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Thursday 8 September 2022
By Lawrence Okwakol
The Pallisa resident district commissioner Mr. Magudu Dhikusoka has blamed the poor attendance of pupils in first three days of term three (3) opening to parents and local leaders who don’t value education of their children in the district.
Dhikusoka on Wednesday afternoon said government has fulfilled it’s role of paying teachers, construction of schools, provision of learning materials using billions of money but other stakeholders like local leaders and parents are not playing their roles.
“Currently all schools have UPE funds for the facilitation of school necessities but it’s unfortunate that children are being kept at home doing nothing. I have directed all LCs to mobilize children to go back to schools. I know the enrollment of every school but out of 80,000 pupils attending primary education in Pallisa, only 6,000 were in schools and 70% of this are in town schools,” Dhikusoka said.
John Opedun the Pallisa district inspector of schools said teachers were 90% present but learners were dotted. He said in schools with over 1,200 pupils only 30 -100 were present on Monday.
“As a department we have told teachers to teach normally even if only one learner is in class because others will pick courage to come. The challenge s from parents who make learners waste the first two weeks of opening at home,” Opedun said.
John Julius Okaki the councilor for Akisim Sub County said local leaders have done their part of mobilization as they give emphasis in burials but parents give more attention to secondary learners than primary. He said their hands are tied because parents are claiming to be having no money for buying school requirements like books due to high commodity prices especially food for their families.
Robert Okiria the head teacher of Otamirio Primary School in Kibale town council said it’s unfortunate to report that even the candidates are few at school. Okiria said when poor performance of PLE is registered, the blame is started from headteachers instead of parents, politicians and learners themselves.
” What keeps children out of school is starvation they are exposed to. Parents struggle to provide their children with a meal at home yet they are requested to contribute maize for porridge at school as well. So most of them are unable and this makes school environment very unfriendly to pupils leading to absenteeism or even dropping out of school completely,” Okiria said.
Tom Odongo a parent of Opadoi Primary School said government should intervene and make supplies of scholastic materials for children because the economic situation in households is alarming.
