Some 20 children, parents rounded up for dodging school

Jul 21, 2012

Twenty-one school-going children and their parents were rounded up in an operation to crackdown on school dropouts in a village in Kagadi town council, Kibaale district

By Ismael Kasooha in Kibaale

A total of 21 school-going children and their parents were on Friday rounded up in an operation to crackdown on school dropouts in a village in Kagadi town council, Kibaale district.

Some of the children were infested with jiggers while others were in a filthy state, unkempt.

The law enforcement officer Kagadi town council, Esther Nabukwasi said that they decided to raid Nyakarongo village after numerous reports of increased school dropouts at Nyaruziba primary school emerged.

“We acted on a tip off from the village chairman Gard Bazeyaka who reported that the situation was running out of hand as many children were dropping out of school,” said Nabukwasi.

Some of the children were found making mud bricks during school hours.

Prisca Tweyongyere, one of the parents arrested with her three children said that the children dropped out of school because their father, Richard Saturday failed to provide them with necessary scholastic material.

“I have nothing to do about it because my husband has refused to give these children books and pens to go to school,” said Tweyongyere, who believes that her children’s father “doesn’t care for them”.

Another parent, Justine Mahooro said that the children had stubbornly refused to go to school, and that she could not do much about it.

“The children are big-headed and they do not heed to our advice, her voiced was filled with disappointment and hopelessness.

Among the children arrested was a 16-year-old girl who dropped out of Senior Two after being defiled and impregnated by a fellow student.

The mother of the defiled girl said that her daughter had refused to reveal the person who impregnated her.

All she can do, she says, is to wait for her daughter to deliver.

Kagadi town council clerk, John Bosco Ssewanyana said the arrested parents would be counseled and freed so that they can convince their children to remain in school.

 

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