KAGERA: PARENTS across the country have been urged to cooperate with teachers to control truancy and school-dropout rates among pupils.
They should also contribute maize and sugar to enable pupils to get meals while at school.
Bukoba District Education Officer (Primary), Mr Julius Shulla made the remarks recently during a handing over of a 50,000 litres capacity water tank at Kyenge Primary School.
“Concerted efforts from all stakeholders are needed to control the increasing truancy and school drop-out rates among pupils. Parents across the country should also contribute maize and sugar to enable pupils to get meals while at school,” he said.
He highlighted the importance of school meals programme to enable pupils to have porridge (uji) during morning sessions and lunch.
“Due to inadequate food in schools, pupils/students could not properly concentrate on studies with empty stomachs, hence the poor performance. School feeding programme can play an important role in addressing nutritional issues in the community, particularly among pupils,” he said.
Head teacher for Kyenge Primary School, Respicius Kempanju explained that the academic performance rate has been dropping drastically during the past three years due to various reasons.
“While the academic performance rate stood at 89 per cent during 2021, the following year it dropped to 77.9 per cent, while in 2023 it was 73 per cent and dropped further to 63.9 per cent this year,” he said.
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Mr Kempanju explained that Kyenge Primary School has a total of 590 pupils, of whom 284 are boys and 306 girls and was established in 1957 while most of the buildings are dilapidated.
“The school also faces a shortage of teachers with a total of seven teachers (five males and two females) forcing each teacher to attend to 85 pupils against the national average of 65 pupils,” he said.
He commended Kinda Education Support (KESU), a non-governmental organisation for constructing 50,000 litres-capacity water tank at Kyenge Primary school.
“Due to critical shortage of water, pupils are forced to abandon studies to collect water from the nearby Ikimba Lake. However, the water was always unsafe, causing several pupils to contract waterborne diseases,” he said.
