Primary Four: Education limit in Karamoja’s Ik County
Learners waiting for their lunch at Timu Primary School. In the background are their classrooms.
What you need to know:
- Education is the key to success, or so we have been told. However, in Ik County, few parents are interested in educating their children, reasoning that the children are needed more in the fields rearing cattle and in the gardens digging, than in the classrooms. Secondly, logistical huddles are failing education in the county, with some government-aided schools located 45 kilometres away from communities. Hence, the majority of the adults never went beyond Primary Four, as Barbara Nalweyiso reports.
The children walk swiftly into the compound of Timu Primary School in Timu sub-county, Ik County, in Kaabong district. Several of them are not in uniform. They wear clothes that seem to have last been washed a long time ago. Some are carrying young ones on their backs, while others, whose hands are free, carry plastic plates and cups.
Many do not have shoes. They walk to the front of the school where the morning assembly is being held. Several older learners are in uniform. The younger ones, who are late for the assembly, struggle to stand in line even with the help of the teachers. After the assembly, they run off to their classrooms.
The upper classrooms give the impression of a well-funded school. Looks can be deceptive, though. The lower classrooms are made of poles tied together around dirt floors. The only redeeming feature is the shiny iron sheets. All the classrooms are half full, though.
This community school is not coded - meaning it is not recognized or supported by the government. However, it is the only school - and hope - of the children in Timu sub-county.
Timu Primary School pupils in the school compound.
Currently, the school has 870 learners. While enrolment in the lower classes is high, by Primary Four, the number of learners drops. The reasons are deeply systemic: cultural resistance to formal education, lack of government support, and infrastructural decay.
High dropout rates
Daniel Komol, a teacher at the school, says in this remote region, education is a secondary concern, if not an alien concept altogether.
“To the people here, education is not the path to prosperity. Rather, it is seen as a distraction from more immediate concerns such as herding cattle, household chores, and subsistence farming,” he says.
The burden of running Timu Primary School falls squarely on the shoulders of some residents. Initially, the classes stopped at Primary Four.
However, in 2023, a mission agency, Global Link Africa, introduced a Primary Five class and posted five missionaries to the area, who doubled as teachers. This year, the school will have its first cohort of Primary Seven, widely seen as an achievement in this forgotten corner of the country.
“The school opened in 2014, with classes held under trees. It later collapsed after we failed to feed the learners. World Vision later came in to construct four classrooms. The learners returned but the school collapsed again due to lack of support,” Komol explains.
Pupils in class at Timu Primary School.
In 2020, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) Uganda came in to support the school, with the latter taking charge of the teachers’ welfare.
“The nearest government-aided school, Kamion Primary School, is 45 kilometres away. Back in 2022, when our classes ended at Primary Four, those who wanted to continue with their education would walk 90 kilometres every day to and from Kamion. Because of this challenge, almost all the children in this sub-county drop out of school in Primary Four,” Komol notes.
By the time Amos Epau, the headteacher, joined the school in 2022, it only had three teachers with 350 pupils.
In 2023, he mobilised and led dialogues in the community on the importance of education.
“I have tried to reach out to government offices to code the school, in vain. Now, I am working with Kamion Primary School to ensure that our Primary Seven learners sit for the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) under their centre number,” he says.
Timu Primary School has 12 staff, five of whom are trained Grade Three teachers. Three teachers are missionaries while the remaining four are community members who come to help out.
“Some parents have not yet understood that education will brighten the future of this community. They would rather spend their money on alcohol. The girls are taken out of school at 13 to get married. We have 11 learners in Primary Seven, of which only three are girls,” Epau says.
Lunch at Timu Primary School is mainly boiled maize and beans. PHOTOS/BARBARA NALWEYISO
Structural challenges
In the PLE results, Kaabong district had nine learners in Division One, 357 in Division Two, 183 in Division Three, 85 in Division Four, and 60 ungraded learners. In the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations, 246 learners passed with Result 1.
In the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE), 16 learners got three principal passes, 19 got two principal passes, and 24 passed with one principal pass.
Ms Santina Sangar, Kaabong District Education Officer.
Santina Sangar, the district education officer, says Kaabong district has 32 government-aided primary schools, three secondary schools and two tertiary institutions. The district also has 12 uncoded community primary schools like Timu Primary School.
“The guidelines from the Ministry of Education indicate that every parish should have a primary school. However, 17 parishes do not have a single school. Our dropout rate is very high because children have to walk distances of over 30 kilometres to attend classes in another parish,” she says.
Sometimes, buses that pass through the parishes on their way to neighbouring districts stop and pick up the learners walking to school. They usually miss the first lessons. “Currently, the enrollment levels are low because children cannot walk long distances in the rainy season. Since it is a planting season, some parents withdraw their children from school to act as scarecrows in the gardens and to rear animals,” Sangar notes. Other learners drop out due to the school’s failure to feed learners. While sometimes, WPF provides food, it is not adequate and sustainable. “Another challenge is that several parents have negative attitudes about educating girls.
Pupils arriving at Timu Primary School.
When they take a girl to school, they expect the results of education to be immediate. Seven years of primary school is too long for them. Some cannot even sell an animal to pay school fees,” the district education officer notes.
Some parents do not visit the schools to assess the performance of the learners and interact with the teachers. The district is also grappling with low staffing levels especially in the primary sector, with 356 teachers for 34,000 learners. This has made classroom control almost impossible.
“Teachers cannot adequately assess the learners because they are overwhelmed. You may have 200 learners in Primary One managed by one teacher. How can this teacher assess both the slow and fast learners?” Sanger asks.
The district also lacks adequate classrooms with some teachers holding classes under trees. However, in the rainy season, learners would rather remain at home than sitting under the rain.
Pupils standing outside their classroom.
Studying in local languages
At 1 pm the learners of Timu Primary School excitedly step out of their classrooms with their cups and plates in hand. They walk to the cooking area where a steaming lunch of boiled maize and beans is served out of a huge saucepan. The servers are fellow students. Each child is given an almost full cup of the meal. However, there is no time to enjoy the meal. The learners eat as they attend the afternoon class.
In the new thematic curriculum, in government-aided schools, learners in Primary One to Four are supposed to learn in the local language.
At Timu Primary School, the four community volunteers cater to that aspect.
However, other community schools in Ik County do not have that privilege. Kaabong district is made up of the Ik and Dodoth communities. Joseph Lokut Mukasa, the vice chairperson of Kaabong district, says the district does not have an Ik who is a teacher by profession.
“We cannot take the Dodoth language to the Ik. Neither can we speak the Ik language. So we are stuck. I wish the government could take affirmative action to train some Ik as teachers so that they can teach their people,” he says.
Most of the educated Ik, who are diploma holders, are enrolled in the district local government as parish chiefs.
“The initiative should come from the Ik, who should enroll themselves at teacher training colleges. However, to bridge the gap, we employ teachers from the Sebei region, whose language is similar to the Ik, to teach in the lower classes in Ik County,” Sangar adds. Ik County has three community primary schools.
Sangar says their high enrollment levels should be reason enough for them to be coded by the Ministry of Education.
“When the government codes a school, it takes on the responsibility of putting up structures and paying the teachers. We have written letters and the council has minuted proposals to code these schools, in vain. It is now beyond me as a district education officer,” she says.
The education office was not allocated a vehicle to enable officials to monitor schools in the huge district. Ik County is 50 kilometres away from the district headquarters and Sangar stresses that it is risky to send an official on a bodaboda. The Ik are on their own.
Timu Primary School pupils during general assembly time.
Way forward
The temporary classrooms at Timu Primary School were built by the community. However, they do not have the basics like lightning conductors, thus endangering the lives of the learners. These, and other logistical hardships contribute to the region’s abysmal transition rates and escalating dropout figures.
Enrollment levels may be rising, but without strategic investment, staffing, and a shift in cultural perceptions, the gains will be ephemeral. The dream of education remains out of reach for thousands of children in Kaabong district.
High Dropout Rate: The guidelines from the Ministry of Education indicate that every parish should have a primary school. However, 17 parishes do not have a single school. Our dropout rate is very high because children have to walk distances of over 30 kilometres to attend classes in another parish.”
Santina Sangar, Kaabong district education officer
No Code: I have tried to reach out to government offices to code the school, in vain. Now, I am working with Kamion Primary School to ensure that our Primary Seven learners sit for the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) under their centre number,”
General Manager Editorial Daniel Kalinaki, Ag. Managing Editor Allan Chekwech,
Editor, Sustainability Hub Gillian Nantume, Features Editor Caesar Karuhanga Abangirah,
Contributor Barbara Nalweyiso
Produced by Nation Media Group in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
