By Robert Elema

Inadequate number of classrooms at Abele Primary School in Koboko Municipality, Koboko district had been the major challenge facing the school in the past years. Learners were in the past taught under trees and there has been a lot of congestion in the few classrooms.

This challenge has however become history due to the intervention to construct some new classroom blocks in the school under Development Response for Displacement Impact Project (DRDIP) but the major problem affecting the school is the inadequate number of teachers now.

Ms Mary Dudu the head teacher of the school said, the school received 2 blocks of 3 classrooms each (6 classrooms) under DRDIP and the number of classrooms in the school has increased to 17. She said the new structures has some positive impact which has resulted into the increment in the enrollment of the learners. "When I was transferred to the school in 2019, the enrollment of the school was 1,673 learners and when the DRDIP project came the same year, it attracted more children. We now have a total of 2,656 learners in the school and out of this number, the 353 are refugees," she said. "The major problem that is beyond our capacity is the inadequate number of teachers to handle the big enrollment. We have 23 teachers handling the 2656 children and each teacher handles 2-3 classes which is a burden on the teachers but ideally, the school has a staff ceiling of 36 teachers," she added.

Ms. Dudu said some of the classes qualified to be streamed into three but because of the limited number of teachers, they have streamed classes from P.1-P.7 into two leaving 2 classrooms being unutilized.

The head teacher also revealed that, the performance of the school was wanting but in 2022, they started posting better results with 5 candidates passing in Division 1 and is hopeful that better results will be posted this year.

She appealed to the Municipal authority to consider Abele Primary school in case of any projects under DRDIP phase two to construct houses for teachers accommodation because the teachers operate from far making them to arrive late and leave early that affects teachers time on task.


A teacher conducts lesson in a class

A primary seven pupil, Lydia Amviko, 15, who started P.1 in Abele Primary School says, the good learning environment at the school has made her not to think of changing to another school. "Abele is a good school and lessons go on every moment but we are not having enough teachers. The few teachers that we have are being overworked so, we need education office to post more teachers to Abele Primary School," she said. "The school has enough sanitary facilities with shelters attached to the pit latrines but for the purposes of privacy, we need separate change rooms or shelters for the girls so that cases of menstruation are managed easily at the school. It's sometimes hard to get pads and other materials to handle girls on menstruation at the school," she added.

David Mayiik Wuor a south Sudanese pupil in the school said: "I came from Juba to study here because of the good performance of the school adding that the relationship between the learners of the host community and the refugees is good. Though I don't get support from UNHCR, I am comfortable here in Abele Primary School and my parents support me in paying school fees and provision of other requirements".

COVER PHOTO: Learners at Abele primary school during a lesson. By Robert Elema