Parents urged to embrace scouting

Parents have been told not to stop their children from joining scouting because it helps the children grow physically and improve their confidence.

The patron leader of the girl guides and scouts group of Busega Preparatory School, Suzan Namugembe, said parents think scouting is a wasteful activity where pupils go and jump during camping.

"Parents have a perception that when children go out for camping they just meet people of the opposite sex. But there are different camps for each sex," Namagembe said, adding that children only interact when there is need for socialising and sharing ideas.

She said as leaders in the scouting clubs, they get a chance to interact, teach the pupils a number of skills, including how to cook and clean their homesteads. Namagembe added that parents do not get a chance to interact with their children since they wake up early and leave them with housemaids to go to places of work.

"When children join scouting, it trains leaders to be confident. When they come here, we give them a chance to speak, to command and in that way they are becoming confident. At the end of the day they become good leaders," Namagembe noted.

The remarks were made at the investering (baptising) ceremony of 60 scouts and guides from primary three to seven at Busega Preparatory School in Wakiso District. Investering means allowing the boy scouts and girl guides to put on uniforms with scout badges.  

The headteacher, Robina Lule, said they started the scouts club in 1996 to instill discipline because scouts respond to rules and regulations properly.