Emvenga Primary School has no head teacher's office 

EDUCATION   INFRASTRUCTURE  

MADI OKOLLO - The headteacher of Emvenga Primary School in Envenga village, Madi Okollo district, Semi Abidra, has called upon well-wishers to help them construct an office.

The old office roof was blown off by the storm in 2017 and since then no effort has been made by the district to replace it.

Besides the office, the roofs of the primary one and half of the primary two classrooms were blown off.

Today, Abidra has no option but to share a room that accommodates the store, library, and staffroom.

He said he had nowhere to keep the school documents and has no privacy. He tried to mobilise parents to contribute money so that he can replace the roof but they told him that they are poor so they cannot afford it.

When he went to the district for help, he was advised to try non-government organizations (NGOs) because the district has no money for renovating the school. "I have tried many NGOs and the Office of the Prime Minister but they said they had not yet budgeted for it," he said.

The office block that was blown off

 
Emvenga primary has an enrolment of over 1126 pupils with 30% refugees from South Sudan. However, because of the few classroom blocks, some classes have more than 200 pupils.

Luke Onzima, secretory for Social Services Rigbo Sub County said education has always been a priority for the sub-county. However, they are restricted by capital investments.

"Our sub-county budget for education is the only sh4.9m. This money is only for monitoring and supervision but not for investment. So we have nothing to do for them," he said.

Onzima explained that the sub-county has 18 primary schools, so even the sh4m for supervision is not enough. He, however, revealed that the sub-county has written to various NGOs who can offer support to do so.

According to Wilson Agele, the Rigbo Sub County Chairman, they sought help from their mother district Arua in vain. Besides the many primary schools, Agele said they don't have government secondary schools and they have only two private ones.