Govt asked to take over community school

By Andrew Masinde                        

Residents in Bumasikye sub-county in Mbale district have asked the Government to take over a secondary school, which they established in 2013 to serve their community.

Before Bumasikye Secondary School was set up, the learners in this community walked over 1o kilometres to get to either Busiu Secondary School or Musese Secondary School. The decision to set it up was also informed by the fact that many children dropped out of school after completing primary for a lack of a secondary school in their community.

John Mabonga, its acting headteacher, says the school now needs more teachers and non-teaching staff as the student population is growing – which is part of the reason why they are requesting the Government to take it over.

The school, which started with 43 students across its O’level classes, now has 240. Mabonga explains that the school cannot raise sufficient amounts of money from the fees paid by the students to attract and retain the number of teachers it needs.

“We have written many letters to the ministry. They have promised to take it over, but that has not happened although they assessed it in 2015 among the schools to be taken over by the Government,” he adds. “We are unable to pay the teachers,”

Sam Sakwa, the school’s acting board chairperson, who is one of its founding members, says the school has already made a positive contribution to the community. To set it up, he says they asked parents who had children who had completed primary to send them to the school.

“The school operated in some buildings that were not being used. Later we got a license to operate,” Sakwa adds.

He explains that the parents later provided the money which was used to construct the four classrooms and an administration block as well as a lab on the land donated by the Church of Uganda.

“We now have 17 people, including teachers, working as volunteers. But some are quitting because they only get transport refunds. We do not pay them salaries,” Sakwa says.

Juliet Mutonyi, a teacher says, the takeover of the school by the Government would give her an opportunity to earn a salary as she has served the institution as “a volunteer” for several years.

Milly Nabalayo, a former councillor and chairperson for health and education committees at Mbale district local council, says the school needs government support to run smoothly.

Simon Musingo, a parent, says the Bumasikye Secondary School has contributed to the reduction in the dropout rate as several children now have a school to go to after completing primary.

“Our girls now have an opportunity to study. Many of them were dropping out of school after primary because they could not walk to the secondary schools, which were far from them,” he adds.

The Government has previously taken over a number of schools started by communities, especially in areas which did not have such institutions. Sam Kuloba, the commissioner for secondary education in the education ministry, says the Government has received the request from the community and plans to take over the school.

“It has all the qualities and will be taken over when we get the resources. There are many schools that need support and we do this in a phased manner,” he adds.