Refugee learners write their dreams

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EDUCATION

Uganda is one of the largest refugee-hosting nations in the world, with 1,660,524 refugees as of March 2024.

The influx of refugees is due to several factors in Uganda’s neighbouring countries, especially war and violence in South Sudan and DR Congo, and associated economic crises and political instability in the region.

However, refugees continue to have several difficulties in accessing social services, even with efforts made by the Government and development partners to guarantee their comfort.

The refugee influx in Uganda did not only cause an increased population in the areas of settlement but also pressure on the available resources. Hope Mafaranga and Rogers Sunday look at access to education in primary and secondary schools.

Bukere Primary School and Bukere Secondary School are some of the outstanding academic institutions in Kyaka II Refugee Settlement in Kyegegwa district.

Bukere Primary School was founded in 1986 while Bukere Secondary School was recently established in 2022. Both schools neighbour each other.

Currently, the primary section has an enrolment of 4,562 pupils, while the secondary school has 1,556 students. Despite the fact that the two institutions admit learners from both the refugee and host communities, statistics indicate that the refugee population surpluses that of the host community.

Learners speak out  

Christella Lumamba, a Senior Five student, said she wants to become a lawyer to address some of the injustices in society.

“I want to stand up and advocate the rights of vulnerable people because there is a lot of violence  in society,” Lumamba said, adding that she has witnessed several forms of violations and yet no justice is delivered to the victims.

“It is hurting that some men continue to violate the rights of the girl child but because of their (girls) humble background and due to parents’ inability to fight for justice, perpetrators walk scot free” Lumamba said.

Tresol Byiringiro, a Primary Seven candidate, said he dreams of establishing his own business empire because he was disgusted by how his elder brother was dismissed from work by his former employees.

Manzi Baraguma, a Senior Three student, is excited with the ongoing establishment of the 100-seater computer laboratory at their school.

“Computer and information communication technology is the future of the world. I am so happy that we shall soon have these lessons,” Baraguma said.

Tuliya Zadaha, a Primary Seven candidate, told New Vision that she enrolled at Bukere Primary School three years ago after she relocated to Uganda from DR Congo.

Zadaha said adapting from being taught in French to attending classes in English language was a challenge.

“The teachers in Uganda did not know a lot of French and the best they could do was to explain to us some of the classwork in Swahili,” Zadaha said.

She said the conducive learning environment and the strong commitment from the teachers helped her to adapt to the English language within a short time.

Tuliya Zadaha

Enrolment on sharp rise  

Vallence Tukacungurwa, the headteacher of Bukere Secondary School, said despite the fact the school opened two years ago with an enrolment of only 649 students, the current total enrolment is 1,556.

“As a school, we did our first UNEB exam last year with a total number of  149 candidates. Of those, 10 passed in first grade and 23 in second grade,” Tukacungurwa said. To ensure continuity, the school has this year introduced Senior Five class.

Tukacungurwa said a total of 126 learners have so far enrolled. Currently, 65% of the school population are refugee students.

At Bukere Primary School, Samuel Alinde, the deputy headteacher, attributes the increasing enrolment to the school’s improved performance at the national level.

“It is one of the best-performing schools in Kyegegwa district. That is why parents have trust in us,” he said.

Alinde said 90% of their Primary Seven candidates later on enrol for Senior One.

Supporting girlchild education

Menstrual hygiene is one of the leading causes of school dropouts among girls in the settlement.  

“Through our partners, all female learners at Bukere Secondary School receive free sanitary pads. This strategic measure has helped them to continuously attend lessons and also stay in school,” Tukacungurwa said.

Learners accommodated

Bukere Secondary School has been able to establish a boarding section for its learners.

As of today, the boarding section only accommodates 100 learners. Tukacungurwa said priority was given to girls, given the risks they face while walking to and from school on a daily basis.

Christella Lumamba

“The standard on which Bukere Secondary School is has been able to attract learners from the furthest point of the refugee camp. And due to the parents’ demand, we were compelled to establish a boarding section to accommodate learners that come from afar,” Tukacungurwa said.

For the boarding section specifically, Tukacungurwa said each learner is asked to make a contribution of sh260,000 per term to majorly cater for meals and other utilities.

Livelihood project for learners  

A livelihood project that is being implemented by the school administration has answered needs. Under the school’s livelihood project, learners are offered free plots of land by the school administration to carry out farming.

The learners later on choose to either sell off the proceedings from their gardens to pay the boarding fees or contribute with the solid food that they have harvested.

“If one decides to bring food to the school, each learner then brings at least 45kg of maize flour and 25kg of beans for the entire term,” Tukacungurwa said.

Congestion still a challenge

Despite the support from both the Government and development partners, the schools are still challenged by shortage of facilities. At Bukere Primary School, for example, one teacher attends to at least three separate classes in a day,  with each class having a minimum of 100 learners.

“We have a total of 30 classroom blocks, some of which are temporary structures while other learners sit in tents,” Alinde said.

“We have 720 desks only, which are not enough. In fact, for Primary One and Primary Two, the pupils sit on bare floor and the disadvantage is that it affects writing skills of the learners,” Alinde said.

Tukacungurwa said the school receives a few education instruction materials from the Government. Both schools accommodate a few teachers while others continue to move longer distances from home to school.

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Govt, partner support

From their annual performance report, the Education Service Commission indicates that in the financial year of 2019/2020, 2,180 teachers were recruited into the service against a set target of 20,000.

Education Service Commission chairperson Prof. Samuel Abimerech Luboga added that most of the 2,180 teachers they recruited were for the newly grant-ided secondary schools and others are for various schools on replacement basis.

The Education Service Commission implored Parliament to intervene to address the challenges of underfunding, which limits their operations.

Prof. Luboga told the committee that the commission currently has an old fleet of vehicles, which makes it difficult for them to carry out field activities.

The commission requires sh2.4b to replace some of its most vital fleets.

This story project was done with support from WAN-IFRA Women in News Social Impact Reporting Initiatives grant. However, the views expressed are not those of the sponsor.