Sometimes, for my safety and not for my sanity and mental health, I want to keep my mouth (pen) shut. Unfortunately, my grandmother in whose kitchen I grew up as an only grandchild for a long time, always wanted me to speak up. My Baganda relatives say; “Asirise teyejjusa!” Better to keep quiet than regret your words. I am aware of the cost of speaking out. I am not ready though to pay the price.
I have had the blessing of irregular penning of what is not sitting well with me. I also have had the privilege of being tutored by some of the best minds in the writing world in Uganda. I have been lucky that right from an early age, I was in spaces surrounded by books and readers and writers.
The first book I unfortunately interfaced with was the Catholic Bible version Evangiri (Evangelism), that only had the New Testament and written in Runyankore-Rukiga. By Primary Six, I was a regular taker of readings at Rugazi Catholic Parish in Bunyaruguru, present day Rubirizi District.
Everyone nearly had an opportunity to go to school in the 80s. We all went to government primary schools though quite a number were faith-leaning and I had a problem with that. The nearest Primary School was Kyambura Muslim Primary School. I couldn’t go to it even when it was near home. The next option was Kirugu Primary School, a Church of Uganda founded Primary School across the Kyambura River.
Kirugu was a melting point for pupils of all religions. However, the Bagambe family, staunch Catholics, whose home sat just across the school, went over 10km away to Mugyera Primary School. At Kirugu though, no Muslim or Catholic could become a head boy or head girl. That disturbed my young mind.
Good thing though, we could all access education. It was affordable for us all. At secondary level, elimination commenced and some pupils fell off. At the time in the 80s, there were only 2 secondary schools; St. Michael High School at Rugazi and Ndekye Secondary School. The whole of Katerera didn’t have a secondary school. It was not until 1987 that Kirugu Secondary School was founded.
A few lucky and committed families sent their children to secondary school. It was not about affordability though but accessibility. Some of my relatives were lucky and their families sent them to secondary school away from Bunyaruguru. My relatives were not by any standards rich. Anyway, no one was rich. Maybe their parents were very committed to education (having realised how liberating it was). While they were resource constrained, whoever failed to complete secondary education did so on their own. Even if a family sold their properties, there was an assurance that their children would get a job.
Fast forward, with the liberalisation of the education sector and with many private primary and secondary schools coming up in my own backyard of Bunyaruguru, only the rich (who are fewer) can afford and access quality education at Primary and Secondary school level. The poorest of the poor are the ones that go for ugly universal primary education in government primary schools with derelict structures, unmotivated teachers and devoid of scholastic materials.
I am not surprised that in the year 2012, 1.7M million pupils started Primary 1 and 14 years later, only 142,000 of the 2012 school entry cohort are able to complete high school! If 4 children belonged to 1 parent, it means that only 425,000 parents can afford primary education and a misery 35,500 can afford to send their children to high school. Aware that only about 4,000 students complete university education, going by the same figure, Uganda has only 1,000 parents that can afford to send their children to university.
The writer is a retired journalist; anshekanabo@gmail.com +256 775 414 596
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