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{
    "id": 1233850,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1233850/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 339,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Teso South, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Mary Emaase",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Adjournment Motion as a matter of national concern. When we bid our children farewell with a hug and love in the morning, we hope that school is a safe place for them. When you send your child to a boarding school, it is our hope, belief and trust that, that is the safest place for them. Whatever is happening in Mukumu is sad and very painful. I think it is a wake-up call to the Ministries of Health and Education and to the leaders. It is just a symptom or a warning of something bigger brewing and waiting to explode. I want to agree with the Members who have alluded to over-crowding in our schools. There is serious over-enrolment which automatically compromises the quality of many things such as health and sanitation, which have deteriorated in a number of those schools. I want to differ with the argument that over-crowding in those schools has been caused by the 100 per cent transition or the need for more schools. This is because there is an unending appetite in some of the schools in the country to continue to over-enrol even in circumstances where there is inadequate capacity to accommodate those students. There are three-decker beds in some dormitories. When disaster strikes, the damage is bigger, immense and more painful. Most of those schools over-enrol to attract capitation from the Ministry as a result of more numbers. Some of those schools over-enrol because of a fallacy that they are doing better in performance even when we know that some of them are practicing exam cheating. So, you will find more parents preferring to take their children to that school and yet, it is not even the best. Hon. Temporary Speaker, in my constituency, there are very good schools with very good facilities but, if you visit them, you will be surprised because the population is not even a quarter of the full capacity of that school. This is because of the perception that school A is doing better and, therefore, most parents opt to take their children there. This leads to over-crowding. This is a matter that the Ministry of Education must take seriously. It needs to carry out an audit, do a report and see how to rationalise and improve performance in other schools so that we can spread and address the over-crowding issue. That takes me to the question of standards and I want to state that this country is not in short supply of standard legislation or policy. The problem is in enrolment. In the case of Mukumu, I want to say someone slept on the job. Do they care what the source of the water is? Do they care if the borehole water is tested? Do they care where the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}