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Madi Okollo, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Several schools in Madi Okollo district are failing to register learners under the Education Management Information System (EMIS) due to the poor network for internet and calls.
The most affected schools are in Ewanga, Rigbo and Offaka sub counties where the network coverage is very poor. This has forced many head teachers to resort to seeking services for the registration in Arua city which is very far from the district.
Godfrey Akuma, the head teacher of Kaligo Primary school in Rigbo sub county says that they have been incurring high costs to travel to Arua city to get service providers for the registration exercise due to the poor network for internet in the area.
Meanwhile, Ben Rolex Olega, the head teacher of Odujo primary school explains that they have not registered all the 992 learners since they lack funds to pay the service provider for the registration based in Arua city.
According to information obtained from the District Education department, so far, Madi Okollo district has registered 55,302 learners and 414 teachers on EMIS. Of these, only 61 learners are in pre-primary, 54,356 in primary, 693 in secondary and 192 in certificate awarding college.
But Haram Cheka, the secretary for social services has challenged the affected head teachers to do everything in their mandate to ensure that they register the learners to avoid inconveniences in the future.
“Concerning the EMIS registration, the school authorities are faced with a lot of challenges ranging from poor attitude of the parents towards the exercise and poor network coverage. We therefore urge them to take advantage since the portal is still open,” she said.
Shem Ovua, the Madi Okollo education officer says that the poor network especially for internet in most parts of the district has greatly affected their progress as a district in the ongoing registration of learners under the EMIS.
In April this year, the government through the ministry of education embarked on a nationwide registration of all learners under EMIS which among others seeks to eliminate ghost learners under Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary School Education (USE) programs.
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