MASAKA: Hundreds of pupils in Bukakata sub-county, Masaka district, are stuck at home after their only secondary school was converted to a primary school.
Students from Ssunga, Bukibonga, and Makonzi parishes in Bukakata sub-county are kept at home despite school reopening on January 10th, 2022, after a nearly two-year closure due to COVID-19 containment.
In Bunnaddu Village in Bukibonga Parish, LC I Chairperson John Bosco Nyanzi said many pupils are still at home due to the selling of Mivule Secondary School, the sole secondary.
He claims that the owners of Mivule Secondary School sold the school and the new owners decided to turn it into a primary school, leaving the community with no choice. Nyanzi explains that despite being private, the school was affordable.
The owners sold it after a delay in the opening of a government sponsored secondary school. A Sh2.12 billion seed school for universal secondary education was built in Bunaddu village in 2019.
The project, according to Nyanzi, scared off the proprietor of the private secondary school, who hurriedly sold it off to avoid competing with the government, hence the apparent stalemate.
Augustine Lutalo, a resident of Bunnaddu village, confirms that he is yet to send his two children to school due to a lack of an alternative in the area, adding that he cannot afford to take them to boarding schools that are outside the sub-county.
He explains that because of their proximity to landing sites, the area does not have many schools, and they are disappointed by the delayed opening of the new seed school.
Francis Bukenya and Own Mulema, who would be in senior two and one, respectively, say that their parents have asked them to wait for the opening of the government school, which is expected to begin operating next year.
Bukenya says the next secondary school in their locality is 12 miles away, which is too far for many students. They have asked the government to urgently open their seed school so that they don’t lose another year at home.
Andrew Lukyamuzi Batemyetto, the Masaka district LC V Chairperson, says that they recently notified the Ministry of Education about the urgency of operating the seed school and they are expecting an inspection team to visit the site and eventually guide them on the way forward.