Masaka children's school fire deaths must wake govt up

The Monday fire tragedy at Kasaana Junior School in Masaka served as yet another painful reminder of what the reckless pursuit of profit continues to do to Uganda’s education sector.

A lot of harm has been occasioned because of the insatiable desire -- which drives mainly private school owners -- to wring out as much money as possible from their ‘investments’. They realise their deadly desires partly by flagrantly ignoring safety and other guidelines, thereby turning most of these institutions into veritable deathtraps for students and pupils.

A few examples will illustrate the point: For years, the Ministry of Education and Sports has directed against overcrowding in dormitories. In fact, the practice amounts to the prosecutable offence of reckless endangerment to life. But that warning has not stopped private schools from illegally packing school dormitories with triple decker beds.

The same ministry has warned against burglar-proofing of windows, a guideline similarly ignored – at great cost to families whose children have perished in school fires. We also see this disdain in the way they operate without playgrounds despite existing policy which demands their existence. In the past, all schools had to have playing fields because games as an extra-curricular activity contribute significantly to the general welfare and wholesome growth of learners.

Private schools are known to freely defy the ministry because many of them are owned by powerful people in government. Other owners enjoy patronage in high places. A school inspector interviewed in the aftermath of the Kasaana calamity revealed that whenever they have tried to crack down on non-compliant schools, telephone calls soon follow ‘from above’ to let them be.

This utter disregard for policy and deliberate obstructionism can also be seen in the scandalously high schools fees parents are forced to pay. Here, even public schools (mainly the so-called top flight establishments) are equally guilty. They hike fees termly, happily disregarding the many ministry circulars threatening them with de-registration. Why?  Because, it comes down to the well-connected lobby running private education. So powerful are they that attempts to confront their delinquency even through Parliament have been resisted.

This unfortunate reality, however, is not entirely the fault of errant businesspeople-turned-educators. At the end of the day, the buck must stop with the regulatory authority – which is the Ministry of Education and Sports. Through the ministry, government enjoys great latitude to enforce the law and policy. That this is not seen to be done is an indictment on the ministry.

The ministry appears to have abandoned its duties in much the same way the wider government has allowed education to suffer institutional decay in Uganda. In death, Kasaana Junior School’s seven dead victims should shake the ministry out of this lethargic state.