Leaders including Wakiso district chairperson, Kajjansi Town Council Mayor and the chairman for Kajjansi Schools have made a desperate appeal to government to construct a seed school for the area, and provide more buildings for the sole Universal Secondary Education (USE) school in the town council, to alleviate the problem posed by inadequate space.
Secondary schools headteachers and other town council and district officials who had assembled at Kitende Senior Secondary School to receive entrepreneurship textbooks provided by the district chairperson, Dr. Matia Lwanga Bwanika were told by the headmaster Lwasa Stephen, Kajjansi Mayor Haji Kayondo Ndawula and the association chairman of the schools in Kajjansi town council Haji Huzair Kimbugwe, that they have run out of the capacity to take on even half of the applicants seeking admission in Senior One.
The headteacher Lwasa said that because of lack of enough space, he could accommodate only 350 out of the over 5,000 applicants for vacancies in S1 which he says has created bad blood between him and parents in the school who do not know what he is going through.
“We have made numerous communications to Higher Education Minister Dr. John Chrysostom Muyingo to construct for us some more buildings, or even provide a seed school in Kajjansi as is done for other areas, but we do not know what offence we committed”, Kimbugwe angrily said.
He said he can now hardly walk through Kitende and Kajjansi for fear of unending scolding from parents who continue abusing him thinking he simply turned down their children’s applications.
He said because of the school’s good performance, students are flocking to Kitende SS from as far as Katabi in Entebbe, with many boarding taxis daily.
The Mayor for Kajjansi Town Council, Haji Kayondo Ndawula said that with 11 parishes and 62 villages, Kajjansi is the biggest town council in the country, and that owing to its fast growing population, it qualified long ago to be elevated to a municipality status, in addition to the need for other social amenities.
“Poor parents are eyeing Kitende SSS as the only USE school; as many as 5,200 applied for S.1 entry but only 400 were taken, where do the remaining more than 4000 who cannot afford private school charges go?” he asked, adding;
“Many are forced to drop out and look for odd jobs to get into premature employment; let government drop the old building style and give us storeyed buildings that accommodate more learners.
Responding to the over taxation outcry by private school owners, the district chair, Dr. Matia Lwanga Bwanika explained that property tax came into being through an act of parliament, with his local government having no solution to the matter.
Bwanika explained that local governments are simply implementing what was passed by parliament and have nothing much to do.
He however advised the school head teachers to make a formal application for a waiver through him, and added that he will then be in a simpler position to lobby.
The chairman of Kajjansi headteachers association, Haji Huzair Kimbugwe echoed the urgent need for government intervention to construct more buildings at Kitende SSS, saying it is competing with schools like St, Mary’s Kitende which makes it an attraction to less privileged parents in the area.
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Kimbugwe also noted that the school’s hardships are compounded by inadequate teachers, and desperately appealed to the government to immediately address their plight.
“We have learners travelling from as far as Bulwaanyi, Nankonge, Jjanyi and Namulanda villages miles away from the school because it is the only USE school in the area”, he reported.