School attendance in the cholera-hit Buliisa district remains low despite the intensified campaigns against the disease in schools.
The beginning of Second Term was delayed for a week as school administrators in the district were being equipped with basic cholera preventive mechanisms. While the term started on May 14 countrywide, in Buliisa, schools opened a week later on May 21.
Christopher Byenkya, the Buliisa District Education Officer, says the turn up in schools remains low especially in rural areas as some parents fear their children could contract the disease at school.
Byenkya explains, however, that despite the low turn up, all teachers are already at their work stations and his office is mobilizing parents to return their children to school through the media and local leaders.
The Ministry of Education has also dispatched a film van to the district which is used to go around schools as health officials address administrators and students on cholera preventive measures.
But Moses Asiimwe, a parent at Butiaba primary school says he will only return his two children to school when cholera is contained.
Buliisa district has been battling cholera since February this year. Robert Mugabe, the acting district health officer, says the disease is now more severe in Butiaba Sub County with an average of five new cases being registered per day.
Six people have so far died and 640 cases have been recorded. The health officer has blamed the disease persistence in the district on failure by lower local leaders to cooperate.
Mugabe says in some areas they have closed down food kiosks but local leaders turn around and allow them back.
