Kabojja Junior School speaks out on coupling among candidates

The head teacher of Kabojja Junior School Kampala, Mr Edward Peter Basembeza, has said the letter making rounds on social media about Primary Seven pupils of his school engaged in romantic relationships is not authentic but has some similarities with the one sent to parents of candidates on July 28.

“It is not so much authentic because one, it is not signed, it is not stamped and it is in word format, so it is liable to alteration, but when you read it from the beginning to the end, it has a lot of similarities with what we wanted to communicate with our parents over indiscipline among our candidates,” Mr Basembeza told Sunday Monitor during an interview at his office in Kololo early this week.

Mr Basembeza admitted that the letter that his school sent to the parents of their candidates on July 28 was about indiscipline among candidates and that the school was ready to share with parents any habit that is dangerous to the health and education of the learners.

“Let us not behave as if we are coming from mars, we all know that because of the effects of Covid-19 lockdown on schools, we are teaching quite different children all together. These are children who were exposed to so many things simply because they were at home for long where it was ‘everyone for himself and God for us all’,” he said.

“Indiscipline is so high, children no longer respect their teachers, including their parents, it is now worse with high levels of technology advancement where children have got access to gadgets, parents are failing to limit their use and they end up accessing negative information that influences wrong decision making,”he said. 

Although Mr Basembeza could not reveal the details of the letter that he sent to the parents of Primary Seven candidates, the letter that was shared on social media highlighted girl-boy relationship as a challenge at hand.

 “Of late, we are overwhelmed by the unprecedented levels of indiscipline that involve boy/girl relationships, commonly known as “crush”. These are destroying all efforts we are making to ensure they perform to their best. Dear parents/guardians, please be aware that these are young adolescents who can easily be affected by such behaviour,” the letter reads.

According to the letter, the problem of coupling was largely abated and perpetuated mostly by children who have access to smart phones and smart watches while at home.

The letter further tasks parents to pick children from school early, share with the school information that may be helpful in curbing any form of indiscipline, be in touch with teachers, be in the know of their children’s friends so as to produce model citizens.

However, Mr Basembeza said the learners in all classes are consistently counselled by teachers and religious leaders so as to nurture responsible citizens.

Dr Jane Egau Okou, the director for Higher, Technical, Vocational Education and Training at the Education ministry, said the Covid-19-induced lockdown affected the morals of several children and that schools should take it upon themselves to counsel learners to promote behavioral change.