Northern Girls Lag Behind In Literacy
AT LEAST 75% of young girls in northern Uganda are not attending school, research findings have shown.
Karimojong pupils baby-sit young siblings in class, headteachers say
By Denis Ocwich
AT LEAST 75% of young girls in northern Uganda are not attending school, research findings have shown.
According to a policy document by the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF) project, which is due to be effective in November, the region scores poorly in education, and girls in particular are affected.
“Current literacy rates for women in the North are below the national average of 54%,†said the report, compiled mid this year.
The document added that in Karamoja, the literacy rate was as low as 12%, compared to the national average of 58% of the 23 million Ugandans.
It attributed the high rate of illiteracy in Acholi, Lango and Karamoja, as well as West Nile, primarily to poverty. An estimated 66% of the region’s 6.5 million people live below the poverty line.
“Whereas significant gains in reducing poverty have been recorded throughout most of the country, the North has continued to lag behind, and in fact has realised comparatively less reduction in poverty,†says the study, which was funded by the World Bank.
It said the implementation of the sh230b NUSAF would take cognisance of the factors which have hindered the north’s development, including insecurity, cattle rustling, and the financial incapacity of the district administrations to boost education.
Construction of schools and other educational facilities is one of the activities to be carried out under the five-year NUSAF scheme that covers 18 districts of Teso, Karamoja, Acholi, Lango and West Nile.
Meanwhile, Nathan Etengu reports that girls’ education is facing one of its worst challenges in the Karamoja region: many girl pupils have to baby-sit their younger siblings as they attend lessons.
The siblings, sometimes brought into class by their mothers in the middle of a lesson, often cry and even defecate in the classroom, prompting the girls to abandon the lesson in order to attend to them.
Head teachers told Education Vision that the siblings had been drawn to the school by the free food given to the pupils under the World Food Programme (WFP) funded school feeding project.
The project also gives girls a package of food to take home, to help persuade their parents not to discontinue them from studies.
“Sometimes a mother can walk into the classroom in disregard to the on-going lesson and merely call her daughter and dump the sibling on her lap before walking away to the market to drink,†Geoffrey Alinga, the headmaster of Kakomongole Primary School, said on October 15.
“Baby-sitting has made studies very difficult, particularly for the girl child,†Alinga said.
He told the Head of the European Union mission, ambassador Illing Sigurd, that the school lacked accommodation for teachers.
He said that the four-classroom block constructed with funding from the EU was not enough to meet the ever-increasing number of pupils in the school.
Sigurd advised the school administration to ask the parents to contribute towards the construction of the teachers’ houses and kitchen.
He said that the presence of the under-age children in the classrooms also created unnecessary congestion that made it extremely difficult for the teachers to focus on the genuine pupils.
Some of the under-age pupils The New Vision saw had containers for food while others were being carried on their sisters’ and brothers’ backs.
Nakapiripirit chief administrative officer, Mr. Churchill Lokoroi Lepera, said food was being used to lure the under-age children to the schools so that they can get used to the environment.
“In so doing they get used to the school environment and would, with time pick interest in studying, when they reach the age of starting classes,†Lokoroi said.
He said the district was intending to use the same approach to carry out de-worming and future immunisation of the children.Ends
By Denis Ocwich
AT LEAST 75% of young girls in northern Uganda are not attending school, research findings have shown.
According to a policy document by the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF) project, which is due to be effective in November, the region scores poorly in education, and girls in particular are affected.
“Current literacy rates for women in the North are below the national average of 54%,†said the report, compiled mid this year.
The document added that in Karamoja, the literacy rate was as low as 12%, compared to the national average of 58% of the 23 million Ugandans.
It attributed the high rate of illiteracy in Acholi, Lango and Karamoja, as well as West Nile, primarily to poverty. An estimated 66% of the region’s 6.5 million people live below the poverty line.
“Whereas significant gains in reducing poverty have been recorded throughout most of the country, the North has continued to lag behind, and in fact has realised comparatively less reduction in poverty,†says the study, which was funded by the World Bank.
It said the implementation of the sh230b NUSAF would take cognisance of the factors which have hindered the north’s development, including insecurity, cattle rustling, and the financial incapacity of the district administrations to boost education.
Construction of schools and other educational facilities is one of the activities to be carried out under the five-year NUSAF scheme that covers 18 districts of Teso, Karamoja, Acholi, Lango and West Nile.
Meanwhile, Nathan Etengu reports that girls’ education is facing one of its worst challenges in the Karamoja region: many girl pupils have to baby-sit their younger siblings as they attend lessons.
The siblings, sometimes brought into class by their mothers in the middle of a lesson, often cry and even defecate in the classroom, prompting the girls to abandon the lesson in order to attend to them.
Head teachers told Education Vision that the siblings had been drawn to the school by the free food given to the pupils under the World Food Programme (WFP) funded school feeding project.
The project also gives girls a package of food to take home, to help persuade their parents not to discontinue them from studies.
“Sometimes a mother can walk into the classroom in disregard to the on-going lesson and merely call her daughter and dump the sibling on her lap before walking away to the market to drink,†Geoffrey Alinga, the headmaster of Kakomongole Primary School, said on October 15.
“Baby-sitting has made studies very difficult, particularly for the girl child,†Alinga said.
He told the Head of the European Union mission, ambassador Illing Sigurd, that the school lacked accommodation for teachers.
He said that the four-classroom block constructed with funding from the EU was not enough to meet the ever-increasing number of pupils in the school.
Sigurd advised the school administration to ask the parents to contribute towards the construction of the teachers’ houses and kitchen.
He said that the presence of the under-age children in the classrooms also created unnecessary congestion that made it extremely difficult for the teachers to focus on the genuine pupils.
Some of the under-age pupils The New Vision saw had containers for food while others were being carried on their sisters’ and brothers’ backs.
Nakapiripirit chief administrative officer, Mr. Churchill Lokoroi Lepera, said food was being used to lure the under-age children to the schools so that they can get used to the environment.
“In so doing they get used to the school environment and would, with time pick interest in studying, when they reach the age of starting classes,†Lokoroi said.
He said the district was intending to use the same approach to carry out de-worming and future immunisation of the children.Ends