Africa-Press – Uganda. Learning at Lyakibirizi Cope Primary School in Kyazanga Town Council, Lwengo District, has become difficult due to the shortage of classrooms and other infrastructure.
The school was started in 2006 by Unicef but was in 2017 taken over by the government.
According to the head teacher, Mr Nicholas Magembe, the school has an enrolment of 547 learners with eight teachers on government pay roll.
However, it has only two classrooms, which are shared by four classes.
For instance, Primary Four and Primary Five pupils share one classroom, while Primary Six and Seven also share one room, leaving the rest of the classes to learn in makeshift structures.
“The available makeshift structure was put up by the parents in 2006; the government needs to come up and take interest in the school and build more classes in addition to the available one, which was constructed by Lwengo District Local Government,” Mr Magembe said last week.
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According to the head teacher, the lessons cannot go on when rain starts.
“During the rainy season, the school doesn’t operate; if it rains during morning hours, all the 547 pupils squeeze themselves in the two small rooms available and this has gradually affected our academic performance,” he added.
Mr Gordon Nuwagaba, a Primary Seven teacher, said lessons cannot go on when his colleagues of Primary Six are teaching.
“When the Primary Six teacher is teaching, I have to keep quiet until he finishes his lesson, but within that time, I spend time in class monitoring pupils so that they do not interrupt the other class but still you find that the teacher speaks something and my class bursts into laughter,” Mr Nuwagaba said.
According to Mr John Bosco Kashagire who teaches Primary Six, the learning environment has affected syllabus coverage
Ms Salima Nakasujja, a Primary Two teacher, said that most of her pupils do not have where to sit.
“The learners sit in dust during lessons due to lack of desks and this automatically affects their attention in class,” Ms Nakasujja said.
The Press has learnt that the school has only 25 desks as most of the pupils sit on the floor.
Mr Asuman Kibeherere, the village chairperson of Lyakibirizi, said before the school was established, learners could trek more than 5km to seek education.
“The parents of this area want their children in school but some of them withdraw them from them considering the learning environment and decide to take them to gardens to cultivate food,” Mr Kibeherere said.
The district chairperson, Mr Ibrahim Kitatta, said they do not have enough funds to put up buildings in every government school due to limited funding.
“We appeal to the central government and other partners who are willing to come and support this school to uplift the standard of this school,” he said.
Kitatta nevertheless said in this financial year, they budgeted Shs120m to construct three classrooms at the school.
Background
The school was started in 2006 by UNICEF with the aim of teaching the grownup children, who had skipped childhood education, how to read and write. Later in 2017, the government took up the school.
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