Pupils study in shifts in Karintuma school

The administration of Karintuma Primary School in Isingiro District has resorted to teaching pupils in shifts due to lack of classrooms.
Located about 40km from Isingiro Town in Ihunga Parish, Rushasha Sub-county, Bukanga County, the school has a population of 1,844 pupils both refugees and nationals.

They only have three classroom blocks. Each of the blocks has two classrooms, which are not enough to accommodate the big number of pupils.

The director of studies at the school, Mr Tabomwe Marisiari, said there has been too much congestion during lesson time.
“The classes are too congested to the extent that the teacher must enter class before pupils enter or else she will teach from outside because pupils sit up to the chalkboard,” he said.
“We have been dealing with it using the double shift school system. Some classes come in the morning up to midday then other classes come after lunch, they study until evening,’’ he added.

The head teacher, Ms Dativa Nuwabine, said besides the big number of pupils, they also have few teachers.
“Last term, we had 1,844 learners, but we are now approaching 2,000 pupils. It has been a challenge for us as teachers. We had seven trained teachers last year, but now we have received additional four from the government. We are now 13, but the number of pupils is still high,” she said.

Ms Nuwabine asked the government to come to their rescue by constructing more classroom blocks and deploying more teachers.
She said the school is also faced with the challenge of water. Pupils are forced to leave classes to get drinking water from home.
The Inspector of Schools in Isingiro District, Mr Alex Byaruhanga, said they are working  with the Ministry of Education to have the problems solved.

“We have so many problems in our schools, especially refugee schools, but we are waiting for the government to come to our rescue,” he said.
The European Union and Civil Protection for Humanitarian Aid through the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has funded the construction of a three classroom block that will help improve the learning environment at the school.
“We supported Karintuma Primary School with a classroom block basically to address issues of congestion as one way of improving the learning environment. We also supported them with two blocks of pit-latrines of five stances, one for the girls and another for the boys to improve hygiene of their environment,” Ms Florence Mercy Namugerwa, the NRC field coordinator for southwest, said on Monday.

Ms Namugerwa said they (NRC) are implementing an accelerated education programme and supporting mainstream education in the district to help improve the learning environment.
“We are launching a project called Innovative and Inclusive Accelerated Programme for Refugees and Hosting Communities. The project has been on since 2018 and we offer both inclusive formal education and non-formal education,” she said.

When we started the initiative, the school had 100 pupils, but the numbers have since skyrocketed to more than 1,800.
“We have had a different contribution with the school management committees, we have improved from 100 pupils in 2018 to 1,800 learners. Primary One alone has 400 pupils and we are working to ensure the learning environment is improved,” she said.