Bukigai College Secondary School has gone four weeks without receiving its expected government grant, forcing the school to borrow money to keep basic operations running as candidates prepare to sit their Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations next Monday.
“We are just borrowing funds to run school activities,” said Milton Masakala Wangota, the school’s head teacher. The situation is not unique to Bukigai College. Secondary schools across Bududa District are struggling to meet routine expenses because government grants received by the district have not yet been transferred to the schools.
At a time when schools should be concentrating on preparing candidates for their national examinations, head teachers say they are instead worrying about how to pay for basic needs. Geoffrey Wakhula, head teacher of Bushika Secondary School and chairperson of the Association of Bududa Secondary Headteachers (ASHU), said schools have increasingly had to rely on borrowed money to keep running.
“We have been depending on borrowing for most of the things used at school,” Wakhula said. He said the financial strain could also affect candidates’ performance because schools are struggling to provide the materials and services needed to support learning.
“We are worried that performance may not be as expected, given the fact that we are struggling to meet the school needs,” he said. At Bulucheke Secondary School, head teacher Edward Mukhwana described the situation as “really gambling”, saying the school has had to depend partly on voluntary contributions from parents. Some parents contribute up to Shs60,000, but Mukhwana said the money is not enough to meet the school’s needs. The situation is further complicated by teachers who are not on the government payroll, whose needs the school also has to cater for.
For schools, the uncertainty over when the grants will arrive makes financial planning difficult. Wangota said even the voluntary contributions from parents cannot provide a reliable alternative because parents contribute at their own discretion. “The contributions are not predictable, so it is difficult for us to plan,” he said. The financial difficulties come just days before UCE examinations are due to begin on October 12, putting additional pressure on schools to maintain a conducive environment for candidates.
However, Bududa Chief Administrative Officer Max Martin Mukula said the money is available and that the delay occurred at the district level. Mukula said the government grants were released to the district shortly after schools opened but could not be transferred to the respective schools after officers responsible for processing the payments were interdicted. He linked the interdictions to the Local Government Ministry’s “Expose the Corrupt” campaign.
“The grants were received long ago when schools opened, but the challenge was that there was no one to transfer the money because the responsible officers had been interdicted,” Mukula said. He said the district has since appointed caretakers to replace the interdicted officers and secured the necessary access rights for them to operate the government financial system.
Mukula said the grants would therefore soon be transferred to the affected schools. For the head teachers, however, the delay has already created obligations that schools must now struggle to clear, with national examinations only days away. They want the funds released without further delay so they can settle outstanding bills, meet basic operational needs and give candidates the support they need as they begin their examinations-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
