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| The PTA Chairperson at Mulongithi P.School standing while giving opening remarks on Friday1, March, 2013 |
Parents at Mulongoti Primary school, Kasese Municipality vow to improve academic
standards during a parents meeting held on Friday 1st, March, 2013 for which
RWECO presented a paper on improving quality of education role of parents.
While opening the meeting, the Parents Teachers Association Chairperson asked
the parents to support the development partners who have come to give a hand.
During the same meeting, teachers pledged to do their best in improving the
quality of education.
Rwenzori consortium for civic competence is implementing a
project supporting the teaching and learning of English language in thirty
primary schools fifteen of which are based in Kasese district and the others in
Kabarole district. The Education Programmatic Plan project that is funded by
the Edukans foundation in the Netherlands also supports two primary teachers
colleges of Bwera teachers college and Canon Apollo core PTC.
The project focuses on the proficiency in literacy and
numeracy with emphasis to the four skills of learning (listening, reading,
speaking and writing). In order for the project to achieve its objective the implementing
agency participates in other school activities like sensitizing the school
management committees on their roles, the PTA, the Head teachers and the
teachers. In a joint PTA and parents meeting held at Mulongoti Primary school
to discuss the future of the school vis-a-vis the performance of the 2012 PLE results, where
by the parents attributed the poor performance to the high female teacher ratio
in the school, it was reported that out
of the fourteen teachers only four are male, but how does that affect the
performance?. The reason was the women's
triple roles of production, reproduction
and community roles. But when that happens what has the community and policy makers done to in ensuring that programs designed to lift the women out of the kitchen
are implemented? for example in that very meeting all the participants were mothers and fathers but the meeting started at
10:00 am and ended at 3:30pm who then prepared lunch for the school children?
That implies that they either start
escaping one by one, reduce their concentration and participation. That meeting was attended by the RWECO staff who
sensitized the parents and created awareness for the participants, the entry
point was their turn up itself for out of around two hundred parents who
attended the meeting about three quarters were women and only a quarter were
males, besides female teachers were good role models for their female pupils
they should therefore aspire the young girls and those out of school otherwise
if the school was dominated by male teachers alone then the girl child would
not have any body to look up to admire and strive to be there at one time. She
challenged the participants to justify any incidences where more than three
mistresses have ever gone on maternity leave at once leaving the pupils
unattended to.
By Agnes Kyakimwa
RWECO
Agnes, Parents need to be guided on providing for their children, its their responsibility. I would imagine that in order to improve quality of education, lunch for the children is a critical part of learning for which the parents have relegated that to whoever cares to provide lunch to the children. PTA meetings are policy making bodies- thats where the whole story on governance is pegged
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