School heads warned against inflating number of pupils

By Geoffrey Namukoye

KAMULI - Heads of government aided primary schools have been cautioned against inflating the number of pupils by way of registering ghost pupils for selfish gains.

Ibrahim Kanakulya, the District Inspector of Schools observed that in the enrollment exercise that started in February, some head teachers deliberately inflate the number of pupils so that they can gain from the capitation grant released to public schools.

Public schools under the Universal Primary Education (UPE) receive sh100,000 per term besides a capitation of sh7,600 per pupil per year therefore, the higher the enrollment, the more the grant.

Ibrahim Kanakulya the Kamuli District Inspector of Schools in checkered shirt talking to primary school teachers

"When the long arm of the law catches up with you, don't say I did not warn you," Kanakulya said. "Inflating the number of pupils is a criminal and punishable act. Enrollment is solely done for planning purposes. When wrong figures are declared, that is the first step into poor planning and resource allocation," Kanakulya warned on Tuesday at Busoga High School during a training of primary head teachers on electronic registration of Primary Seven candidates.

Kanakulya challenged school heads to embrace Information and Communication Technology if they are to remain relevant in this digital era. His call was preceded by a quick question and answer session which revealed that, out of the 189 head teachers at the training, only three owned laptops and less than 20 had hands-on-experience on computer.

Whereas schools are supposed to electronically register their pupils, lack of electricity and computers let alone computer (operational) know-how remains a hurdle to the process. This, Paul Mulumbi, the head teacher of Kinu Primary School said leaves many opting for costly services of IT people.