Museveni lashes out at UPE schools for sending pupils home over extra fees

President Museveni has asked Members of Parliament to budget for compulsory education to stop “greedy teachers” from sending children back home over extra charges.

This was in his address to Parliament following the presentation of the 2022/2023 financial year budget at the Kololo Ceremonial grounds on June 14 2022.

"We may not do it this year but in the next financial years, we should insist on free and compulsory primary and even secondary education and stop all these fellows who are looking for money through schools,” Museveni said.

He revealed that while on a recent tour in Moroto, he discovered that the primary school completion rate is at 6%, adding that in the whole country, the primary school completion rate is at 38 per cent, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS).

"Children drop out of school because of school charges. It is disgusting to send children out of school because we are looking for allowances. We must say no. Let us budget and stop these greedy fellows from collecting money. This is what I wanted from 1997, but I cannot do it alone," Museveni said.

He also called for increased budgeting for irrigation interventions saying that the problem faced by Uganda and Africa is lack of food.

"As long as Uganda is producing enough food, there is no problem we cannot solve. The danger to food is some laziness and the other is lack of rain or unreliable rain. That is why in the budget, we are putting irrigation," he said.

He said that budgeting for improved irrigation interventions will stabilise agriculture and in the long run and avert the shortage of food.

To reclaim the wetlands, the president said that those occupying wetlands in Busoga, Bukedi and Kigezi will be relocated and compensated arguing that they were misled into settling there by the British.

"In other areas, people are going against our appeal and I demand that they vacate the wetlands without negotiations. Once we bring back our water, then we shall be able to irrigate easily and have secure agriculture to be able to solve other problems," Museveni said.