Govt's sh5bn technical school starts admissions

THE newly constructed sh5.8bn Sasira Technical Institute in Nakasongola District has officially opened its gates to students who want to enroll for vocational education.

The state of the art complex which the government constructed at Sasira near Nakasongola town on the Kampala-Gulu highway is to provide both formal and informal vocational training to ‘O' Level leavers and below.

Completed in September last year, Sasira Technical institute is one of the nine similar vocational institutes which the government intends to construct countrywide under a loan from the OPEC International Development Fund (OFID).

According to records from the education ministry, Sasira technical institute was constructed with a loan from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries fund and the Government of Uganda at the tune of sh5.8 billion. Construction works at the institute were completed in 2014.

The institute is located on the Kampala-Gulu highway, five kilometers from Nakasongola town.  It is the first technical institute in Nakasongola district.

The land on which the institute stands was offered for free by a community member after he was told about the project.

James Kyagambiddwa, the Institute's principal says Sasira is one of the nine technical Institutes constructed and equipped by the education ministry, under the Vocational Education Project.

According to the  Project engineer, Nurdin Bukenya  of Arch Design Ltd -the company which supervised the construction, the complex comprises, an administrative block that has six classrooms and a boardroom  and offices. It also has four staff housing units and one dormitory for 250 students.

Also part of the complex are: three workshops, a kitchen, an 85 KVA generator and generator house, a library, a house for the principal.

Other components include: rain water harvesting tanks and a computer laboratory.

Bukenya says more buildings including, one additional dormitory, six classrooms, staff units, and more workshops will be added under the second phase of the construction which is expected to start soon.

According to the Assistant Commissioner in charge of BITVET in the Ministry of education Ilahi Mansoor, "50 government sponsored students will be admitted during the first intake this year."

But more students will be admitted. The institute will start with courses like motor vehicle mechanics, welding and building and concrete practice (BCP).