By Stanley Ebele
A section of primary school head teachers in Kotido Municipality have expressed concerns over the continued trend of low turn up of learners in the first weeks of new school term.
As the second term begun on Monday May 26, 2025, a number of public schools majorly government aided across Kotido Municipality faced a disappointing start with a low turn up of learners, after three weeks holdiay.
At Kotido Mixed Primary School, only 17 learners had turned up, in sharp contrast to a total enrolment of close to 2000 learners.
The primary seven class had 11 pupils, P.5 and Baby class had three learners each, while other classes did not have a single learner.
Peter Lotem, the school head teacher, said the school had a 100 percent turn up of teachers ready to teach but due to low pupils’ turn up, they were forced to postpone lessons.
Lotem, however, was optimistic that more learners would report in the subsequent days, explaining that some parents possibly failed to facilitate their children’s return to school.
The situation was not different at Panyangara Primary School, which had only 107 pupils in attendance out of a registered number of 1,493 learners.
Leo Namik, the head teacher, said only three teachers out of 14 had not reported.
At Kotido Girls Primary School in the North Division, Sarah Akello said a mere 111 learners had reported out of an enrolment of 1,244 learners at the close of first term.
She blamed the low attendance on parents’ reluctance to send their children back to school on the first day of the term, noting that most parents in the community wait until the second week to send their children to school.
Despite the low turnout of pupils, Akello said that teachers are conducting lessons, warning that late reporting to school affects learners’ performance in class.
She explained that teachers would not repeat lessons for learners who missed due to their failure to report to school on time.
For Advertisement and News call or send SMS to 0787551001 or WhatsApp +256-787-289-992/+256-775-907-140 or email: eetoilnewsdesk@gmail.com/vokradio22@gmail.com
