Improve school standards

A recent admission by the state minister of education in charge of primary education, Joyce Kaducu, that more than 50 percent of the schools with boarding facilities do not qualify to have them reveals how dire the situation in schools is.
The facilities are reported to be in such bad shape that they could endanger the lives of the students.
There has been an investigation into the facilities of schools across the country, although the report and recommendations have not been released to the public. However, it is clear from different reports both in mainstream media and social media that the education standards need an overhaul. While the Members of Parliament from Karamoja and Kalangala islands are asking for affirmative action for the boarding schools in their areas, many students are living in very squalid conditions in schools in all areas of the country, including Kampala.
The directorate of education standards in the Ministry of Education has a lot of work to do. A simple survey would show how children are sleeping in people’s houses, disguised as dormitories, with barely any facilities such as clean toilets, lighting, emergency exits, fire protection, etc as required for any school to be granted boarding section. So, who is granting these schools licenses? And why don’t inspectors report such or close off the boarding sections in the schools that do not meet the standard?
Private school developers are setting up classroom structures and hiring out houses and bedsitters in the neighborhood to accommodate the children in the boarding section. The boarding section is very lucrative to the private schools because they make much more money than running a purely day school, according to some school owners.
However, while they do everything possible to accommodate children, they flout the rules, endanger the learners, congest them in small rooms, and get money out of the parents and the education ministry remains silent.
Such poor conditions have been reported to be the main cause of fire or heavy losses in case of fire outbreaks in dormitories. Therefore, as the debate rages on in Parliament over whether to take affirmative action in different areas of the country, the MPs should be reminded that all the schools need a thorough inspection to confirm and ensure the safety of the learners. Both private and government schools have to give children a safe environment for learning.
The schools have just opened for the third term and parents are doing their best to pay the school fees. Their children deserve the best. The government has a duty to ensure compliance.
Our commitment to you
We pledge:
To be accurate and fair in all we do.To be respectful to all in our pursuit of the truth.To refuse to accept any compensation beyond that provided by Monitor Publications Ltd. for what we do in our news gathering and decision-making.
Further, we ask that we be informed whenever you feel that we have fallen short in our attempt to keep these commitments.