Kween district – Pupils used as maids to teachers and girls use cow dung as menstrual pads.
Upon appointment of the SPA/Political Affairs Namyalo Hadijah Uzeiye to Head the Office of the National Chairman NRM HE Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, she was given urgent directives among which was to follow up on the UPE and USE program implementation.
Today morning, the ONC coordinator for Sebei Sub-Region Ms. Sande Juliet Toto conducted a random monitoring of Kirwoko primary school in Atar Sub-county in the Kween district. She was welcomed by the head teacher Mr. Mwanga Edson who shared with her the challenges faced at the school. The pupils are walking too long distances to school, serving child labor at their parent’s farms, filled up pit latrines, lack of furniture, and low enrollment especially girls.
She was toured around the classes where she asked the head teacher to give her room to interact with the pupils of P7 after they refused to open up in his presence. The pupils complained of walking long distances, being forced to serve labor at their parent’s farms, being forced into early marriages, and lack of sanitary towels which they opt to use a piece of cloth and dried-up cow dung to manage their menstrual periods.
Ms. Sande Juliet Toto was shocked to learn that girls are used as maids at the teacher’s quarters and managed to find three of them preparing food for teachers during class time. The pupils informed her that, they are forced to fetch water for the teachers on a daily and one of their colleagues is no longer coming to school after she was brutally beaten up by a teacher.
The school in the recent PLE results scores 1 first grade, 31-second grade, 1e third grade, 10 fourth grade, and 16 failures. Kween district is popular for female genital mutilation (FGM) practices and many girls are suffering from illiteracy due to failure to attend school despite the free UPE and USE.
Ms.Sande Juliet Toto cautioned the head teacher and the 5 out of 19 teachers that were found at the school to immediately stop using pupils as maids or else risk being arrested. She celebrated the girls for keeping at school and assured them that, HE the president is following up on their education, and through ONC, he is monitoring the public services delivery to citizens across the country. She expressed concern about the sanitary towels and promised to immediately bring the concern to the attention of the authorities for redress.
Reported by; ONC Online Media.
