Germany Funds Kamuli Primary Education

Germany Funds Kamuli Primary Education

Authorities in Kamuli have appealed to the government to take over the early literacy education program that enhances access to quality education in primary schools and roll it out to benefit the entire district.

The shs300million one-year pilot project that ends in October this year was funded by Plan Germany and implemented by Plan Uganda, targeting over 5,584 pupils from ten selected schools in Kamuli district.

The project uses the ‘Interactive child centered approach’ to interest pupils into reading English and Lusoga books.

Pupils from Primary 1 to 3 have also been supplied with numerous text books and teaching aids.

The District Education Officer, Joseph Musoke, said the project dubbed ‘Enhancing Access to Quality Education in primary schools’ had done wonders in boosting the Universal Primary Education in the selected schools.

He applauded the strategy for organizing refresher courses for teachers to re-skill them using the thematic curriculum and how to develop instructional materials using local materials, how to assess learners continuously to improve their literacy skills among others.

“The project pulled the children from nowhere to acquire literacy at an early age, which lays a firm foundation for the final Primary Leaving Examinations,” he stressed.

He added, “I appeal to the ministry of education to bench mark this project to the entire district because it has done tremendous success where it has been implemented especially in the rural areas where it has been most successful”.

The DEO said he was optimistic that the beneficiary schools would have better results in PLE, and wished to extend it to all the 184 primary schools in the district.

Henry Acai, the project coordinator said there was a big difference in literacy levels between pupils of the 10 schools and the rest of the district.

“Pupils get copies of interesting books and are allowed to take them home where they interact with their parents. The pupils are also motivated to attend class because of the interesting teaching aids and has made the teachers’ work easier,” he explained.

The project ends in October this year but Acai asked the government to take it on for the entire district and to the whole country.

Robert Mulyabintu, the Mbulamuti primary school head teacher said many of his teachers for lower classes had attended refresher courses, which he said had enabled them improve classroom environment.

He however appealed to upper classes to be catered for. “We have registered a big change in lower classes but we needed continuity up to P7 so that the same standards are maintained,” he explained.