Prior to the start of the new term next month, more than 100 primary schools in the Luwero District are lacking restrooms.
Wakatayi, Kalere, Nalinnya Lwantale Girls, St. Mugagga Kikungo, Bajjo Community, Bukimu, Bukasa, and Kasaala Primary School are a few of the impacted Universal Primary schools.
Other examples are the Roman Catholic Churches of Kabanyi, Nalongo Church of Uganda, Bukambaga, Ndibulungi, and Nabinonya Primary Schools.
Some of the restrooms are overflowing, while others have collapsed, sunk, or are in poor condition. Other schools don’t have enough restrooms.
The accessible toilet has partially sunk in, according to St. Mugagga Kikungo Primary School headteacher Andrew Sserunjogi, and both students and teachers use the other two stands.
According to Sserunjogi, inadequate restroom facilities are a factor in both student underperformance and absenteeism.
The head teacher at Nalinnya Lwantale Girls’ Primary School, Beatrice Nansamba Ssentongo, reports that towards the end of last year, the school had 903 students enrolled in total, sharing just four toilet positions.
Before the COVID-19 lockdown, the district and Plan International, a non-governmental organization (NGO), built two restrooms at the schools, but all of them partially collapsed because of the poor soils, according to Nansamba.
In order to prevent accidents and disease outbreaks, Nansamba explains that the only available toilet is on the verge of collapsing. She, therefore, appealed to the government to build another toilet in a secure location.
The district councillor for Butuntumula sub-county, Isaac Wampamba, claims that students at Nabinonya Primary School were attending to nature’s call in nearby bushes after the toilet collapsed, which could result in an infection outbreak.
Wampamba continues by saying that although the school launched a fundraising effort for the new restrooms, only 400,000 Shillings were raised from parents. Ahead of the start of the new semester, he continues, the school administration is stuck.
Martin In contrast to the education policy of 53 students per stance, according to Paul Yiga, the Luwero District Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, in the majority of other schools, 87 students use one stance.
Yiga adds that the district is financially constrained to respond to all appeals. He requested that parents assist the schools in building both restrooms and classroom buildings.
Yiga pointed out that the district may need more than 10 financial years to attain the aim of 53 students utilizing one stance due to the existing insufficient funding.
According to Erastus Kibirango, the LCV Chairperson of Luwero, he has requests for new restroom facilities from over 100 schools and classroom blocks from 49 more.
Kibirango did point out that the district will only be able to build restrooms in four schools, rehabilitate three classroom buildings, and build five new classroom buildings for a total of 473 million Shillings in the fiscal year 2022–2023.
According to Kibirango, they want to ask the central government for emergency cash so they may build restrooms, particularly at schools where students have no place to relieve themselves.
In the district of Luwero, there are 230 Universal Primary Schools. On February 6, schools will resume classes.