Nokia project checks teacher absenteeism in Luwero

By Andrew Masinde   
                                
Fred, a primary six pupil in one of the schools in Luwero district says cases of teachers’ absenteeism were rampant in the school and pupils feared to report to the school administration.

They instead endured the situation in fear of being punished by the offenders which affected performance in school.

"Frequently we were missing lessons and no one was minding. The teachers would apply corporal punishment especially when they were drunk. It was a difficult time until when the Nokia project was introduced in the school. We started texting these issues to the administration. Good enough the messages are delivered to parents, and education officials at the district level and since then our problems were solved," he explained.


One of the mobile phones used in the Nokia project

"It is rare for teachers to enter school when drunk. The corporal punishments have reduced drastically, we also raised issues of water and sanitation in the school and they have been solved. We now have a good VIP latrine, a borehole and also improved sanitation in the school," he added.

The Nokia project is a Mobile Enhanced Participatory School Governance Project (MEPSGP) which was introduced by Plan Uganda as a way of improving community participation, especially of parents, students, local leaders, teachers and local education authorities in school governance for equitable access to quality education that is culturally appropriate to the pupils.



Pupils fetching water from the underground tank which is one of the products of the Nokia project

The project commenced with a one year pilot that ran in five schools.

The second phase was built on lessons and experiences gained in the pilot to cover a total of 105 government aided primary schools in Luweero district.

Yowana Kisembo a parent and a resident of Bamunanika sub-county said, “Before the project, a lot of things we were not aware of were happening in schools.”

He recalls his son reporting of how their mathematics teacher reported to class while drunk and he never believed her.

"It was until they called us for the meeting when I discovered the truth, I sat next to him and he was all smelling alcohol. The school never gave us an opportunity to participate in their activities. When MEPSGP was introduced, we started getting updates of what was going on in the school via text messages. We have been involved in solving our children's issues; we now believe we are part of the school," he explained.

The District Education Officer Luwero, Florence Bbosa said that since the introduction of the Nokia project, the district has registered a great improvement in the education sector.

It has enabled the education office to get information that it would not have received through inspection of the schools. This has subsequently improved on the efficiency in monitoring education service delivery and the quality outcomes in the district.

Josephine Alidri, the program unit manager for Plan Uganda in Luwero said during their interactions in schools, it was discovered that there was no connection between the schools, parents and leaders yet they are supposed to ensure that schools are running to their best. So this prompted them to introduce the Nokia projects with the aim of bridging this gap.
 
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