Africa-Press – Uganda. School administrators have halted the implementation of development projects due to rising food prices.
Administrators, who spoke to this publication, said they are struggling to feed students due to the sharp rise in prices of food, especially beans and maize in parts of Northern Uganda.
First term, running for 89 days, started on February 6 and will end on May 5.
However, with a month left to the official end of the term, schools, especially those with boarding sections, are finding it hard to feed the learners as a result of high food prices.
Currently, a kilogramme of imported beans is sold at Shs5,000 up from between Shs2,500 and Shs3,000 and a kilogramme around the same period last year, while a kilogramme of maize is trading at Shs1,500 up from Shs700.
As a result of the skyrocketing food prices, some administrators said they have diverted funds students paid for development projects to buy food items.
Lira Town College, which has 2,300 learners, has stopped funding non-academic activities and development projects.
Ms Sophie Rose Acen, the school head teacher, said the Ministry of Education and Sports issued a directive that schools should stop funding other activities and all the funds be channeled into buying food to feed the learners.
“We have stopped spending money in other development activities like buildings, renovations and other developmental projects which we had budgeted during the annual general Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) and board of governors meetings. So, we are now only concentrating on feeding the students because we cannot keep them at school without food,” Ms Acen told Daily Monitor this morning.
The situation at St Katherine Girls’ Secondary School, which has a total enrolment of 1,371 girls, is not any different.
The head teacher, Ms Rose Nangwala, said they have also halted funding other activities and are now using the money on feeding the students.
She said that since the price of beans is normally high, they had planned earlier and bought it in bulk and some are still in their stores.
“We bought 10 tonnes (of beans). That is how we are managing to maintain our students, and for maize, we bought some from our teachers since some of them are also farmers who made bumper harvest last year,” she said.
Ms Nangwala said maize grain suppliers are selling each kilogramme at Shs2,800 a kilo last year up from Shs2,500.
“We are also considering increasing school fees, but parents and board will to determine the increment when we call them for a meeting,” she said.
Mr Dan Munu, the head teacher of Cambridge City School, said they sent home all the fee defaulters home last week.
“We could not keep them since we didn’t have any food to feed them at school. So we decided that instead of keeping them here without food, let them go back home where they can eat,” he said.
Meanwhile, produce dealers in Lira City have warned the prices of beans will continue to rise because they are mostly imported from neighbouring countries of Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania.
Mr Patrick Ogwal, the chairman of Lira Produce Dealers, said that farmers in Lango Sub-region did not plant beans during the second rainy season last year for fear that there could be a repeat of crop failure which was witnessed during the first planting season.
He said the newly harvested beans from DR Congo, of different varieties, also vary depending on the demand.
“The price of the army green beans variety is Shs4,500 a kilogramme while yellow beans are being sold between Shs 4,800 and Shs5,000,” Mr Ogwal said.
He said that newly harvested beans from Malawi and Tanzania which they import through Mutukula are sold at more than Shs4,000 per kilogramme. A variety called Kawula is sold at Shs5,000 a kilogramme and yellow beans are going at Shs4,000 per kilogramme.
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