Head teachers petition RDC on private schools

By Luke Kagiri
 
Parents and head teachers in government aided schools in Mityana have petitioned the district leadership to close all private owned schools which do not meet the requirements.
 
According to them, many private school proprietors are decampaining the government schools.
 
The problem was especially cited in Busimbi Sub County where over thirty private schools have been opened up in just two months.
 
“Many of these schools are started near government schools, and their teachers go around the villages, derrogating and talking ill of government schools with an aim of getting the pupils to cross to theirs,” one of the teachers told the RDC.
 
On receiving the complaints, the RDC last week held series of meetings with some parents and teachers, to establish the effect.
 
In one of the meetings at Naama Junior P/S, a government aided school, Walusimbi was told that the number of pupils had dropped to one hundred and fifty from seven hundred, as the parents were taking them to private schools.
 
“These schools however do not have good facilities, but as parents we are at times forced to take there our pupils because we are convinced that government schools are bad,” one of the parents told the RDC.

 
In response, the RDC directed that all the privately owned schools which have been established but do not meet the requirements should be closed within one week.
 
He said the education department and other district leaders should ensure that the new schools are started in the locations where they are needed.
 
 
He however warned teachers in government aided schools to be extra careful and fulfill their duties.
 
“You have the salalires which you even get in time, and the facilities are avalible, but it’s a pitty that still the pupils fail the final examinations. This means you do not fulfill your duties,” he said.
 
DEO comments

The district education officer, Rovinsa Namigadde, admitted that some private schools have been illegally started near the government schools and are facing closure.
 
She said she had not received any official complaint from the government schools about the private school teachers.