ISO finds 300,000 �ghost� students
By Grace Matsiko
July 29, 2004
|
KAMPALA � The Ministry of Education & Sports and the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) have discovered more than 300,000 suspected ghost pupils and students in government aided schools. The ministry and ISO conducted a survey in 9,374 government schools, 962 private, 649 community schools between May 13-23 this year. This constitutes about 90 percent of the overall schools in that category in the country. The joint report does not show ownership of 226 schools. It is not clear whether they are government or privately owned. �Tracking and monitoring is ongoing. The racket is big. The head teachers inflate, the inspectors of schools have criminal negligence and they don�t cross-check. The DEOs [District Education Officers] sign and forward registers to the ministry and money is sent,� said Mr Charles Rwomushana, the head of Government and Research desk in the President�s Office. He participated in the exercise. He said that last year�s national school census established 6,163,034 students and pupils in government and private schools. He said the latest survey shows that the number has reduced by 301,720 (5 percent) this year. He said the figure could have dropped from 6,163,08,034 to 5,861,314 students and pupils this year as school head-teachers started cleaning up their school registers to get rid of ghost names. �It is a partnership with the Ministry of Education after a public outcry. On February 18, this year we launched the national register. We are now using the register which is now giving us those variations,� Rwomushana said yesterday. Sources said the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Mr F. X. Lubanga, received the report about two weeks ago. He could not be reached for a comment as he was reportedly out of office. �There is a strong feeling given the variations that actually the 300,000 plus are ghosts. The government has improved standards in school so it cannot be dropouts. In fact the number should be increasing, not going down,� a Ministry of Education official said. The report is yet to be presented to Cabinet. The report says student enrollment in some districts vary from last year�s figures by up to 44%. Kampala�s enrollment dropped from 67,373 in 2003 to 63,633 this year, representing 6%. According to the report, seen by The Monitor, Yumbe district registered the highest enrollment decline of 44% from 2003 to this year. In Bushenyi district, the school enrollment fell from 192,091 to 168,003 between 2003 and 2004. In Mbarara the school enrollment dropped by about the same figure. In Kapchorwa and Kiboga districts the school enrollment reduced by 12%. Iganga dropped by 11%, Nakapiripirit by 10% and Kotido by 21% while Mubende registered 17%. Katakwi is among the few districts, which showed the school population going up. It increased by 24% from 62,587 in 2003 to 77,486 this year. |
� 2004 The Monitor Publications
ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun!
