Presidential pledge for help still undelivered for 13 years
(Published on Wednesday, February 9, 2022)
By Moses Nampala
When the wanainchi living in hard-to-reach ridges of Mt Elgon in Mbale district hosted President Yoweri Museveni on August 14, 2008, among the most critical challenges they presented to him was the lack of a Government-aided secondary school.
The high, steep, heavily populated neighbouring ridges include Wanale, Machese, Bubyangu and Namatyale, located 20km from the business centre of Mbale.
The residents told the President that the desire to enable their children to get civilisation had pushed them to make a tentative arrangement on the matter.
They had identified a convenient site, just at the foot of the four ridges, the only flat terrain (plains) around and not only contributed five acres, but also, through self-help effort, set up a few humble structures which, at the time, housed Bufumbo Community Senior Secondary School in Bufumbo sub-county, Mbale district.
In a memorandum report when they hosted President Museveni at the expansive school playground, the residents requested him to take up the community school to help with, among others, accessing quality teaching staff, construction of a science laboratory and furnishing it with the necessary apparatus.
President Museveni, who was on a countrywide “prosperity for all campaign” at the time, was touched by the plight of children living in communities in the steep, hard-to-reach mountain ridges
The President was delighted by the community’s pro-activeness, but was quick to assure the audience that it was the responsibility of Government to provide social amenities to the masses.
“I am directing the Ministry of Education to immediately take up this community senior secondary school. It should be included on the list of schools that urgently require immediate construction of modern classroom infrastructure, complete with a fully furnished science laboratory and teachers’ quarters, owing to difficulty to its accessibility to avert a crisis that is denying a lot of children from poor families access to secondary school education,” the President said.
Thirteen years down the road, the school, which was officially became Government -aided in 2009, has never realised even a single stance pit-latrine structure from Government.
Mbale district education authorities admitted being aware of the plight of Bufumbo Secondary School, saying they have lost count of the reminders they have made to the education ministry without yielding anything.
Perhaps the only relief that the school’s parents have ever realised was the education ministry taking off their shoulders the burden of paying remuneration for teachers’ (salaries) that arose from the mandatory coding exercise of the school a year after the President’s directive in 2009.
However, the reopening of schools last month, after almost two years of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, found this remote Government-aided school with one three-classroom block, in a pitifully awkward position. Top on the list of challenges for the school, whose enrolment has more than doubled to 800, from 387 students, is inadequate classrooms.
Senior Two (S2) and three (S3) students could be enduring the worst experience as their lessons are being conducted in incomplete, roofless classroom structures that parents have over the years struggled to construct.
What has become a regular but necessary chore for the boys in this mixed school whenever they report in the morning is hanging a tarpaulin using strings and stones over the roofless structure to protect themselves from the scorching sun as lessons are being conducted.
Juliat Nandudu, a S3 student, says improvising shelter for their lessons has not been immune to challenges.
“Lessons are frequently interrupted by strong winds from the ridges that keep blowing away the tarpaulin,” she observes.
Martin Wabutwa, a mathematics/chemistry teacher at the school, is quick to explain the problem.
“Our school lies in the plains (flat terrain), just at the foot of the four neighbouring ridges, which makes it susceptible to strong winds from uphill,” Wabutwa says.
Hawa Nafuna, another S3 student, wonders when their ordeal will end.
“In the past, before the schools were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, rains would compel us to prematurely go back home as we did not have enough shelter. Hopefully, it will not be the same as we resume studies,” she observes.
Another student, Shafic Mugamba, appeals to the Government, through the education ministry, to come to their rescue, saying this is the only government-aided school where children from poor families uphill can attain an education.
Yusuf Magomu, the headteacher, regrets that being the only government-aided school in predominantly less privileged communities uphill, they are grappling with a sudden surge in students enrolment against a long-standing challenge of inadequate infrastructure.
“We are realising migration of students from privately owned schools to Government-aided ones following the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents that bring here children explain that they can no longer afford school fees in private schools,” observes Magomu.
He said being the lone Government-aided school, they have no choice but to admit students.
Yahaya Masaba, a board member, regretted that besides shortage of classroom infrastructure, the school is faced with the challenge of inadequate seats.
“We appeal to relevant authorities in Government to swing into action, but as managers of a government-aided secondary school, we cannot turn away parents that regularly bring children here,” he observes.
According to the head-teacher, a single O’level stream is meant to have 21 teachers, but they only have seven (on government payroll).
“Until the closure of the school two years ago, due to the coronavirus pandemic, we constantly, through the district authorities, tried to present our case to the ministry, in vain,” he explains.
For the last decade, the school has had only one mathematics teacher, who teachers all the four classes. Wabutwa observes that his work hours of three days a week is meant to be four hours — double lesson each, lasting 40 minutes.
“However, because I do not have a mathematics colleague, I have been compelled to work 12 hours a week,” he says.
Wabutwa says with such a rigorous schedule, he rarely has teacher-student interface. Apart from teaching, he, too, gets overwhelmed with marking.
More than a decade ago when the Government, through the eduction ministry took up the school, among teaching staff posted to the school were a team of four science teachers (mathematics, chemistry, physics and biology).
“But in less than two weeks, the ministry transferred three of them to other schools and no replacement was made, in-spite of the constant reminder by authorities,” he observes.
The headteacher regrets that the lack of science and arts teachers has always forced the school management to improvise, which is costly.
“We are using part of the school grant to outsource services of teachers that we do not have,” he says.
Peter Makosya, a geography teacher, says although he has a colleague with whom they run the department, they lack instructional materials.
“Under the new curriculum, geography has ceased to be theoretical as fieldwork counts so much. In a scenario where the resources envelope is small, things get difficult,” he observes.
Matters have not been helped by the school’s poor library facility.
ACADEMICS
According Martin Wabutwa, the mathematic/chemistry teacher of the school, who is also the director of studies, the school, in the 2020 Uganda Certificate of Education results, had 49 candidates.
Four of these passed in Division Two, 17 in Division Three and the rest in Division Four. Lydia Musungu, the principal education officer for Mbale district, told the New Vision that they were aware of the sorry state of the school.
“The district education office, in its reports to the ministry, has highlighted the urgent need for this school to have classroom infrastructure, among other requirements, but for a decade now, we have remained in suspense as officials at the ministry have been non-committal. The say the matter will be handled as the ministry executes infrastructural projects across the country in phases,” Musungu explains.
The other four secondary schools that have waited for more than a decade to be constructed are Busano SSS, Namawanga SSS, Mahai Seed Secondary School and Nabumali SSS.
Yokoyasi Namoni (Wanale), a parent at the school, blames its sorry state on what he calls a lack of commitment of Government officials to provide quality education for ‘children of peasants’.
“We earnestly call the First Lady, the supreme authority in the ministry, to intervene in the plight of Bufumbo SSS. More than 10 years of waiting is an abnormally long time for Government to act,” he observes.
Another parent, Joyce Namataka Bubyangu, urged the education minister to crack the whip on individuals in the ministry that have failed the development of the school. “A Presidential directive has always been a law, who do these people think they are to water down the directive of his excellence?”
