Government warns schools on night teaching

Kampala- Education officials have expressed worry over the safety of students who are released late after class hours and have asked schools to stop violating the ministry’s timetable.

A number of schools are releasing their students, especially candidates, late in the night, raising security concerns as they make their way home.

Mr Benson Baritazare Kule, the ministry of Education commissioner in-charge-of government secondary schools, said schools know the time they are supposed to engage children as provided for by government and warned them to stop defying this timetable.

The ministry of Education official school time runs from 8am to 5pm on week days.

“I have seen these children moving at night. I wonder if these schools are licensed and using professionally trained teachers. Any teacher knows straining the mind of a child is not good. There are other things they have to learn outside the classroom. Releasing them in the night is insecure. There are many temptations on the way,” Mr Kule said.

According to the principal inspector of schools at the Directorate of Education Standards (DES), Ms Frances Atima, their working hours stop at 5pm and anything beyond that becomes a police matter. She appealed to boards of governors, parents and communities where this is happening to be vigilant and stop the vice.

Reasons
She attributed the act to the pressure school owners exert on teachers because they want good grades for national examinations.
“What value addition are these schools contributing to a child after 5pm? These children need a minimum of eight hours of rest. But they reach home late, sleep late and wake up by 5am to beat the traffic. We strongly condemn the act,” Ms Atima said.

The head teacher of Ebenezer Secondary School in Kampala, Mr Cassim Male, said his school is forced to release students late because of the surrounding environment. He argues that most of their students are from the slums, lack space to revise from at home while others end up in bars because of peer pressure.

“If you look around, we are in a slum. Our children used not to do well because they had a lot of pressure from the community. We would find them in bars, others have to vend to get money to buy food for super after school while others live in violent homes. We decided to retain them here until 8:30pm so that they can utilise that time to do some revision and they are comfortable with it,” Male said in an interview.

He said they encourage parents who can to pick their children at this time while other students are asked to move in groups at night.

But some parents expressed fear about their children going home late but fear to complain for fear that the schools will harass them.

Ms Oketch (not real name), said she was forced to relocate her Primary Seven daughter from day to boarding section of the school because of the late night movements.

She said she had difficulties in paying the required Shs500,000 per term even when her daughter was a day scholar but she was left with no option because most schools where doing the same. So she ended up sending her child to the boarding section and had to part with more than Shs900,000 per term.

Education experts warn that the late classes are used by school owners to mint money from unsuspecting parents. Unfortunately, government watches as these wrong things happen, even when some of these schools are a few metres away from the ministry of Education headquarters.

“My daughter is sitting Primary Leaving Examinations this year. Her school policy is that every candidate must opt for boarding to increase teacher-pupil contact hour. I don’t like it but I also didn’t want to regret after. We have concentrated on the grades because at the end, for a child to get entry into Senior One or Five, they will depend on how they performed in Uneb [Uganda National Examinations Board].

“The schools will not ask for talent or a child’s behaviour but their grades. I have seen these kids walk home in the night and majority are candidates. It is a shame we have put our children’s lives at risk and the government seems absent in all this,” said Mr Patrick Kaboyo, the executive director, Coalition of Private Teachers Association.

Mr James Jjuuko, the Kisugu Primary School head teacher who doubles as chairperson head teachers association in Kampala, warned that there are high chances for an exhausted child to forget what they have learnt. He asked parents to cooperate with the authorities to fight the vice.

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