Government plans to rehabilitate 120 traditional secondary schools in a bid to upgrade their infrastructure and make them competitive with the newly built seed schools.
The State Minister for Education and Sports, Hon. Peter Ogwang, revealed this during the plenary sitting on Wednesday, 26 August 2026 while responding to a concern raised by Hon. Peter Obong Acuda.
According to Obong, traditional secondary schools are deteriorating and losing students to seed secondary schools because their structures are outdated and not up to standard.
“With the Competency-Based Curriculum [CBC] that requires fully equipped laboratories and functional structures like libraries, government should first do research before constructing new schools” he said adding that, ’schools like Akokoro SS are disadvantaged because of the old structures and attract few students yet the seed secondary schools are overwhelmed’.
Ogwang acknowledged the problem and said government has a programme to renovate traditional schools with 120 schools constructed between the 1960s and 1980s earmarked for rehabilitation.
“We will undertake renovations of Comboni College, Lango College, St. Catherine Girls School, Dr. Obote College, Adwari SS and Aloi SS,” Ogwang said.
He added that government will work with development partners to rehabilitate more schools beyond the initial 120.
Kalungu West MP, Hon. Gonzaga Ssewungu asked government to take the primary schools into consideration.
“When you talk about rehabilitation of secondary schools, key attention should be given to Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools since many of them are condemned,” Ssewungu said.
He noted that while most secondary schools charge fees, UPE schools survive on only capitation grants yet many lack basic facilities.
“I implore the minister to give key attention to primary schools. Most don’t even have toilets,” he added.
Ogwang responded that resources are channeled through local governments and urged MPs to take an active role as ex-officials in their district councils.
