Phinalastbornnyeitera

FIGHT CORRUPTION WITHOUT DESTABILISING OUR EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS. My concern is not that schools should operate without accountability. My concern is that we must not confuse every school administrator with someone who steals public resources. There is a difference between a headteacher who collects money and diverts it for personal benefit, one who exploits parents through unjustified charges, and one who works with parents to employ additional teachers, provide meals and improve school facilities. These situations require different investigations and different interventions. Consider government-aided institutions such as Ntare School, Maryhill High School, King’s College Budo and Nabisunsa Girls. Their financial arrangements demonstrate that government assistance does not necessarily eliminate the financial responsibilities associated with maintaining institutional standards. I am not suggesting that their circumstances are identical to those of Kitagata. I am advocating for consistency, fairness and an informed discussion about how our government-aided schools are financed. More importantly, corruption in Uganda is not a school-only problem. We must investigate procurement, inflated contracts, ghost projects, public infrastructure, ministries, district administrations and government agencies. Why should the ordinary teacher or headteacher become the most visible target while other layers of public financial management also demand rigorous scrutiny? My recommendations to Hon. Balaam Barugahara are as follows: 1. Establish a strong multidisciplinary anti-corruption task force comprising forensic auditors, professional investigators, legal experts, education specialists and procurement professionals. 2. Audit the entire capitation grant chain, from allocation and release to transfer, receipt and expenditure. 3. Review education financing against inflation, enrolment growth and the actual cost of delivering quality education. 4. Investigate staffing gaps and establish how schools finance additional teachers and their remuneration. 5. Develop clear, lawful and transparent frameworks governing parental contributions, school budgets and expenditure. 6. Extend investigations to ministries, government agencies, procurement systems and public infrastructure projects. 7. Protect due process. Investigate allegations, verify financial records and give school administrators an opportunity to explain before publicly condemning them. Hon. Balaam, we appreciate your efforts, but you cannot fight this battle alone. Ministerial visits are important, but Uganda needs a properly resourced investigative system that follows public money from its release to its final utilisation. Investigate the headteacher who steals. Investigate the official who diverts funds. Investigate the procurement officer who inflates contracts. Investigate the systems that obstruct service delivery. Equally, recognise the school administrator who is genuinely working to improve education. As an educator, my position is simple: We cannot demand quality education without adequate financing. We cannot demand motivated teachers while ignoring their welfare. We cannot demand accountability from schools while failing to examine the entire public funding chain. LET US FIGHT CORRUPTION WITHOUT DESTROYING EDUCATION. LET US PROTECT PARENTS WITHOUT SUFFOCATING SCHOOLS. LET US DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY FROM THE HIGHEST OFFICE TO THE LOWEST OFFICE. Uganda needs clean institutions, adequately funded schools, motivated teachers and accountable public servants. — Arigumaho Johnpaul Educator | Concerned Ugandan Citizen #EducationForAll #FightCorruption #TeachersMatter #GoodGovernance

I want to commend Hon. @BalaamBarugahar for taking the anti-corruption campaign to different parts of Uganda. My concern has been drawn from previous visits in government aided schools esp Kitagata. Fighting corruption and demanding accountability for public resources is necessary. However, as an educator, I believe we must examine the financial realities of our schools before interpreting every parental contribution as corruption. Let us ask some fundamental questions, When government announces the release of capitation grants, does the entire allocated amount actually reach the respective schools? Does it reach headteachers' institutional accounts in full and on time? Are there delays, discrepancies or accountability gaps between the national treasury and the final beneficiary institutions? I am not alleging that money is necessarily stolen along this chain; I am asking why the entire funding process should not receive the same scrutiny as school-level collections. According to published government rates, annual capitation for USE is UGX 175,000 per learner, while UPOLET receives UGX 270,000. For a USE learner, this translates to approximately UGX 58,333 per term. Can we realistically expect schools to meet all their operational demands with such funding? Consider feeding, sanitation, instructional materials, utilities, infrastructure maintenance and additional staffing. The Auditor General's 2024/25 audit findings have also documented delayed capitation transfers, including instances where schools waited an average of 66 days after quarterly releases. These are legitimate financing and accountability concerns. Another important consideration is inflation. Uganda's economic environment is changing. Food, fuel, transport, electricity and construction materials are becoming increasingly expensive. Can we reasonably expect schools to operate with the same funding assumptions they had years ago while the cost of running institutions continues to rise? A school cannot purchase today's food, fuel and construction materials at yesterday's prices. Let us return to Kitagata. The PTA Chairperson reportedly explained that the school provides breakfast and lunch and employs approximately 34 additional teachers. Who meets these responsibilities when government staffing provisions are insufficient? Some schools supplement teachers' remuneration to retain experienced staff, improve morale and maintain teaching standards. Should such efforts automatically be interpreted as corruption? Certainly, schools must be transparent. Illegal charges, exploitation of parents, diversion of funds and financial mismanagement must be investigated. But we must distinguish between stealing public money and legitimately mobilising resources, within the law, to address genuine institutional needs. My main question is this: Why are we asking how much parents contribute without equally asking how much government allocates, how much it releases, how much actually reaches schools, when it arrives and whether it is sufficient to deliver the quality of education we demand? Accountability must examine the entire funding chain, not just the final collection. #kiswahilileokiswahilikesho