Gov’t schools register influx of new learners

Masaka, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Several government primary schools in Masaka are registering an increase in the number of learners for the third term. Schools officially reopened for the third term on Monday after a three-week long holiday that commenced on August 12th, 2022.

According to head teachers, many parents are transferring their children from the neighboring private schools because of the high cost of education triggered by the recent hike in school fees. Jannat Nakawunde, the Deputy Headteacher in Charge of Academics at Hill Public School Bwala in Masaka town, says they are receiving an unusually high number of parents seeking vacancies for their children citing the high fees in private schools they were previously attending.

On a daily average, the school receives at least 20 new learners seeking admission, which is consequently increasing pressure on the available facilities such as the limited classroom space and human resources. Nakawunde says that they are now considering stopping the admission of learners as a strategic remedy to the impending congestion, which may affect the teaching-learning process at the school.

Cissy Namugga, the Headteacher of St Bruno Sserunkuma Primary School Ssaza in Masaka is equally worried that the new applicants are taking up places of some of their continuing learners who are yet to report back.

She wants the government to urgently work out a program that can support schools to effectively handle the growing population. Namugga indicates that her school is already running on very limited resources in terms of teachers, scholastic materials, and desks among other facilities that are required for effective learning. Last term, the school had 714 learners and 14 teachers, who were insufficient compared to the workload. She argues that the problem may worsen with the increase in population.

Goreth Ndagire, the Headteacher of Nyendo Public School says that besides the problem of congestion in classes, some of the new entrants are not even reporting with enough scholastic materials. She says that because their hands were tied by the universal education policy that demands them to admit every learner, they will keep the school open for applications as they wait for the government’s guidance on how to deal with the increasing population.

Stephen Kakeeto, the Masaka City Principal Education Officer says that their inspection teams are studying the situation such that they find sustainable solutions to the challenges they are faced with.

“Generally for various reasons, many parents have transferred children from private to government schools. This now requires us to make enough preparations such that we can attend to raising demands the government schools are facing,” he says.

Records show that Masaka city has 55 government primary schools over 225 private primaries.

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