The Mukono South Member of Parliament has expressed disgust at the rate at which jiggers are attacking learners in Mukono schools, and appealed to administrators to prioritize fixing classroom floors with concrete.
On the excuse of the high cost of cement, Johnson Senyonga Muyanja suggested that schools in remote areas could use cow dung, adding, “Long ago when we went to primary schools, the order was to fix floors with cow dung and we were not attacked by jiggers at the present rate.”
He was on Saturday commissioning a refurbished six-classroom block at Sir Apollo Kaggwa Primary School in Buwaali LC I, in Nakisunga sub-county. The classroom was given a face lift with assistance from Swiss friends of Katosi Women Development Trust, a local non government organisation in the area.
Senyonga advised that as school administrators fundraise for services like electricity, water and new blocks, they should think of adequate flooring for the existing buildings to control jiggers which are a health hazard to learners.
He talked about the possibility of making it mandatory for all learners to wear shoes at school as a campaign to control the epidemic.
Earlier, Nakisunga LC 3 Chairman Mubarak Sekikubo announced that his council resolved to report to police parents who either fail to pay for their children’s lunch at school, or do not pack lunch for them, as well as those who keep at home their children of school-going age during school hours.
Sekikubo argued that government has made its contribution, and advised parents to reciprocate, noting that if they failure to observe this, even government’s contribution will collapse saying it is impossible to teach a child on an empty stomach.
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