Nairambi Seed School has an enrolment of 807 students, of whom 462 are in the boarding section, while Buvuma College has 370 students, with 200 accommodated in the boarding section.
Buvuma leaders have moved to intervene after headteachers of the district’s only three government secondary schools suspended their boarding sections over parents’ failure to pay agreed functional fees.
The affected schools are Nairambi Seed School, Bwema Seed School and Buvuma College.
The headteachers communicated their decision in a letter to Buvuma Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Haji Issa Mbooge, saying parents had failed to honour an earlier agreement to pay between sh250,000 and sh300,000 to support the boarding sections, as had been the practice in previous years.
According to Mbooge, the headteachers said some parents had declined to pay, citing remarks attributed to Local Government Minister Balaam Barugahara that parents should not pay fees in government schools.
The headteachers reportedly said the schools were struggling to provide food and other essential services to learners in the boarding sections because of the lack of funds.
“We have no means of keeping students under our custody yet their parents refused to pay the functional fees as agreed in a meeting by the Board of Governors and Parents and Teachers Association,” the headteachers said.
The development comes at a time when the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has released the examination timetable, with Senior Four candidates expected to begin their final examinations in October and Senior Six candidates sitting their examinations in November.
The situation is likely to affect mainly candidates in the boarding sections, many of whom may not be able to commute from home as they prepare for and sit their final UNEB examinations.
The above condition prompted State Minister for Fisheries and Buvuma Constituency MP Robert Migadde Ndugwa together with other leaders; Woman MP Judith Naggujja, CAO Mbooge, district chairperson Mitia Nixon Ocheng, District Education Officer (DEO) Hussein Bugembe and other officials to visit Nairambi Seed School and Buvuma College on Friday to assess the situation and explore possible solutions.
The leaders met teachers, members of the schools’ governing boards, PTA representatives and learners to discuss the planned suspension of the boarding facilities.
The headteachers had asked parents to organise themselves and pick up their children from the schools by October 1, after which the learners would resume studies as day scholars from their respective communities.
However, the leaders said the proposal would not be practical given the geographical nature of Buvuma district, which is made up of 52 islands that feed students into only three government secondary schools.
Migadde said the schools serve learners from across the islands, making boarding facilities essential for many students.
“Even when commuting from home would be the best option, the island environment, with people living in camps, does not favour students’ learning, more so those of this advanced age. Girls could be taken up by men for marriage, while boys could join illegal fishing,” he said.
Migadde said some parents were quoting President Yoweri Museveni’s pledge during the January campaigns, when he visited Buvuma, regarding the establishment of two additional boarding secondary schools, which has not yet been fulfilled.
He pledged to raise the matter with Museveni and Barugahara, saying the Government needed to find a lasting solution to the challenges affecting schools in island districts.
“Buvuma schools cannot survive without boarding facilities. I will ask the President, the Local Government Minister and the Ministry of Education to design a special programme for the island districts,” Migadde said.
He also urged parents to meet their obligations towards the education of their children.
Migadde said the district had previously faced a situation where university slots reserved for Buvuma were taken up by students from the district who had pursued their education on the mainland.
However, he said last year all the six district-quota university slots were taken up by students who completed Senior Six at Nairambi Seed School, all of whom were in the boarding section.
Buvuma Woman MP Naggujja also supported the retention of the boarding facilities and called upon parents to honour their commitments by continuing to pay the agreed fees for their children.
Nairambi Seed School has an enrolment of 807 students, of whom 462 are in the boarding section, while Buvuma College has 370 students, with 200 accommodated in the boarding section.
The leaders are expected to engage the schools, parents and relevant Government authorities to resolve the funding challenges before the proposed suspension takes effect.
However, some parents have blamed the confusion on what they described as uncoordinated information from leaders.
Barbara Mutesi, a resident of Maggyo Village in Buvuma Town Council, said the economic situation on the islands was difficult.
“Given the fact that fishing, which used to be our main economic activity, is no longer productive, we had welcomed the Minister’s declaration that parents should not pay fees in government schools. I pray that for schools in the islands, the Government puts in place a programme that also accommodates boarding students,” she said.
The Buvuma College Board of Governors chairperson, Lawrence Sserwanga, welcomed the intervention by the leaders and said he would convene a parents’ meeting to brief them about the developments.
“We shall take them through the risks of closing the boarding facilities in these only three government secondary schools we have in the whole of Buvuma district. We hope to make them change their minds,” Sserwanga said.