{UAH} Fires in our Schools Again, this time in Iganga!

 

Colleagues, 

School fires have again robbed us of the life of one seven year grade one kid in Tawheed Primary School in Iganga Town. We are told that the fire broke out at 7:30 pm. The little boy was sick and had remained in the dormitory and may have been asleep by the fire started.

 

This death reminds me of the many nights I feared for my children in Uganda before I brought them abroad. I always worried for the worst,not with the laxity of the school administrations in the various schools in the country. 

The  Ministry of Education and Sports should take drastic measures to ensure safety and better learning environment for our children.And to parents, I urge you to think seriously whether it is really good parenting to send such a small kid to live alone in the name of good education.  Most communities in Uganda today have schools nearby where even a seven year old can walk to and from home and come back to the care and love of his/her parents.  Kids could be sent to boarding schools in say grade five or so by which time they can somehow take care of themselves.

Sadly, in for the kids in this particular school, there seems to be no immediate information from the school administration , only reports from kids, where are the administrators? It looks as though the kids are left to mourn their own departed little soul as they narrate the ordeal, "We left him in the dormitory when he was asleep and in a short time we saw fire coming out of the windows," one of the pupils said.

These questions may help to initiate a discussion on school safety concerns:

1. What policies are in place in many of the schools especially during prep time? Are dormitories locked or not?
2. Is there a roll call for students to know who is in class and who has not gone for preps and where such a student could be?
3. Do dormitory captains remain in dormitories to guard the place as is a practice in some schools
4. Are school matrons and patrons always available to ensure safety of the children?
5. Do really all these boarding schools qualify to be boarding schools, do they meet human habitation standards? Are they certified/licensed to be boarding schools? Are they regularly inspected?
6. Safety aside, should young kids of such age be taken to boarding schools?

 

Peter Simon