Nakaseke leaders pledge to enforce education law

In Summary

Action. The proposed law seeks to compel every stakeholder to play their part or face penalties.

Nakaseke. The new Nakaseke District executive has promised to prioritise the enforcement of a by-law aimed at boosting education standards in the district.
In his inaugural speech, Mr Ignatius Koomu, the LC5 chairperson , said the Nakaseke Education Ordinance, which seeks to counter the school dropout numbers, will top the political leadership priorities.

“As political leaders, we promise to prioritise education by-laws to lift Nakaseke to another level. We need to enforce the education ordinance where every stakeholder has a responsibility which must be fulfilled. We should not condemn the young generation to a world of unemployment and ignorance as leaders,” Mr Koomu said
Ms Mariam Kaberuka, the former district secretary for education, said the ordinance, which is currently with the Attorney General, sets particular penalties for all stakeholders failing in their respective duty of supporting their children’s education.

The by-law also discourages the automatic promotion of some of the pupils to the next class even when they could have been helped if they repeated a particular class due to very weak grades.
“Parents are supposed to attend meetings for at least three times per school term, ensure that children have lunch while at school while non-performing school heads face demotion on assessment and recommendation of the district education department,” she said in an interview last weekend.
“It is an embarrassment that we are forced to promote to the next class a child who has scored a total of 30 marks out of 400 in four subjects because of policy. In this ordinance, every stakeholder will be held responsible in accordance with the law,” she added.

Situation
Although the district has had a gradual improvement in academic performance for the last five years, many children who sit their Primary Leaving Examinations, still pass in the fourth grade. Out of the 4,200 pupils who sat for last year’s Primary Leaving Examinations, a total of 215 candidates were ungraded while 500 passed in fourth grade.

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