The deputy Resident District Commissioner of Kagadi, Mr. Benjamin Tumusiime has expressed concern over the increasing rate of school dropouts in the district, a factor that has led to an increase in early marriages among the teenagers.
The commissioner expressed the concern while appearing on Kagadi Broadcasting Services (KBS) radio station on a regular Tuesday evening presidential hour programme.
He attributed the act of school dropout in Kagadi district to lack of sensitization of parents about the value of education.
“I urge all parents here to take your children back to school to enable them attain formal education. The excuse of striking teacher has long been solved by the government and there is no need to keep your children at home,” he said.
“Many of you are giving an excuse of lack of school fees, take you children to UPE schools. Personally I studied in a UPE School for all the seven years of primary education; those teachers are good and qualified. I don’t want to hear that excuse anymore,” Tumusiime emphasized.
Kagadi District is experiencing a significant increase of young school dropouts especially in villages where parents have been reluctant on sending their children back to school ever since they were opened after over two years of lockdown due to novel covid-19 pandemic.
“If a child is out of school, he says, they are exposed to many temptations ranging from rape, defilement and early marriages. I have come to realize that girls especially between 13 and 17 years have been forced into early marriages hence suffering from torture and violence,” Tumusiime noted.
He further noted that dropouts have fallen victims of sexual harassment and defilement where most of these abuses have not been reported to police.
The reasons for dropouts are ranging from poverty among families, age of pupils, poor academic performance, informal employment, peer pressure and other school related factors.
Tumusiime asked parents to consider the future of their children and ensure that they attain education in order to avoid the consequences of exposing them to risks.
Tumusiime however asked leaders to follow up the perpetrators of rape and defilement to curtail the vice in their communities.
He also promised that government will continue making operations against parents and children in the district until the problem is addressed.
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