Education State Minister urges schools on physical education

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Peter Ogwang, the state minister of sports, has urged school administrators to engage learners in co-curricular activities so as to prevent them from being idle, participating in illegal activities like strikes.

Ogwang made the remarks while closing a workshop on ‘Teacher Change Maker Development Program, a partnership between the ministry of education and sports and STIR Education – held at Kololo S.S in Kampala on Sept.01.

His comments were sparked by an earlier speech by the school head teacher, who said, that they do not have a school pitch/playground to engage learners in physical education.

Ogwang said, “You have a total of 3, 900 students; that is not a small number. Do you know the energy that those students have? By keeping them inside here without physical education, means they can easily organize themselves and destroy school property.”

Parliament of Uganda has been involved in investigations about the alleged takeover of the school’s playground by a private investor who promised to turn it into a modern stadium – but not much has been achieved.

Ogwanga promised to follow up the matter to its logical conclusion.

Meanwhile, Modern Karema, the Uganda Country Director for STIR Education said, in addition to physical education, the other way to change education system is to improve both what is taught and how it is taught.

“We believe that the purpose of education is the creation of a holistic leaner with the requisite skills, knowledge, values and attitudes to survive and thrive in the world after school,” Karema said.

He added that there has to be a win, win situation where the teachers are willing to teach and the learners are willing to learn for the education system to achieve tangible results.

The workshop was attended by the deputy principles from different core Primary Teacher Colleges in Uganda among other education sector players.