By Obbo yusuf
TESO: As the Education Policy Review Commission continues to seek for ideas from education stakeholders in Teso region, learners in Kabiramaido have requested for a boarding section for girls for their empowerment, internet connection at school and Research books to enable the progress of the new curriculum.
17 years old Christine Awayo leaner of senior 3 at Alwa seed secondary school said that she has to ride her bicycle every day for over 20kms to school ,Christine says when it rains sometimes her bicycle breaks down and she has to push it to school which makes her reach late at school.
“Every day I ride my bicycle to come to school ,when it over rains I always delay to reach school as most of our roads we use are bad ,it takes me hours to reach school ,sometimes my bicycle breaks down and I have to repair it if it fails ,I push it slowly until I reach school ,this puts me at risk with other girls and we may end up raped on the way as we try to repair the bicycles ” Said Awayo
Awayo used the opportunity to request the Education policy review commission and government to at least prioritize boarding section for girls to save them from the many temptations and challenges they face.
Awayo also expressed concern over increasing absenteeism of teachers at her school saying despite riding for such long distances, teachers at her school most times dodge classes.
“we ride for long distance with all the challenges we go through we miss lessons some times because of teachers who dodge or chase us for school fees and arriving late ,yet our teachers are fully paid by government t and PTA board ” said Awayo .
Alwa seed secondary school received a grant of 300M from the office of the prime minister through ministry of Teso Affairs as support to the school to help in setting up structure. The Headmaster of Alwa seed secondary school Francis Atubo said since they were operating in the sub county structures of Alwa, there was a great need of the school to shift to its own location, the school managed to use the 300 million to set up two class blocks and two latrines.
According to the head teacher, they are still lacking staffroom, computer lab, and Science laboratory and computer library.
“We thank the office of the prime minister and ministry of Teso Affairs for aiding us with this school ,however, we continue to urge government ,that ever since the school was started in 2019 the school has never received books from the ministry to support learner’s ” said Atubo
When asked about the high absenteeism of teachers at his school, Atubo said he is ever warning teachers and doing daily attendance roll call though most of the teacher are acting stubborn.
Alwa seed secondary school has close to 27 teachers fully paid by government but only 11 teachers were present at school by the time the commission arrived.
The educational Administrator for Kabiramaido Mr James Esiku says the district is yet to take Action and to engage the management of Alwa seed secondary school over absenteeism of teachers and chasing away students for fees.
“Am also wondering why the Headmaster sends away learners on a daily basis. As district heads we are going to investigate the matter of absenteeism of Teachers at school at the moment when they are supposed to teach, the school head is going to aid us with his daily attendance list and monitor this very well” said Esiku .
The Education policy review commission on its role to engage education stakeholders to share views on how the education system should be like was shocked over high absenteeism of teachers at school, Commissioner Brighton Barugahare a member of the commission was dismayed about sending leaners home for fees on a daily basis to pay the teachers that don’t want to attend school
“Government and parents through PTA pay teachers of this school to teach the children, am wondering where are other teachers, and why are children chassed for fees to pay teachers that absent themselves on work and in the process learners are missing a lot”
The Learner’s bid to see that they progress well in the new Curriculum is biffed by lack of scholastic materials, internet at school for research, to some schools like Alwa seed secondary lack of science, ICT laboratory and library has greatly demotivated learner’s approach towards the new curriculum.
Government aided Primary schools have asked for increase on the number of teachers to handle the big numbers of pupils, teachers say lower classes are over accumulated and most of the classes are handled by one teacher.
Teachers in Kabiramaido have also asked central government to equip schools with enough learning materials to enable them catch up with the new curriculum.
The views were said to the education policy review commission that has camped in Teso region to engage and collect views from education stakeholders on how best they think the education system should be like .
