ToroDev held a two days capacity building training of
183 School management committees and Parent Teachers Association Members from
the 19 sampled UPE schools in the above sub counties, the training came after
ToroDev team holding several consultative meetings with the District education
officers (DEOs), Inspector of schools and the secretaries of education of
Kyenjojo District to discuss issues and challenges affecting education
department. It was realized that there was need to train the school management
committees (SMC) & Parents Teachers Association (PTA) members since
majority were serving their first term on board.
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| Participants listening to the facilitator during the workshop |
The DEO Kyenjojo District
Ms Tibakanya Gertrude together with Torodev team identified challenges that
affect the SMCs and PTA which needed serious interventions, some of the
challenges were; many times
the School
Management Committees are bulldozed by
head teachers who make them simply sign drafts they have not discussed and
understood this
issue, so orientation and training was to help them address this challenge.
ToroDev research team went further and carried out a
baseline survey on the status of UPE schools in 10 sampled schools of Bufunjo
and Nyankwanzi sub counties in Kyenjojo district, the
findings indicated that; schools located in hard to reach areas face a bigger
challenge of lack of enough teachers who deliberately refuse to join the school
due to lack of transport, lack of accommodation, inadequate water
accessibility, impassable roads which makes transport costly, luck of lunch for
pupils to feed on and many other factors were identified to be affecting
performance of these schools.
The other key finding indicated that School
management committees and PTA members needed to be trained on their roles &
responsibilities since some newly elected members on board do not know them. They
needed training in management, decision making, planning, and advocacy,
lobbying, budgeting and fundraising.
“This training session has been organized to
transfer knowledge to SMC members and PTA members in matters of UPE policy,
advocacy using ICT, (online/electronic) on status of
UPE schools in their areas Inspection and capitation grant procedures”.
Said the DEO Kyenjojo District during the training
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| Gertrude Tibakanya DEO Kyenjojo district facilitating during the worshop |
The DEO added good governance
requires the School management committee to adapt to the distinctive
characteristics of an academic environment and act so as to exemplify and
reinforce the school’s core values to oversee all aspects of the School,
including its control and accountability systems, and approve the expenditure
and capital budgets, to appoint, review
and remove the Principal and provide ongoing support and supervision, to
develop and maintain healthy relationships with key stakeholders and develop
effective communication channels , to ensure a strategic approach to the
school’s future by setting major goals, policy frameworks and strategies, set
the tone and the ethical standards of the school and monitor adherence to them,
to review plans and budgets established by school management, to approve all
material expenditure outside the budget among other roles.
“The
orientation & training involved a fruitful discussion and action points on
ways of retaining the female learners in UPE schools and reducing the annual
drop-out. We promise by next year each hard to reach school will have a female
teacher who will serve as a senior women and help our girls. Stella Kabanyoro the District inspector of
Schools Kyenjojo District.
The
inspector of schools added that the training will provide knowledge on their
roles and responsibilities as managers of
schools. The training will further equip all head teachers with customer care techniques on how to work with School Management Committees in schools and also explain in
details the mandate of
School
Management
Committees in schools and what is expected of them.
She
further explained that Parents Teachers Associations have a bigger role to play to facilitate parental participation
in a school. A
parent-teacher association (PTA) is composed of parents, teachers and staff that
is intended to take an active role in developing programs, advocacy and
training, operating at the school building, district, state and national levels
and working on policy that supports the educational needs of children and
promotes family engagement and strong partnerships between schools and the
communities they serve.
“Am happy that after this training I have got
more skills on how I will do my monitoring role as a chairperson of the school
management committee, my mind has changed now and am very ready to execute my
roles very well”. Said Rev Mutabanura J Chairperson SMC Kyamutunzi Primary
school
“I was not doing
my role very well because I did not know what I am meant to do but this
training has equipped me with knowledge & skills especially on the roles am
meant to do like being part of planning and budgeting, monitoring and
supervision and this training will help me
to do my roles well to the expectation of the school”. Said Mugisa Faraho Chairperson Igongwe
Primary school
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| Faraho Mugisa Chairperson SMC Igongwe P/S contributing during the workshop |
“I am happy that
since we were elected none of us had ever been trained so we were not much versed
with our roles and responsibilities thanks to ToroDev for this training and we
promise to cause a change in schools, we had gaps in networking, lobbying and
advocacy but now we know what to do”. Said Businge Margret vice Chairperson
Igongwe P.s
Some of the action points put in place included; following
up girls who drop out of schools due to
early pregnancy, cooperating with police to arrest men who defile them, improve
the monitoring role of the SMC, to visit schools more times in a term, lobby
for better facilities from duty bearers
and NGOs, use Radio talk shows to advocate for improved service delivery in
schools, use their phones to improve
communications and networking and also to lobby from the duty bearers and NGOs
, exchange visits to better performing schools to know how they do their work and networking with
better performing schools, advocating for provision of lunch for our pupils in school,
etc
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| A participant making her contribution during the workshop |
The training was facilitated by the District Education
Officer, Inspector of Schools, Deputy District education officer, education
officer- special needs and Education officer in charge of sports in the
District.
We are grateful to SIDA, NED, SPIDER, CIPESA, ICT4DEM, Kyenjojo district local
government & all our partners for the financial and technical support.
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