Pupils opt to study under trees due to poor infrastructure

EDUCATION

KASESE - Dirty floors, missing doors and windows and leaking roofs.

The poor state of classroom blocks at Kinyamaseke Primary School in Munkunyu sub-county, Bukonzo East constituency has forced both teachers and pupils to abandon the classrooms and instead study from outside under trees.

Majority of the school's buildings are dilapidated and, with cracks forming on many of them, they look like they could collapse any time.

As such, the pupils and teachers are not taking any chances and have since opted for the relative safety of the outdoors.

With a population of more than 1003 pupils, Kinyamaseke has seen the exit of many pupils and teachers since last year because of the poor infrastructure.

Anna Bwambale (pictured immediately below), the school's headteacher, said that the teachers wrote to her saying that they can't teach in condemned buildings, because their lives and those of the pupils are at risk.

She said the teachers told her that they will only return to the classrooms after renovations have been done.

"The structures are in very bad condition. The district engineer visited the school and told us that it was unfit to be used," said Bwambale.

Parents had mobilized money for renovations at the UPE school, which was constructed in the 1980s, but the money was not enough, added the headteacher.

As a result, pupils from Primary four, five and six are now studying in shifts whenever it rains because they have to share the only available three classrooms.

Jackson Baluku, a parent at the school and member of the Parents and Teachers Association (PTA), said that the district education department should find an alternative place for their children at least until the end of the year.

He said it's unfair for the education department to put the burden of renovating the classrooms on parents who can't afford the costs.

According to him, whenever it rains, pupils don't study for fear of the dilapidated structures collapsing on them.

Scovia Masika is the monitoring and evaluations officer at Karambi Action for Life Improvement, a Kasese-based NGO. She said on an impromptu visit to the school recently that they would provide ironsheets to the school for roofing. 

"We have been at Kinyamaseke Primary School but the conditions under which the pupils are learning is appalling and that the district education department should work on the buildings," she said.

George Mayinja, the district education officer for Kasese, said he has visited the school and that they are aware of the challenge but the department has no money to work on the structures.

The Uganda Debt Network recently released a report on the state of education in UPE and USE schools.

The report followed a survey in selected schools in which parts of classrooms were found to have been converted into teachers' accommodation, pupils shared latrines with teachers, girls and boys shared latrines and pupils studied in highly congested classrooms without desks.