Africa-Press – Uganda. A government policy, which seeks to separate nursery and primary schools, has been criticised by stakeholders who say it will burden them with increased costs.
Last year, the government directed operators of all joint pre-primary and primary schools to run the two levels as distinct educational institutions, each with a separate license and management team by December.
Operators are supposed to recruit two head teachers; one for nursery and another for the primary section. Additionally, the schools were required to establish separate infrastructure with a boundary clearly demarcating the two sections.
One year later, Daily Monitor has found that most schools are struggling to comply with the new regulations.
While some private schools with substantial enrollments in both primary and nursery sections have managed to adhere to most of the guidelines, many others are still running as before.
The chairperson of the National Private Education Institution Association, Mr Hasadu Kirabira, last week said they have appealed for an extension of the deadline to at least two years to enable their members accommodate the high costs involved.
“Schools are requesting two years to implement this policy. Changing systems demands time. Constructing infrastructure, providing separate toilets, and establishing a boundary within the same school cannot be achieved in a single term,” Mr Kirabira said.
The new guidelines were introduced as part of the Early Childhood Care and Education policy, December 2018.
Since then, the government has been inspecting schools to establish if they have complied. Mr Kirabira said inspection intensified this term.
To appreciate the effect of the new policy, Mr Moses Rugundo, head teacher at the eight-year-old St Agnes Primary and Nursery School in Kampala, told Daily Monitor that while they have applied for a license for their nursery section, they have been unable to build the necessary facilities.
The school currently operates out of a storage building, with the ground level accommodating nursery pupils – a situation Mr Rigundo attributed to logistical demands.
“Where do we find the space to construct new buildings for the nursery section? We need time to relocate the primary and nursery sections… some processes are still unified until we secure sufficient funds,” he said.
Additionally, Mr Rugundo observed that hiring two head teachers, two sets of directors and two school management committees is costly.
At Kings Primary School in Lubowa, Wakiso, head teacher Mr Emma Were has implemented the government guidelines, registering the nursery section as a distinct entity with its own Education Management Information System (EMIS) number.
“We hired a head of section for the nursery school, which we registered as a separate entity from the primary one,” Mr Were said.
Meanwhile, Mr Kirabira thinks the new policy unfairly affects only private schools. Some schools pay upwards of Shs360,000 for a trading license.
“Guidelines should apply to both private and government-aided schools,” Mr Kirabira said.
But the Secretary General of Uganda National Teachers Union, Mr Filbert Baguma, clarified that government schools do not have pre-primary sections.
Last week, the Principal Education Officer in charge of Pre-Primary, Ms Safina Mutumba, said the Education ministry has been guiding schools on how to implement the changes.
According to the official, the Education Act stipulates that there are four levels of education including pre-primary, primary, secondary and post-secondary which should all operate independently.
“Pre-primary has its own speciality that should be given attention. Its structural plans should be different from the primary. Look at the toilets young children use and compare them with those in primary sections. The washrooms thus have to be different,” she said.
She added: “Primary girls go into their menstrual cycle and tend to leave their used sanitary towels in the bathrooms. Why should a nursery kid see what they don’t know about? These children also need to be escorted [to the washrooms] which a primary teach can’t handle.”
What guidelines say
• Two head teachers
• Separate infrastructures with a boundary separating the two
• Two registrations (one for nursery and one for primary)
• Separate kitchen and feeding rooms
• Separate toilets and washing facilities
• Different teachers
• Different EMIS numbers
• A visitor’s book
• Provision of safe drinking water
• A first aid kit
• Proper rubbish disposal
• Administrative and financial records
• Technical drawings of building plan
• Bank statements
• Land title
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