Four Yumbe government schools operating without toilets

When Rahman Atiku, the headteacher of Kanaabu Hill Primary School in Yumbe and his pupils met the district inspector of schools during a community dialogue in Kei sub-county near the Uganda-South Sudan border, he thought the biggest problem facing his school was going to be solved. 

“At our school, we have one old pit latrine that is shared by both pupils and teachers. Most of the girls fear easing themselves because of lack of privacy. It is worse when the girls are in their periods. They do not have a private place for cleaning themselves,” Never Faridah, a Primary Six pupil, told the Yumbe district leaders last week. 

Pointing at the bush next to the school, Faridah’s headteacher (Atiku), said most of the pupils use it to ease themselves instead of the latrine.

Bad news from Inspector 

When the Yumbe district inspector of schools in charge of Aringa County, Adnan Anguyo, stood up to speak, he further dampened the children’s hopes when he said their school was lucky to have one pit latrine because there were others with no latrines. 

“At Kanaabu Hillside, you are lucky to have a pit latrine because other institutions like Jalasa Primary School have none. The only latrine at the school collapsed after heavy rains last year. Nowadays, the pupils ease themselves in the bushes around the school. Langba Primary School also has no latrine. There are about four schools with zero latrine coverage in Yumbe,” he said. 

In an interview with New Vision, Anguyo blamed the lack of toilets in schools on limited resources and failure by the district leadership to prioritise education during the budgeting process. 

“The budget is made by the district executive, which is made up of politicians. They do not always allocate enough resources to the education sector. There is little we can do,” he said. 

The secretary for social services at Yumbe district local government, Aguku Samadu, said their hands are tied because the resources they receive from the central government are few. 

“A district like Yumbe gets about sh67b from the central government, but more than half of it will go to the wage bill and very little to development,” he said. 

This was during a community dialogue organised by the Uganda Society for Disabled Children (USDC) at Kei Primary School in Kei sub-county, Yumbe district on Wednesday (April 16). 

A latrine at Kanaabu Hill Primary School that was constructed using contributions from parents.

The function was organised to highlight issues that hinder the attainment of inclusive education in Uganda. 

Apart from latrine shortage, primary schools in the district are grappling with staff shortage amid growing numbers driven by the refugee crisis due to the fighting in South Sudan. 

“In my school, the enrolment is now 1,165 and we are 12 teachers, making the teacher to pupil ratio 1:97 yet the recommended one is 1:53. Unlike in other schools where headteachers do only administrative work, here I have to also teach. 

The other issue is about desks: the entire school has 57 desks, which are mainly used by the candidate and semi-candidate classes. Most of the pupils sit on the floor. We have 139 learners with disabilities yet there is no special needs teacher to take care of them,” Atiku said. 

At Kei Primary School, which is the last on the border with South Sudan in Rotho village, Kei sub-county, the situation is not any better. 

Robert Angoliga, the headteacher, says the school has 1,598 pupils with 11 teachers, making the teacher to pupil ratio 1:145. To make matters worse, the desks are few. 

“We have 124 desks in the entire school. Most of the pupils sit on the floor,” he said.

Dolorence Were

During the community dialogue, Faridah Aliru, a Primary Six pupil, said most schools in her area do not have female teachers, whom female learners can speak to on the challenges they face. But inspectorAnguyo’s response to the children’s cries did not change. 

“These two schools are lucky to have 12 teachers because there are others that have four. Jalasa Primary School and Mijirikita Primary School are manned by four teachers, he revealed. 

At Kalaji Primary School in Kirewa sub-county, the entire school is manned by four teachers. It was not surprising when all its Primary Seven candidates failed the Primary Leaving Examinations in 2024. 

The school presented 16 candidates for the examinations and the best scored aggregate 33. The rest scored an average of aggregate 35. 

Robert Atama, the school headteacher, attributed the bad performance to understaffing and bad infrastructure. Atama said the school has only two classrooms. 

“The school has only two classrooms and the headteachers’ office. The community tried to raise one temporary structure, but it has collapsed because the materials used were substandard,” he said. 

Atama also revealed that the school has no single desk. “Even the candidates sit on bricks and logs, while others carry small stools from home,” he added. 

Moses Achile, the chairperson school management committee, said apart from the staffing and infrastructure challenges, the morale among teachers is low. 

John Angulibo, the senior district inspector of schools, said the performance of the school was never a shock to them. He said most teachers they post to the school consider it hard-to-reach and do not want to stay there for long once they are hired.

Adnan Anguyo

Labourers prey on teens  

At Kanaabu Hill Primary School, the headteacher wants authorities to rein in immigrant labourers who work on tobacco farms in the area. 

“These usually lure the school girls into sex and when they conceive, they run away. The culprits flee and are hard to trace because they are brought here without introduction letters from their areas of origin. Last year, three of my girls fell victim to these labourers,” he said. 

At Kei Primary School, the headteacher said the immigrant labourers.

Complacent parents 

Atama said most of the parents do not care about the future of their children. 

“The majority of the parents send their children to school without books, pens and pencils. So they sit in class without writing,” he said. 

Atama explained that during the rainy season, school attendance drops by more than half because parents take children to farms to help them plant crops. 

“A learner can miss school for a whole week and when you ask them, they tell us they have been digging with their parents,” Atama said.

Dilapidated classrooms at Kei Primary School.

Children with disabilities 

Primary schools such as Kei and Kanaabu Hill have hundreds of children with disabilities yet the district has not recruited a single special needs teacher. 

At Kei Primary School is an 18-year-old pupil with multiple disabilities (hearing, visual, physical and anaemic). 

“That pupil is sick right now, but we always ensure that she is safe at school. Our teachers received basic special needs education training on how to handle them. For example, if a pupil has hearing impairment, we train the classmates to explain concepts to him or her using sign language. 

Rose Lekuru, the Yumbe district inspector of schools in charge of special needs, said there are four schools where special needs children are taken care of, but they would like to have it replicated in every school. 

At Apo Army Boarding Primary School, there are many children with special needs, including refugees, but the Government has never recruited a single teacher there. 

“The few we have are supported by development partners and if they pull out, we shall be without special needs teachers,” Richard Avini, the in-charge of special needs at the school, said. The executive director of Uganda Society for Disabled Children, Dolorence Were, encouraged parents of children with disabilities to take them to school just like any other children. 

“Parents usually write off children with disabilities and keep them home yet they also have the right to education. Take them to school so that they become useful citizens in Uganda,” she said. 

Were also encouraged the community to take the initiative in solving community problems instead of waiting for handouts.

Additional reporting by Adam Gule