LIRA – Lango College, one of the traditional secondary schools in the country, has requested the government to help rehabilitate the dilapidated structures in the institution and build staff accommodation among others.
The school`s headteacher, Sammy Bob Okino says, for the school to gain its former glory and beauty, they need Shs 6.4 billion for renovating and building students’ dormitories, rehabilitating workshops, and classroom blocks and setting up a new ICT laboratory.
“We have a lot of challenges in classroom space and accommodation for students, one dormitory is totally dilapidated but I am happy the government has remembered us and has started working on it but it’s not enough,” he says.
Okino says the student population has increased from 260 he got in 2017 to the current1,005.
“Our school is really dilapidated and it’s unfortunate that they didn’t benefit from a lot of projects that have been coming to schools,” Okino briefed the minister of state for sports Denis Hamson Obua during his recent political and monitoring tour of the region.
“When we renovate all the dormitories fully we can accommodate 1,500 students comfortably and with the new classrooms students can sit comfortably and they can learn,” he adds.
The government is constructing two classroom blocks at the school which can accommodate 250 students.
The new classroom blocks, according to minister Obua and the school administration block will cost Shs 412 million. The target is to provide learning space for the increasing number of students.
The school located in Lira City faced a lot of challenges in the last decades, resulting in poor education performance and dwindling student numbers that at one time fell to 200 from over 1,000.
Among the challenges which led to the decline in enrolment and performance of the school were; the LRA conflict in northern Uganda, poor administration, indiscipline among students, and dilapidated classroom blocks.
Okino says when he was transferred to the school in 2017, parents had lost hope as the school was doing badly academically.
“Parents had lost hope and confidence for the school,” Okino says, adding that the school was operating without a substantive board of governors and Parents Teachers Association (PTA).
“What I did was to restore, held a series of meetings with parents and other stakeholders,” he adds.
Minister Obua says the government has plans to renovate all the traditional secondary schools in the country if funds allow.
“This plan can only be executed when the required funding is available because schools like Lango College is in a bad shape,” he adds.
The chairperson board of governors, David Naputal Oyuru lauded the government for working towards rebuilding the school, saying it has made parents to restore hope and have confidence in the school.
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