Mayuge parents ask govt to reinstate USE in private schools

PIC: Samuel Babuwanguza scored Aggregate Four but his parents cannot afford school fees for secondary school

EDUCATION

MAYUGE - Getting good grades in Primary Leaving Examinations is every candidate's dream. This brings hope of joining good secondary schools. But, for Samuel Babuwanguza, the future is bleak.

Babuwanguza scored Aggregates Four in last year's Primary Leaving Examinations and emerged the best pupil in Mayuge district.  He is a former pupil of East View Junior School Musita, Mayuge.

He is stranded with no school fees to further his education.  His parents cannot afford to pay fees due to lack of stable source of income.

Babuwanguza is the second child in the family of five. The parents who are residents of Nkombe village in Imanyiro sub -county, Mayuge district are peasant farmers on a small piece of land.

Nathan Muwanika, the director of East view Junior, says Babuwanguza studied on a school bursary, a programme initiated by the school to support bright and vulnerable children.

Speaking during a thanksgiving ceremony at East View Junior School on Monday, the Mayuge inspector of schools, Jalia Nabirye, said the Government had phased out Universal Secondary Education (USE) in private secondary schools.

"There is no more free education under the USE programme in private secondary schools," Nabirye said, adding that all Senior One entrants intending to join private secondary schools will have to pay fees.

Nabirye said the Government had previously selected some private secondary schools, where the USE programme was implemented. She, however, said the continuing students will not be affected.

"The already enrolled old students will not be affected. They will be supported until they finish up Senior Four or Six," Nabirye said.

She also said that the district does not have scholarships for students to go to high school.

"As a district, we don't have any scholarships for students like Babuwanguza. We were relying on USE," Nabirye said.

However, some parents have asked the Government to reinstate USE programme in some private secondary schools in order to promote education.

Faisal Batambuze, a parent said: "We have some sub-counties without government secondary schools. Our children will not be able to access education due to long distances." Some schools are as far as 15km to 20km from where we live.

"The Government should help us. Some of us cannot afford school fees for our children, yet public schools are far," Florence Namulondo, another resident, said, calling on the Government to establish at least a secondary school every sub county, before phasing out the programme in private schools.