Moroto High School shines on
The giant of Karamoja, Moroto high school has undergone transformation after years of great indiscipline, poor academic performance and structure dilapidation.
The giant of Karamoja, Moroto high school has undergone transformation after years of great indiscipline, poor academic performance and structure dilapidation.
Community living around the school tells of the harmonious stay they had with the school during its glorious times, the wrath they faced at its worst and now the joy they have found in their neighbour dubbing it the rising sun.
“Ha! I tell you the place was an open auction market where any body traded lust at any time, a show ground of drunkards and a centre of immoral and evil deeds but now its paradise every parent around flocks,†testified one resident.
What is amazing everybody is the way students now stay in their school uniform all day long unlike in the past when students did not know the meaning of being at school.
“We appreciate the efforts of the administration. Together with the help of the headmaster and his deputies, everything has become okay. The history the head teacher found this school in can not be told,†lamented an S.6 student.
Peter Ngati, the out going headprefect told Education vision that when his regime was voted in, new structures to handle indiscipline were brought in starting with the prefects themselves. A joint teacher-prefect committee was formed which has to sit regularly and can be called at short notice.
“We cannot achieve discipline by ourselves. Students need guiding and counselling. They readily don’t accept their mistakes. What is left if students are to achieve their goals is the parents’ contribution.
Parents should not leave the responsibility to teachers alone. Since I joined Moroto High, I have never seen parents come together with teachers. This makes the administration to limp,†notes Ngati.
He goes ahead to disclose that parents’ concern will lead to a well informed and focussed school if the gap is closed leaving an everlasting achievement for the school.
Located on the slopes of the mountain where it derives its name, Moroto high school was started in 1965 as a boys boarding with O’ level status. In 1991, it became an A’ level mixed day and boarding school.
However, it remained with O’ level facilities.
The school’s fortunes changed when Martin Brenan the then US ambassador visited it in 2000. He saw the sorry state it was in and pledged to support it financially.
“The school was in shambles with students sleeping on the floor, there was no furniture, no dining hall, no library and books were kept in the store. The ambassador promised he was going to do something.
“In 2001, he came up with the assistance that handled the dining hall, kitchen and a face lift to the complex hall which is the boys’ dormitory at a cost of sh289m,†recalls the George Ruremire, the headteacher.
This saw the fencing of the school using a chain link at the cost of sh129m implemented by Karamoja Programme Initiative Unit. The school got a donation of books worth sh36m. World Links an organisation dealing in information technology equipped the school with a telecentre, which is connected to seven computers, now serving both students and the community.
Government, through ministry of education and Sports released sh26m for furniture and rehabilitation while other funds came from the European Union to build the girls’ hostel.
“The school has changed. Academic performance is improving. Last year we did well, we expect to excel this time,†says the headteacher.
Enrolment has shot up from 521 in 2001 to 900 students 325 of who are girls. There are 35 teachers, 12 of them graduates, two untrained, five part timers.
Of the 35 teachers, 13 are on the payroll.
There is, however, still a gap. There are inadequate facilities for teaching sciences at A’ level.
The school lacks labs, girls’ dormitories which Ruremire says, have forced them to turn down girl applications although vacancies are there.
“As for girl education in Karamoja, we feel sad when we turn them down just because they don’t have where to sleep,†Ruremire says.
The school has no running water but has a borehole.
The most embarrassing of all is the teachers’ accommodation. The available houses, which are even not enough, are dilapidated. They are inhabitable and have forced a number of teachers to take refuge in garages of the still existing ones.
Community living around the school tells of the harmonious stay they had with the school during its glorious times, the wrath they faced at its worst and now the joy they have found in their neighbour dubbing it the rising sun.
“Ha! I tell you the place was an open auction market where any body traded lust at any time, a show ground of drunkards and a centre of immoral and evil deeds but now its paradise every parent around flocks,†testified one resident.
What is amazing everybody is the way students now stay in their school uniform all day long unlike in the past when students did not know the meaning of being at school.
“We appreciate the efforts of the administration. Together with the help of the headmaster and his deputies, everything has become okay. The history the head teacher found this school in can not be told,†lamented an S.6 student.
Peter Ngati, the out going headprefect told Education vision that when his regime was voted in, new structures to handle indiscipline were brought in starting with the prefects themselves. A joint teacher-prefect committee was formed which has to sit regularly and can be called at short notice.
“We cannot achieve discipline by ourselves. Students need guiding and counselling. They readily don’t accept their mistakes. What is left if students are to achieve their goals is the parents’ contribution.
Parents should not leave the responsibility to teachers alone. Since I joined Moroto High, I have never seen parents come together with teachers. This makes the administration to limp,†notes Ngati.
He goes ahead to disclose that parents’ concern will lead to a well informed and focussed school if the gap is closed leaving an everlasting achievement for the school.
Located on the slopes of the mountain where it derives its name, Moroto high school was started in 1965 as a boys boarding with O’ level status. In 1991, it became an A’ level mixed day and boarding school.
However, it remained with O’ level facilities.
The school’s fortunes changed when Martin Brenan the then US ambassador visited it in 2000. He saw the sorry state it was in and pledged to support it financially.
“The school was in shambles with students sleeping on the floor, there was no furniture, no dining hall, no library and books were kept in the store. The ambassador promised he was going to do something.
“In 2001, he came up with the assistance that handled the dining hall, kitchen and a face lift to the complex hall which is the boys’ dormitory at a cost of sh289m,†recalls the George Ruremire, the headteacher.
This saw the fencing of the school using a chain link at the cost of sh129m implemented by Karamoja Programme Initiative Unit. The school got a donation of books worth sh36m. World Links an organisation dealing in information technology equipped the school with a telecentre, which is connected to seven computers, now serving both students and the community.
Government, through ministry of education and Sports released sh26m for furniture and rehabilitation while other funds came from the European Union to build the girls’ hostel.
“The school has changed. Academic performance is improving. Last year we did well, we expect to excel this time,†says the headteacher.
Enrolment has shot up from 521 in 2001 to 900 students 325 of who are girls. There are 35 teachers, 12 of them graduates, two untrained, five part timers.
Of the 35 teachers, 13 are on the payroll.
There is, however, still a gap. There are inadequate facilities for teaching sciences at A’ level.
The school lacks labs, girls’ dormitories which Ruremire says, have forced them to turn down girl applications although vacancies are there.
“As for girl education in Karamoja, we feel sad when we turn them down just because they don’t have where to sleep,†Ruremire says.
The school has no running water but has a borehole.
The most embarrassing of all is the teachers’ accommodation. The available houses, which are even not enough, are dilapidated. They are inhabitable and have forced a number of teachers to take refuge in garages of the still existing ones.