The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, has called for increased investment in vocational education with special emphasis on grooming the girl child.
Kadaga noted that many parents in rural areas have failed to send their daughters to school despite the good performance in PLE, UCE and UACE.
“Today, children who have some vocational skills can earn even before sitting for their exams. I would like to call on parents to enroll their daughters in vocational institutions,” said Kadaga.
The Speaker made the call while launching the Kakira Sugar Busoga Foundation Scholarship that aims at improving education standards in Busoga sub-region.
According to the Speaker, the scholarship is a culmination of 15 years advocacy and lobbying with management of Kakira Sugar for the establishment of a scholarship programme to majorly support students in Busoga sub-region.
“We had a long discussion about the relevance of Kakira Sugar to Busoga, and they started with two scholarships to Busoga University. They have now set up this foundation,” Kadaga noted.
She commended Mayur Madhvani, the Managing Director Kakira Sugar Works Limited and asked him to consider setting up incubation laboratories to facilitate vocational studies.
“Our schools are not doing so well, so can we have incubation laboratories that will support our youth to make better innovations,” said Kadaga.
Madhvani noted that the shs400 million scholarship fund will support enterprising and well performing Ugandan students from Busoga sub-region which will boost its academic standards.
He asked the Speaker to engage Government to follow up the sugar zoning policy to regulate the industry in a bid to improve the relationship between companies and sugarcane farmers.
“This policy has taken far too long and has resulted in less earnings for our farmers and created food insecurity in Busoga,” noted Madhvani.
The Speaker committed to follow up discussion on the Sugar Zoning Policy when Parliament resumes plenary sittings on 6 November 2018.
The newly formed Kakira Sugar Busoga Foundation Board, chaired by former Agriculture Minister, Hon. Victoria Ssekitoleko, alongside six board members, will handle the disbursement of scholarships to beneficiaries.
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