The State Minister for Higher Education Dr. John Chrysostom Muyingo has ordered for the immediate closure of the boarding section at St. Andrews Seed School, which is found in Ndwaddemutwe in Kimenyedde sub county, Mukono district.
He issued the directive shortly after commissioning the school on Tuesday. Muyingo explained that seed schools are intended to serve learners within their host communities, which means there is no need for establishing a boarding section.
According to information obtained by URN, the school had attracted 57 students in the boarding section with each paying Shillings 570,000. The Head Teacher Nathan Kigongo says that the boarding section is among the projects started by the school to finance the payment of the extra teachers hired to support the few staff on the government payroll.
The school has 16 teachers on the government payroll in charge of 507 students from senior to four. Kigongo reveals that their teaching staff ceiling stands at 31. The school pays nine more teachers who are not on the government payroll.
Mukono Chief Administrative Officer James Nkata acknowledges the general staffing gap in most of the government secondary schools within the district. He however appeals to the government to absorb the private teaching staff to solve the challenge. “Luckily, we almost every year have unspent wage balances in secondary school staff salaries,” Nkata revealed.
The community of Kimenyedde is nonetheless grateful for the school. Suule Kawooya, a parent of two students and LC I chairperson of Ndwaddemutwe village notes that it is the first government secondary in the entire sub-county.
The other schools commissioned include Nazigo Seed School in Kayunga and Sugu Seed School in Buikwe. The school has six furnished classrooms accommodating 60 learners each, the main hall, equipped computer and science laboratories, pit-latrines and CCTV system with one server.
The government injected Shillings 1.9billion on the project with support from the world bank while Haso Engineers Company Limited implemented the project. The school sits on six acres of land donated by the Mukono Diocese under the Church of Uganda.
