Registering students for National IDs underway

Wakiso district NIRA head, Edwin Wesonga training the 275 enrolment officers at the district headquarters. Photo by Job Nantakiika

Children with parents without the national identification cards are going to miss registration of school children for the cards. 

This was revealed by the NIRA head in Wakiso district Edwin Wesonga during the training of the 275 enrolment officers at the district headquarters on Tuesday. 

Wesonga said the parents' identification card is very vital in this exercise saying that it's going to work as an LC1 letter for the children. 

"No child is going to register when the parents have no IDs and those who registered for the IDs and they have not yet picked them should go and get them and if the parents died, then they should produce the death certificate or an LC letter to confirm the departure of the parents," said Wesonga. 

He added that the exercise is going to start Wednesday and it's going to begin with all sub counties in Kyadondo and the enrolment officers will be moving from one school to another. 

Non Ugandans with children in schools here will be required to produce their passports to confirm that the parent is residing in Uganda and the children will get alien identification numbers while Ugandans will get NIN numbers. 

Children with 16 years and below are going to be issued with a NIN number and those above 16 will get a national identification card. 

The national coordinator of the exercise and the Minister of State for Primary Education, Rosemary Sseninde, said that the exercise is very vital to the country and that Uganda has been losing over 200m UPE funds to ghost children. 

"Head teachers have been exaggerating the number of children they have in schools and the government has been losing a lot of money but I'm very sure that once this exercise is done, the practice of ghost children will be no more," said Sseninde. 

She further said that there has been a tendency to forge academic papers but the registration exercise is going to stop it because the Ministry of Education is going to create a system that follows children from primary school up to university.