When hunger rules the class
Sep 28, 2003
IT was keeping children out of school so President Yoweri Museveni said lunch fees be scrapped.
By Lillian Nalumansi
IT was keeping children out of school so President Yoweri Museveni said lunch fees be scrapped. Thus, UPE schools opened for the third term with enforcement of the directive.
Now headteachers say they are facing a crisis, because most children are having their lessons on an empty stomach since neither the schools nor the parents are giving them lunch.
Prossy Ireta, headteacher, Bat Valley Primary School, Bombo Road, said over 860 of the 1,130 pupils that reported on the first day of the term which started last Monday, carried no lunch.
“The children are going hungry. We are in a dilemma. Parents have been flocking here requesting to organise lunch for their children but we cannot against the President’s directive,†Ireta told Education Vision.
“Parents are ready to continue paying the sh10,000 they were paying per term for their children’s lunch. We do not know what to do since government has not yet issued us with guidelines ever since the directive was made,†she added.
Urban UPE schools are all experiencing similar problems with most pupils resorting to stealing their colleagues’ food or crying for it.
“Scrapping lunch provision at school is going to create a class crisis among the pupils. Those that carry good food will consider those who do not to be lower in class status,†a teacher who preferred anonymity said.
The headteachers prefer that the directive not be blanket, but be implemented in schools with very poor parents.
“These were very well-worked out figures. At Kitante we were charging sh20,400 including lunch per term.
“The complaint from parents is that packing food requires them to buy food flasks whose cost is out of their means. Besides, most find packing food on a daily basis very cumbersome, preferring to pay money to the school,†Francis Ssenabulya, headteacher, Kitante PS said.
Other headteachers said they lacked storage facilities for the children’s food containers.
“Our biggest problem is lack of casual workers since we have laid them off. We had five private teachers being supported by parents but we have laid them off because we have no money to pay them. We also laid off the porters and cleaners for the same reason, Ssenabulya said.
Ends
IT was keeping children out of school so President Yoweri Museveni said lunch fees be scrapped. Thus, UPE schools opened for the third term with enforcement of the directive.
Now headteachers say they are facing a crisis, because most children are having their lessons on an empty stomach since neither the schools nor the parents are giving them lunch.
Prossy Ireta, headteacher, Bat Valley Primary School, Bombo Road, said over 860 of the 1,130 pupils that reported on the first day of the term which started last Monday, carried no lunch.
“The children are going hungry. We are in a dilemma. Parents have been flocking here requesting to organise lunch for their children but we cannot against the President’s directive,†Ireta told Education Vision.
“Parents are ready to continue paying the sh10,000 they were paying per term for their children’s lunch. We do not know what to do since government has not yet issued us with guidelines ever since the directive was made,†she added.
Urban UPE schools are all experiencing similar problems with most pupils resorting to stealing their colleagues’ food or crying for it.
“Scrapping lunch provision at school is going to create a class crisis among the pupils. Those that carry good food will consider those who do not to be lower in class status,†a teacher who preferred anonymity said.
The headteachers prefer that the directive not be blanket, but be implemented in schools with very poor parents.
“These were very well-worked out figures. At Kitante we were charging sh20,400 including lunch per term.
“The complaint from parents is that packing food requires them to buy food flasks whose cost is out of their means. Besides, most find packing food on a daily basis very cumbersome, preferring to pay money to the school,†Francis Ssenabulya, headteacher, Kitante PS said.
Other headteachers said they lacked storage facilities for the children’s food containers.
“Our biggest problem is lack of casual workers since we have laid them off. We had five private teachers being supported by parents but we have laid them off because we have no money to pay them. We also laid off the porters and cleaners for the same reason, Ssenabulya said.
Ends