ANT calls for more support to rural schools to improve performance

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Opposition political party Alliance for National Transformation-ANT has called upon government to increase support for rural schools in order to improve their performance in national exams.

Speaking to Uganda Radio Network-URN, Alice Alaso, the acting Secretary General of ANT said they are tired of reading stories after the release of national exams that rural schools performed decimally as compared to others in urban areas.

Last week, the Uganda National Examination Board released the results of the 2020 Primary Leaving Exams. Like has been happening over the years, Kampala, Wakiso, Mukono among other urban districts led the pack of the best performers while districts such as Kween, Bugiri, Sironko, Mayuge, Kapchorwa registered the worst failure rates.

“Education is meant to be a tool for social and economic transformation, if these children in these rural areas don’t get an education, their status remains the same,” Alaso said. “Therefore, for the government to ignore these results, for the minister of education and UNEB to be happily reading these results every year without doing anything to change this situation is a betrayal of the nation.”

As a way forward, she called upon government to recruit more teachers for village schools and not only provide accommodation but also pay them allowances that would motivate them to work in these districts.

She added that there is also need to reinvigorate the inspection of school departments in every district to ensure that those recruited to teach in these schools are actually doing their work as this will be the only way Universal Primary Education will achieve the purpose for which it was started.

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URN