apologized to Hon Ngazoire David about the poor road conditions.

·         The Council has got oversight roles where they should monitor and oversee the activities done in their respective sub counties. So joint monitoring was emphasized despite the lack of monitoring funds.

·         The district council has held two Council sittings without getting their sitting and transport allowances. This is because they cannot wait until they have the money to sit. They have got their district at heart.

·         The Kamwenge District- Production sector-NAADS has compiled an ordinance on Food Security and Banana Bacteria Wilt (BBW) to in order to boost the food production in the district. The ordinances have been taken to the Attorney General for legal implications/consultations so that they are legally bound.  

Radio Talk show programme

Radio talk show on voice of Kamwenge

KALI promotes feedback process in her activities. So as an approach to social accountability radio talk shows are conducted after an activity in order to give feedback to the grassroots who are our targets and end users of the information.

At 800-900pm prime time, KALI hosted the LC V Vice chairperson, District Speaker and a Chairperson for Social Services on Voice of Kamwenge Fm Radio.

The purpose of the talk show was to make the listeners the community to hear what council has resolved on during the council proceedings.

Most of the issues rotated on the Social Services and Works department. The panelists deliberated well as the callers in expected.

Question and Answer Session (Q&A)

The listeners send in their messages on the VOK which some were extracted as:

VOK-Godwin, We have people who don’t know their councilors’ faces yet they elected them. Is it good and professional?  Am Dr. Smart Sindani Enock from Nyakahama 2016 Councilor.

VOK-Godwin, Nimbasiima ahabwaporoguramu ejo, Abebembezi na presenter nibebare kukora omuhanda Kamwenge- Kabuga-Mpamga road, nkonkashi kagwarara hatakamazire kabiri? nari kabatatiremu emifuregye yamizi? Ninye Ntirenganya Philip wa Kamwokya Nyakahama.  

VOK, Supplementary budget is for what? From Atweni Sovio.

VOK, CAO should form a committee to investigate the matter between Maranatha and the maize factory.

Six (6) people called in as Messrs Adebayor from Ishongororo Town Council, Pastor Kabagambe from Nyabikamba, Bajuruzi Boda boda from Bunyaruguru, Vicent Kinyoli from Kamwokya, Atweni Sovio and Stephen Mwebaze from Kabuye, their issue was about Community Access Roads in their respective places.