Parents sign promissory notes in lieu of school fees

Nov 09, 2003

The week kicked off with a horrifying headline - 13 pupils of Padrabe Primary School in Arua district died this year between January and October due to early pregnancies.

The week kicked off with a horrifying headline - 13 pupils of Padrabe Primary School in Arua district died this year between January and October due to early pregnancies.

JeroLam Omach, a Straight Talk project officer made the hair raising revelation at the closure of a Primary School teachers’ workshop on adolescent reproductive health in Arua.

Startling, as it was, the district secretary for education, Cyril Eriku, wasted no time in apportioning blame on video shows and discos. He said they were contributing to early sex and sex related problems. His rhetoric however fell short of offering solutions.

Perhaps it is time for the Education Ministry to probe the matter further.
Tragedies aside, a bright idea was conceived in that part of the country during the week.

Districts in West Nile proposed that Government sponsorship of students in public Universities should be scrapped.
They told Education Ministry officials at a meeting in Arua that students’ loans channelled through districts should replace Government sponsorship.

If the idea is adopted and well implemented it might actually be a better option to the quota system.
Come to think of it, I had always thought cutting and sealing deals was a preserve of businessmen.

The week proved me dead wrong. Parents of at least 200 students signed agreements with various school administrators in Kampala to allow their children who had defaulted payment of school dues to sit for O’ and A’ level UNEB papers.

In Lubiri Secondary School alone 150 students had reason to smile when they were allowed into the examination rooms after the deals had been sealed.

As the year comes to a close, donors, policy makers, academicians, local government officials and legislators met in Kampala during for the bi-annual Education Sector Review workshop.

The highlights included a pronouncement by Education Minister Kiddu Makubuya that Government would double Secondary school bursaries from sh510m to over sh1b. He said 1,844 students had benefited from the scheme this year of which 825 were girls.

Speaking on behalf of donors, the Danish Ambassador Matthieu Peters warned the Education Ministry against putting in place policies without matching funds.

He also expressed worry at the high drop out rate under UPE. With only 20% of the pioneers of UPE completing the cycle this year, the Education Ministry has a lot of work to do.

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