The Deputy Resident District Commissioner (DRDC) Namayingo district, Trevor Solomon Baleke on Friday sent a stern warning to the Headteachers in the district who charge school fees in the UPE and USE schools.
Baleke said that the act of charging school fees was a lead factor of the high school drop-out rate and early marriages especially in the islands and the fishing communities of Namayingo.
The DRDC made remarks while officiating at the commissioning of 150 students of Sigulu and Bukana Secondary Schools in Sigulu Islands who completed their week-long patriotism training under the theme: Patriotism for mindset and Socio-economic Transformation.
“Government introduced free education in government schools to ensure that parents who can not afford to pay school fees for their children in private schools get the chance to bequeath education to their children. It is therefore criminal to turn government schools into money minting venture. You head teachers listening to me don’t follow into our trap because we are coming,” he warned amidst cheers from parents who turned up for the function.
“This morning I visited Sigulu primary school. By 11:00am the head teacher’s office was closed and he was nowhere to be seen and learners of P.1 to P.6 had been sent away. I have got information that each child is charged Ushs. 5,000 yet they don’t have meals at school. What is the essence of paying 5,000= and why to send children home?,” wondered Baleke who said such acts frustrated the government’s program of Education for all.
He instructed the District Education Officer to make a report to the RDC’s office about extortion in Universal Primary and Secondary schools.
He had earlier on been informed by the local leaders during an engagement with them that morning that the dropout rate was so worrying and that about 7 in every 10 girls get pregnant before completing school.
Baleke stressed that society can change through correct education and that relevant education will cause transformation in society.
“That is the reason why NRM in 1996 under the good leadership of our visionary Jajja decided to introduce Universal Primary Education even when the economy was very small,” Baleke remarked.
The Deputy RDC also took the patriots, local leaders and parents present through the principles that lead to the attainment of prosperity, pointing out that for socio-economic transformation to be achieved, a new mindset has to be inculcated in society to create a new person that will move away from subsistence to commercial calculated agriculture. He added that all these require hard work.
“President Museveni and government has put in place programs aimed at getting you out of poverty – the Parish Development Model, Emyooga, YLP, UWEP etc. It is now up you leaders here to awaken our people so that we can have a new society. You cannot have a peasant producing a peasant and fisherman producing a fisherman. No. We must change,” he said.
He asked the local leaders and teachers to guide the young people to take advantage of the Presidential Initiative on Skilling.
He informed them that in 2020, President Yoweri Museveni implored government to allocate Shs 130 billion for the construction of 21 zonal industrial hubs across the country to enhance youth skilling and training and Busoga already has one in Jinja.
“The initiative is zeroed on job creation and fighting unemployment opportunities. This year we flagged of 15 beneficiaries as Namayingo but let us double the number next year,” he said.
The Deputy RDC also urged the patriots to preach love and defend their country.
“We must defend what we have. By 1986 when the NRM took over power, this entire island of Sigulu which is 42.58 km² had only one school, Sigulu Primary. There was no Secondary School and so after P.7 learners had nowhere to go. Today we have nine UPE schools and a SEED Secondary school fully funded by government.
By 1986 this entire subcounty had no health centre. It had a small dispensary. But when your leaders wrote to President Museveni and informed him about it, he turned the dispensary into a Health Centrer III and there are plans of elevating it to Health Center IV. These, plus the peace and security are the things we must jealously guard,” Baleke said.
He also urged the islanders to embrace the 4-acre model as preached by the president such that they practice intensive agriculture and leave extensive farming for people with huge chunks of land.
The function was attended by District officials from CAO’s office LCV chairperson, DEO, district councilors, LCIII chairpersons of Sigulu and Bukana, headteachers, patrons of patriotism clubs and parents.
