Kabooha.
Authorities in the region recently headed by Tooro Elders Forum (Isazi Abantu Bakuru Ba Tooro) launched a campaign dubbed Tooro Peoples Conference held annually to discuss ways of helping traditional schools in the region which were once major players on the national scene. The campaign is aimed at rediscovering their glorified academic performance
The giants in the region, St Leo’s College Kyegobe, Mpanga Secondary School, Kyebambe Girls School, Nyakasura School and St. Maria Goretti Girls School recently bounced back after several years of struggle to revive their lost glory.
Better performance started to regain in the 2011 UCE exams, Kyebambe had 59 students in Grade I, 91 in Grade II, and 3 in Grade III. Nyakasura had 46 in Grade I, 41 in Grade II, 2 in Grade III and 1 in Grade IV. Kyegobe had 45 students in Grade I, 44 in Grade II, and 22 in Grade III.
Rachael Bonabana a student of Mountains of the Moon University pursuing bachelor’s degree in Education says strikes in these schools created bad mentality among parents
In an interview Bonabana said learner’s engagement in love affairs while at school also divert their concentration in class but advises school administrators to put in place tough guidelines.
In the recent past, riots rocked some of these schools like Nyakasura and Kyegobe which greatly affected their performance. In March 2007, Kyegobe was closed for two weeks after a students’ strike. Among the 18 complaints listed for the strike included failure by the administration to get a goalkeeper for the football team.
In November 2008, the students at Kyegobe again rioted in protest of poor hygiene and demanded the transfer of the then headmaster Brother Etubire, whose house and car were destroyed. In 2010, the same school held a violent strike destroying school property and torched a teacher’s car and razed his plantation to the ground protesting the delay of buying a school bus while they had been contributing Shs30, 000 per student for over five years. The school was closed for two weeks.
In the same year, Nyakasura students went on strike because they wanted another bus claiming that what the school had was smaller.
