Butebo parents build school

Dec 13, 2006

PALLISA<br><br>MODERN classroom blocks have been constructed in Kadesok Primary School in Kayepe village, Kibale sub-county in Pallisa district replacing makeshift structures.

PALLISA

By Jonathan Angura

MODERN classroom blocks have been constructed in Kadesok Primary School in Kayepe village, Kibale sub-county in Pallisa district replacing makeshift structures.

The district council supplement ed the parents’ efforts after establishing the school to construct modern structures and in the 2004/2005 financial year, allocated sh34m for that purpose.

“Construction of two blocks of two-classrooms each and an office was done using sh34m under the School Facilitation Grant (SFG),” said Francis Okiror, the district information officer.

The community contributed building materials like bricks, sand, stones and unskilled labour.

The construction contract was awarded to Kaderuna Women’s Association that won the tender under the Poverty Alleviation Fund programme.

The LC3 chairman, Jude Anguria said parents were urged to take their children to the school and feed them. “We mobilised parents in the building and taking of their children to the school,” Anguria said.

The school located on the Pallisa–Butebo Road, has been taken over by the Government.

Five teachers have been deployed by, however, they lack accommodation.

The school has a population of 765 pupils and six classes. Four classes are in the new buildings and the others are still under the trees.

Moses Kedi, a member of the school management committee, said under SFG, desks for the school were also acquired.

Kadesok Primary School started after the parents and the LCs realised a need to have a school because the nearest schools were far.

Meetings were convened on Sundays and the issue of starting a school discussed. Kayepe village LC1 chairman Robert Okodel headed the committee that steered the starting of the school.

Okodel said Kadesok Church of Uganda donated five acres of land on which the school was set up. “Since the land was availed, we mobilised children and teachers. The project took off in 1999 as community school with two classes under a tree,” said Okodel the founder volunteer headteacher.

“We started with about 200 pupils and the number continued increasing.

“Parents were later asked to pay fees: sh1,000 for P.1 and P.2, sh1,500 for P.3 while pupils in P.4 paid sh2,000 each,” Okodel adds.
“Our children used to suffer under the hot sun and in rain because they were trekking long distances to school,” said John Okirima, a parent of four children in the school.

He was grateful to councillor Emmanuel Odele, whom he said lobbied for assistance from the district for the school to get the SFG grant and helped it get a centre number from ministry of education.

“I used to wake up my children very early to enable them reach school in time because the nearest school was about 7km but now they walk a distance of about one kilometre to Kadesok Primary School,” Loyce Akello said.

“It is an achievement we are proud of and we ask the district to continue assisting the school with more classrooms and teachers’ houses,” Kedi said.

Anguria appeals to parents to give more land for the expansion of the school adding that there was need for a borehole at the school to alleviate the water problem.

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