By Allan Richard Odoch
Kilak South Member of Parliament, Gilbert Olanya has called on parents in Amuru district to withdraw their children from Universal Primary Education (UPDE) schools over poor performance in examinations.
Olanya was speaking during the weekend while giving out printed Pre-PLE examinations to head teachers of all the primary schools in his Constituency.
He said UPE is doing a disservice to rural children, citing the automatic promotions, thematic curriculum and the pupil teacher ratio that was supposed to be 1:50 but which he says is now at 1:200.
The MP described the UPE program as useless, urging parents to withdraw their children from such schools and instead take them to private or community schools where parents fees for their children and pay teachers.
“Parents in Acholi have taken up this free education which is why we have poor performance all over. I will campaign against this UPE program. Which school do you think can operate without money?” the legislator wondered, adding “Schools must have money to buy their
chalk, print examination and motivate their teachers for better performances”.
UPE was introduced by government to benefit the poor by offering universal primary education. It is mostly the poor who have their children in UPE schools while those with money take their children to private schools.
Anywar James Stephen, the head teacher of Olwal Mucaja Primary school in Amuru district said there are many underlying factors leading to the poor performances in the district like parents’ attitude towards education, poor staffing at UPE schools and absenteeism both on the part of teachers and pupils.
Anywar said the best thing to do to improve on the quality of education is to sensitize parents and engage them more in the education of their children, adding that the once vibrant Parents and Teachers Associations (PTAs) has disintegrated especially with the introduction of UPE. He advised that PTA should be strengthened.
Apollo Okello, secretary Education, Amuru district said the challenge is not the UPE program but parents’ contribution towards the education of their children, faulting teachers on absenteeism leading to the poor performance in most UPE schools.
Jackson Ocen, a parent whose child studies in one of the UPE schools in Amuru district said he has no choice but to withdraw his child away from the rural UPE School to either an urban UPE school or a private school due to the deteriorating quality of education at
rural UPE schools.
In the recently concluded primary mock examination, only 60 pupils in Amuru got first grade and 290 second grade out of 2,924 pupils who sat for the examination in the district.
2 Comments
Omera,Hon.Gilbert Olanya I do understand how you are suffering from lack of Consultation and problem solving strategy in Amuru District as a whole with the UPE Government program,Teachers ,Parents and the Pupils.
“One bad fish does’nt spoil the whole fish”.Education is the best Insurance that you can give to our Children,let us try to identify the problems at a very wide observation openly from Amuru District Education Officers.
We must find out the following:
1.Where is the problems? Is it poverty,poor management,lack of Resources,Parents and Teachers disunity,and luck of NG,s/CBO,s support?
2.How do we solve it rather than withdrawing the Pupils?
Did you Consult your fellow MPs for an advice and further discussion?
3.How? Invitation of Parents,Head Teachers,Government Representatives,Community Police Officers,NGO,s /CBO,s and Donors.
4.Diaspora involment,I suggest you plan to make contacts instead of just reading about the major Education in the Acholi Times.
What are the religious organisations doing. Prior to independence the Church of Uganda and the Catholic church grabbed large tracts of land in Acoli District and in some cases built schools which produced the educated elders of today (Gulu High, St Josephs College, St. Aloysious Nyapea etc). Look at the Catholic church in Gulu alone, they grabbed from Layibi on Kampala road to Kati Kati ( Lacor, Gulu Mission etc). Then they started another grab at Aloklum. There is a brief punctuation at Custom Corner where you have Church of Uganda. These are vast lands which could accommodate the likes of Gulu University. I ask, why have the churches recoiled from providing the excellent education in the schools they used to run, the likes of Layibi College, Sacred Heart (Girls), Gulu High School, Kitgum High etc. Alokolum or Lacor seminaries could become Catholic Universities of renown – they have the land. Remember both Church of Uganda and the Catholic Churches had farm schools in Gulu – what became of them. Churches can cure our education problems even if we have to pay some small school fees!! The Catholic Church has international network of educational institutions globally from which to draw teachers etc.