By Taddeo Rusoke

Whereas Uganda had achieved gender parity in primary school enrolments which in 2016 was at 84.1% for girls and 83.3% for boys (Akseer and Karamperidou, 2020), the outbreak of COVID-19 disease could potentially have far reaching effects on the education sector in Uganda.

But further adverse effects could be felt by pupils in proximity to protected areas. 

Data from UNESCO Global Monitoring of School Closures caused by COVID-19 pandemic highlights that children in Uganda missed 149 school days between March 2020 and February 2021. 

We are under a new lockdown again, how many more school days could be lost to school closures?

During the mid-19th century, the Government of Uganda started the creation of protected areas such as national parks and other wildlife management areas which necessitated the recovery of wild animal populations. 

The increasing wild animal populations eventually stray into densely cultivated agricultural lands, causing crop damage (Naughton-Treves et al., 2011). Though wild animals continue to damage crops, this does not mean that protected area management institutions are not doing enough to protect farmers’ crops in Uganda. 

Damage of crops affects livelihoods of farmers who are almost entirely dependent on agriculture and this has resulted in protecting crop farms by school-going children. 

(The author’s opinions consider recovering animal populations within Kibale National Park (KNP), a Park with the highest population density of primates in Uganda and the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary.) 

About 13 species of monkeys live in KNP and six of them are implicated to damage crops grown by farmers.

Kibale National Park is bordered by five districts which include Kabarole, Kyenjojo, Kasese, Bunyangabu, and Kamwenge. Inhabitants in these districts are predominantly farmers. Any form of damage on their crops by wild animals as elaborated by Mackenzie et al., (2020) constrains conservation efforts and directly involves school-going children especially boys who have to guard crop farms. 

This is expected to affect school enrolment and gender parity. It should be noted that most wild animals’ species in the class primate genera devour the major crops grown by farmers within the five districts bordering KNP (Hill, 2017).

Before the outbreak of COVID-19 disease, children in proximity to KNP and Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary (BWS) have been vulnerable to dropping out of schools in favour of guarding crop farms against wild animals’ damage. The outbreak of the COVID-19 and the uncertainty surrounding the official dates of returning back to schools casts a bleak future on their education and could escalate further school dropouts and absenteeism. 

Conservationists such as Rusoke, 2020; Hill, 2017, Mackenzie et al., (2016) have long acknowledged that guarding of crops by school-going children in proximity to national parks in Uganda translates to loss of adequate time on sleep, increased absenteeism, and failure for children to complete primary schooling which is a barrier to achieving Sustainable Development Goal No. 4 on Quality Education. 

Before COVID-19 outbreak school-going children have been observed across the five districts bordering KNP guarding crop farms against wild animals. 

Some children around Bigodi Trading Center have always missed school in favour of selling arts and crafts, moulded clays and snacks to tourists. Most of these school-going children are aged between 5 and 13. 

Most, supposedly school-going children guard gardens with help from dogs, some sound empty tins to chase away wild animals such as monkeys and baboons from crop gardens, others light fire to scare away wild animals and some make noise all day long to scare aware crop damaging wild animals. 

In my opinion, the questions that need to be answered during and after COVID-19 disease linger on how to increase school enrolment among children in protected area communities at primary level.

Understanding the implications of COVID-19 disease outbreak on the future of pupils near protected areas; How to deal with absenteeism among children in protected area communities and suggesting appropriate education policy plans for pupils in proximity to protected areas in Uganda.

Dr. Taddeo Rusoke is a lecturer of conservation sciences at Nkumba University and a Research Fellow with Africa One Consult Limited. trusoke@nkumbauniversity.ac.ug