While some schools have registered low turn up of learners, a number of schools in Hoima district are struggling with an unusually high student turn up.
So far, the government primary school with the highest intake in the district has over 1,700 students. Each classroom houses over 100 students which exceed the number for which the classroom was designed to hold.
Kapapi primary school is among the schools that have registered over 1700 students and the only government school in Kapapi village, Kapapi Sub County in Hoima district.
The school is currently overwhelmed by the high number of students that shot from 800 to over 1000 this year when schools were given a green light to re-open.
The increase is not only informed by the prolonged closure of schools but also the rural migration along the shores of lake Albert caused by the UPDF’s cosure of over 100 landing sites.
‘’The floods and the closing of the landing sites saw over 1000 people migrate to this side of Kapapi village together with their children that now want to study.’’ Atiku John, deputy headteacher of Kapapi primary school told this reporter.
Atiku added that the school administration is finding it hard to deal with the pupil-desk ratio.
‘’Primary one alone has over 200 students who we cannot put in one classroom that should hold only 55 students, according to the ministry of education standards,” Atiku added.
The scarcity of teachers is yet another shortfall for a school that is already strained beyond capacity.
“Marking books is becoming hard, where a single teacher has to mark over 190 books in a single day, which is sometimes hectic for our teachers,” He explained.
Currently two out of the 25 teachers are on maternity leave, according to information that this website obtained from officials.
The other school facilities are strained too: once nature calls, learners have to line up since the available toilets at school cannot accommodate them.
“The students waste a lot of time lining up to ease themselves because the toilets are few and the space can only accommodate two students at a time,” Atiku told Nile Post.
One of the students, speaking on condition of anonymity, complained of not being comfortable while in class given the overcrowding.
‘’It is a hot season and given our number in class, there is always too much heat,” the student said.
In other schools that cannot afford classrooms, some students study under ‘umbrella’ trees in the school.
Each umbrella tree caters for over 100 students on a daily basis.
The Hoima district education department confirmed that student numbers are overwhelming across all the government schools in the district.
However, Godfrey Sserwanja, the Hoima District Education Officer, attributes the surge in numbers to the closure of private schools estimated to be about 50.
“So far we know of 50 private schools that have closed, a move which has pushed those students to government schools,” Sserwanja explained, adding, “As government is still looking at possible solutions, we hope various stakeholders can provide us with a few tents where the students can study from rather than studying from under the trees.”
By policy, districts are required to recruit standby teachers who can provide back up in such scenarios, but in Hoima, none has been recruited.
