Head teachers of schools implementing the universal secondary education (USE) in Moyo district are crying for help to keep their schools operational.
According to the National Head Teachers’ Union (NAHSU) leadership, the 41,000 shillings that government gives each school per student per term, is too little to sustain the programme.
The head teachers also say that the money is irregularly disbursed, which makes running the schools very difficult.
Three secondary schools, Metu, Asili and Logoba all in Moyo district, were by June 15th still waiting for their USE capitation fees for first term while Moyo SS has only one million shillings left for this term.
The headmistress of Asili SS, Mary Goretti Mazapke says she is finding it very hard to run the school as the first term USE capitation has not been received. She says the money is very little and is not promptly sent yet 10% of it is for paying teachers, adding that it’s hard to motivate teachers.
Mazapke adds that most schools have been forced to accumulate debts with some suppliers to survive.
David Ocen, a seasoned educationist formerly with Busoga College Mwiri blames the apparent failure of USE programme on politicization, which makes the community think it’s purely a government programme.
Efforts to increase fees by head teachers were blocked by the government. Parents are also reluctant to pay extra money to support the programme.
The West Nile NAHSU leader, who is also the header teacher Moyo SS, David Dima, proposes that government should at least increase the money for the universal advanced level education to sh120, 000 per student.
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