Kamuli: Ghost of its past glory

trueBy Andrew Masinde

The walls are coated with algae underneath which is a smattering of what used to be blue paint. The buildings give off the eerie feeling of a haunted area. The ends of the wire mesh perimeter fence meet at an old blue gate that stands wide open.

Yet this is a fully operational school; credit the silence to the ongoing end-of-term examinations.A small signpost near the school gate offers the school’s identity.

It is a Universal Primary Education (UPE) school, struggling to stay afloat partly due to the neglect from parents and community, on top of low funding from the Government.

Kamuli Township Primary School in Kamuli town, eastern Uganda is a ghost of its former self. A few patches of tarmac still hold in this school’s dusty compound; revealing this rural primary school’s former glory.

In the headteacher’s office, there are old, discoloured documents piled on top of a rusty metallic case. Rain water streams in lazily from the old iron-sheet roof.

“Whenever there is a heavy downpour, pupils have to come to my rescue, scooping water from my office floor,” George Napeera, the headteacher, explains.

The staffroom was abandoned. Two iron sheets were blown off by wind many years ago and the roof has never been repaired.

“When it rains, this place floods,” a teacher who prefers anonymity laments. The classrooms are like buildings in a war-torn zone.

Termites burrowed into the rafters of the main building and the entire structure is a crisis-inwaiting. The storeyed structure stands opposite other lifeless blocks with missing window panes.

“Whenever it rains, pupils have to be relocated to another room lest the structure collapses on them,” Napeera says.

School history

The school was set up by Asians in 1963 and taken over by the Government after the expulsion of Asians in 1972. It has not been renovated since. The school has a population of 1,927 pupils currently and it has churned out a number of successful ones.
 

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Napeera has had to improvise with cardboards where the roofs leak

Farida Kambedha, a resident, says she has lived in the area for 52 years and the memories of the glorious times of the school are still fresh.

“It was the best school in the area with magnificent structures. It was everyone’s dream to study in the school, but now it is considered as the last option,” she explains.

Some sources say four headteachers have left the school because of the alarming conditions.

The school gets about sh3.6m per term as displayed on the charts in the headteacher’s office. He says the money is too little for the requirements of the school and it comes late.

Capitation Grant

 “We use three cartons of chalk in a term, costing sh240,000, a ream of manila papers costing sh40,000, our 38 teachers need about 76 counterbooks costing sh532,000 and 12 boxes of pens costing sh180,000.

Napeera explains that this term, the school bought eight soccer balls, four for girls and four for boys, costing sh320,000.

“We also have cricket and volleyball activities all costing close to sh300,000 to keep them working every term,” he explains. He adds that in music, dance and drama, the school is financially constrained, forcing them to give up some of the activities.

“We pay close to sh240,000 for transport per term in terms of the venues and feeding pupils and teachers. We also pay sh400,000 for electricity and water of about sh200,000 per term,” Napeera explains.

He also says, for monthly exams and reports, each child costs the school sh940, which totals to about sh1.8m. He adds that transport for all activities at school cost about sh620,000 a term.

Without detailing all the expenditure in a term, he says the school uses close to sh6.7m when all the expenditure is computed.

“When you consider the amount of money given to us by the Government to run this school, it can never be enough," says Napeera.

Whenever the Government sends money to the school, he calls for a meeting with the parents and teachers association and the school management committee (SMC), to plan for its usage.

“Towards the end of the term, parents are also invited to know how we used the money.

“It is from the meetings that parents suggest the amount they think they can contribute. Without their help, the school would not run."

“The school always calls for meetings and the issue of UPE funds is always talked about. The management tables the accountability to us and indeed I think the school is transparent,” Betty Isiko, a parent, says.
 

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When it rains, the staffroom, which has broken window panes, floods

However, a director of a private school with over 1,400 pupils says he would save between sh3m to sh3.5m annually on the grant. The director spoke to Mwalimu on condition of anonymity.

“I spend between sh6m and sh7.4m in a year on those items,” said the director.

“So with sh7,000 per pupil per year, that would be around sh10m. I would be saving some good money. I have never spent sh10m on those items and other administrative expenses."

Private opinion

The director said he is very frugal with the school expenditure. “I only buy quality items that last long and those strictly needed by the school.”

With other costs assigned to the various stakeholders, the private school proprietors say the annual UPE grant is enough.

The expenditure analysis indicate that the higher the number of pupils, the more the savings since costs of certain instructional materials like chalk, blackboard, duster and charts remain the same irrespective of numbers.

They say about 95% of a school’s expenditure goes to physical infrastructure, feeding, teachers’ salaries, textbooks and furniture.

Officials speak out

The Kamuli district education officer,Joseph Musoke, says Kamuli Township is a school with so many challenges and needs urgent support from the Government.

He says the capitation grants sent to the school is inadequate to make a great improvement on its general performance.

“We always advise the schools to work with SMCs and the PTAs to look for alternative sources of money to help them keep afloat,” Musoke explains.

“We are pleased that the school has worked well amid challenges. They have always submitted their accountability in time and the auditors have never found any fault with them."

The chairman of the parents and teachers association, Charles Galimera, says the headteacher has always invited them for budgeting of the school, whenever the UPE funds are received.

“Since the school has a huge number of pupils, the bills for electricity and water are always high,” he explains. “The Government should help renovate the school’s buildings before they collapse on the pupils and staff.

It should also openly tell parents to contribute some money to supplement the UPE capitation grants.” Galimera says a good number of UPE schools lack of enough infrastructure since the population is high.

Salaamu Musumba, the LC5 chairperson of Kamuli district, says they are not satisfied with the UPE funding.

“How do you expect the school to run on sh2,333 per term for every pupil, which is just bank charges?”