ARUA CITY LAUNCHES CONSTRUCTION OF NEW CLASSROOM BLOCKS, SANITATION FACILITIES TO TRANSFORM LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Officials for site handover at Onduparaka primary school. (All photos by Onzoma Albert).

By Onzoma Albert

Arua City

The Arua City Council and ACAV have handed over two sites at Onduparaka and Ociba Primary Schools for the construction of a four-classroom block and a five-stance girl’s toilet with facilities for persons with disabilities (PWD), respectively to enhance learning environments.

Each classroom block costs UGX 178 million and is scheduled for completion within six months, from September 1, 2026, to February 28, 2027. The two toilet facilities, costing UGX 25 million each, are to be constructed within four months, from September 1, 2026, to December 31, 2026.

To promote environmental conservation, grass and trees will be planted on the compounds of the new classrooms. The toilet facilities will include dedicated girls’ washrooms and additional rooms for PWDs.

During the site handover and groundbreaking ceremonies, Charles Ariaka, the head teacher of Onduparaka Primary School, which has an enrollment of 2,179 learners, expressed support for the project, noting that it will help reduce crowding and improve the learning environment.

“Classrooms and seating facilities are not surely enough at the school as a result when learned about this project we were extremely happy and welcomed it long time ago, our enrollments have been coming down because our current classrooms were not enough for the learners and they are squeezed in the available classrooms” he said.

His Worship Malone Avutia, Mayor of Arua’s Ayivu Division, committed to monitoring and guiding the project’s implementation, emphasizing the importance of supervising contractors to prevent disruptions to school activities and to ensure safety, particularly for schoolgirls.

“In this communities we have young girls who are still in school and we don’t expect the workers to interfere with our young girls because we shall not tolerate issues of teenage pregnancies and early marriage, we expect the contractors to hire local laborers and get local materials within the community” he said.

Joel Avaga, working with Arua City Engineering Department, attached to SUIDAC Projects, advised contractors to adhere to engineering principles and avoid Soddy works that could compromise the quality of the construction.

“Engineering is based on three principles quality, time and cost because you need to control quality, the project should be within the allocated budged and within the allocated time frame and that requires collected efforts from all the stakeholders” he said.

Patrick Bongo, Working Cities Alliance, one of the project’s partners, urged stakeholders and school administrators to take ownership of the projects, supervise their progress, and leverage the improved facilities to enhance academic performance.

“To the different stakeholders this is your project but not for SUIDAC and own it, the school management communities of the two schools should as well work on the existing structures which are in poor state by renovating them appear well next to the new classroom blocks, besides the infrastructure to our head teachers you need to work on the issue of performance and let this translate into improved academics and sports performances, if the schools will have good infrastructures with poor performances it will not make an impact” he said.

SMC, PTA, Contractors and the community members during the site handover and groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the classroom block at Onduparaka primary school.

Construction at Onduparaka Primary will be undertaken by Aziza Technical Services Limited, while Alias Buga and Brothers Enterprises Uganda Limited will work on the Ociba Primary School project.

Right way Enterprises Uganda Limited will handle the toilet facilities. These infrastructure upgrades aim to address the shortages of classrooms and sanitation facilities faced by over 3,000 learners, both local and refugee.

The project is funded by the European Union and implemented by Cities Alliance, hosted by UNOPS, with ACAV providing technical support for Arua City.

It represents a concerted effort to support educational infrastructure and improve living conditions for children in the area.

Written by newsroom-radiopacis