By Our Reporter
In its hey days, Busoga region produced academic giants for the country which is why Basoga are easily visible in many public offices nationally. Many lawyers and civil servants and even politicians serving at national level are from Busoga. But there are fears if something isn’t urgently done the region might fail to replace these towering giants once they retire. That is why a group of eminent Basoga, led by Amb Agnes Kalibbala, recently came together and formed Busoga Education Initiative (BEI). Others on board include Olive Lumonya, Daudi Migereko, Wasswa Balunywa and Juma Kissame whose VIVA International College based in Mwiri recently generously hosted close to 500 primary teachers for their retooling conference. The teachers came from worst performing PLE schools. Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and Kyabazinga are closely patronizing the task force members. Recent MoES assessment by Minister Rose Seninde indicated Busoga needs special intervention. It indicated that Busoga for the last 5 years produced worst-performing PLE candidates to the extent that of the 1,425 pupils who scored zero marks (out of 400 in 2014 PLE), 337 were from Busoga. The conclusion was despite mass government investment to improve education quality, Busoga wasn’t changing.
Seninde then reached out to Busoga leaders and began meetings culminating into BEI’s formation with Kyabazinga being its patron. The BEI task force has come up with a one year work plan to implement targeted interventions aimed at uplifting Busoga’s education performance. BEI has conducted research which has revealed poverty, teacher and learner absenteeism, poor attitude and lack of lunch at school as some of the major causes of Busoga’s poor academic performance. Thus all the interventions designed are aimed at tackling these problems. This is how the budgeted Shs3,527,300,000 will be spent in the next one year. Some of the emergency interventions under the plan that has been widely accepted by development partners include: intensifying social mobilization and policy advocacy initiatives aimed at increased parents and other stakeholder participation (Shs100m), improving water provision and sanitation facilities (Shs300m), strengthening school feeding programs (Shs200m), strengthening schools inspection (Shs150m), staff/teacher motivation (100m by way of regularly recognizing best performance), establishing schools awards and recognition system (Shs150m), improving schooling environment through infrastructure (Shs2bn), strengthening adolescent health and mitigating teenage pregnancy (Shs100m) and finally facilitating effective implementation of BEI program activities (Shs150m). The listed interventions will target a total of 22 piloting schools chosen from 10 districts. The 22 schools are selected basing on the fact they have previously registered worst PLE grades in UNEB national exams. As patron, the Kyabazinga is already very supportive and outspoken about this BEI program which he hopes will transform the fortunes of his region that has previously been despised a lot for producing academic dwarfs. At the numerous meetings, Busoga elected leaders including MPs have been very enthusiastic towards the initiative whose rolling out they all agree was long overdue. The other big names in BEI include Eng Batumbya, Dr. Rose Badaza, Dr. Edith Basalirwa, Dr. Patrick Ibembe, Dr. Hamis Mugendawala, Prof Katwalo, Annet Wakabi, Florence Tagola and MoES’ Musa Birungi, Dr. Lusambu, Asuman Isabirye and Richard Minze.
