Massive Loopholes in Kamwenge district's Education department are behind the collapse of the poor standards of education in the district, according to an education department audit report released on Tuesday.
The Irish Government funded audit, stems from concerns raised by the authorities about the high failure rates recorded in both the primary and secondary schools in Kamwenge district.
Only 50 out of the 1,000 candidates that sat for the primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), passed in division one while more than 550 candidates failed the exams.
The audit was conducted by Link Community Development, a local Non Government Organization.
Announcing the audit findings during a stakeholders meeting at Kamwenge public library on Tuesday, the Link Community Development Director, Dr. Derrick Nkatta, said the education department was fraught with several irregularities that must be rectified to protect the pupils and students.
Nkatta noted that close to 90 percent of the primary schools in Kamwenge District have no operational budgets, making it difficult to ensure constant salaries for the teachers and efficient management. Several schools have scrapped off the co-curricular activities from the timetables.
The audit team also found out a high incidence of teacher absenteeism from the schools. Nkata said many pupils are rendered redundant while some remain stuck with no one to guide them in their studies.
The district chairman, Edward Musigye, confirmed the irregularities in teacher attendance. He said that his office has found out that many teachers spend more time tending to their gardens than report for work.
Musigye told the meeting that three school head teachers were recently interdicted for allegedly failing to account for the UPE funds.
Elijah Biryabarema, the resident district commissioner however caused laughter when he said that government would deploy bull dozers and Mambas, if this is what it would take to lift the standards of education in Kamwenge district.
Kamwenge which was curved out of Kabarole district has 140 government aided primary schools and seven government secondary schools. Primary school enrolment stands at 69,318.
