Students stranded after schools closed in Bushenyi

By Abraham Muganzi

Over 10 pre-primary and primary schools in Bushenyi-Ishaka municipality were closed on Wednesday by the municipal education authorities over lack of the necessary facilities.

Most of the affected schools lacked enough facilities for smooth and proper running for instruction, and also for operating without valid licenses.

Dan Mugyenyi, the Bushenyi-Ishaka municipal education officer said the schools were warned beforehand last year.

"We gave a notice at the end of the third term last year for these schools not to open but they have defied our orders. We are left with no option but to close them," he said.

It’s mostly the privately owned schools that came under the axe, as most of them lacked half of the required facilities.

 Besides, these schools employed incompetent staff, and to make it worse some were  being run in residential houses.

Mugyenyi underlined his concern that parents take their children to private schools and not   government - owned institutions which are, according to him, better equipped.

So his call to parents is to enroll their children into government schools and registered private ones.

The closure has affected more than 1,000 pupils and 200 teachers, who are now stranded.

And no doubt this has weighed down heavily on parents who remain uncertain over their children’s academic future.

One parent, Steven Byamanywoha, had his three kids sent back home after their school was closed in the operation. He says he is distressed and has nowhere to take his children since the nearest government school is about five kilometers away.

Initially he sent his kids to a private school on the belief that private schools perform better than government- owned counterparts.