Parents make bricks to build houses for teachers

Parents of Kirwa Primary School are engaged in bricklaying to construct houses for teachers’ accommodation. The parents hope that this will help limit the absenteeism of teachers.

Kirwa Primary School, with 464 pupils, is located in Nyamabare cell, Rukore ward, Ryakarimira Town Council, Ndorwa west constituency in Kabale district.

Parents say that the school doesn’t have enough classrooms and accommodation for teachers prompting them to find solutions including making brings to build houses for teachers.

They add that by the time they thought to start bricklaying, they had noticed that government could not provide all the construction materials.

Parents told Charmar News that the distance the teachers allocated to the school walk to reach school doesn’t allow them to reach on time because they stay far away from the school premises.

The parents explained that by the time teachers reach school some of the pupils have already returned home disappointed. According to parents, education will be improved since the teachers will be staying near the school.

However, parents are calling upon the government to inject enough money into government-founded schools.

According to pupils who attain education at Kirwa primary school, they have been facing the challenge of reaching school early but finding no teachers hence poor performance at the end of the term.

Pupils also add that whenever it would rain since their teachers come from far, they would end up not coming to school.

Bwengye Moses, the District Education Officer in Kabale district, says that the reason why parents have resorted to bricklaying is that they want their children to get teachers in classes.

He said the school is found in a hard-to-reach area and doesn’t have enough accommodation.

He further said that another challenge the school faces is that the teachers walk long distances from their homes. The teachers, he said, reach school late and sometimes they are tired to the extent that they may not deliver as expected.

Bwengye told Charmar News that Kirwa Primary School is in the work plan since it is a government-founded school.

He adds that the parents are laying bricks to construct staff houses and as the district, they will support the school when they reach the roofing stage thus providing the iron sheets.