By KT Reporter
A census exercise at Vision for Africa primary school in Rupa Sub County, Moroto district turned chaotic when the angry parents chased away a team from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, mistaking them to be school founders trying to shift the children to another site.
The incident happened on Thursday morning when angry parents suspected the team was there to take away the children following a disputed proposal to transfer them to another school in Soroti district.
As a result, the parents stormed the school premises, blocking a census exercise prompting the district security committee led by the Assistant Resident District Commissioner and the District Police commander to intervene in the matter.
Joseph Loumo, one of the angry parents said that they saw a team entering into the school premises with a Costa van and they suspected them to have been sent to take away their children to another school which they do not know.
Loumo said that they offered a donor their land to construct a school and she promised to educate their vulnerable children at a free cost. He said that they were shocked when they had rumors about the proposed plan to charge parents ugx 100,000 per each child for school fees.
He added that as they were still wondering about the decision to charge them money, another rumor came that the donor wanted to transfer their children to study in the school in Soroti district.
He said that they opposed the idea because they did not know the reason why the donor was abandoning their own school and prefer taking the children to another school.
Patrick Otwao, the head teacher of Vision for Africa primary school said that there has been tension at school following the disagreement between the parents and the donors over the decision to transfer the children to another school.
Otwao said that although there were plans to transfer the sponsored children, the management for Vision Africa international convened a stakeholders meeting with the district leadership where they resolved not to transfer the children.
Otwao said that the learning has resumed normally and the children are now reporting back to school.
He said that the general security situation in the school is calm after they engaged the parents and explained to them the intended purpose of the census.
Otwao confirmed that there was no destruction at school nor injuries reported during the tension since the situation was properly managed by management.
On the ugx 100,000 levied on each child, Otwao said that the fee was meant for sustaining the school but it was scrapped when the board sat and discussed it. He said that they realized the children were coming from vulnerable families and it would be challenging to charge them such an amount for school fees.
Otwao said that the school currently has a total population of 659 pupils of whom 475 are under the sponsorship program and all were meant to be transferred to another school. He said that all these children were mobilized from the community within Rupa Sub County and they are studying and boarding free.
On Tuesday, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics commenced the baseline education census exercise in the Moroto district, aiming to generate comprehensive education statistics of all the schools and institutions in the formal education system of Uganda. The statistics will facilitate appropriate planning, policy formulation and decision making processes at the different levels of the country’s education system. The census is now proceeding as more learners report back.
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