By Bondry Kilenga
An acute accommodation crisis has forced students at Panyangara secondary school in Kotido Municipality to sleep in shifts while others have resorted to sharing beds.
The government aided secondary school located in South Division currently, has an enrollment of 1,017 students with only three dormitories accommodating both girls and boys. Of the 1,017 students 326 of them are female while the remaining 691 are boys.
Francis Logira Ochan the schools head teacher in an interview with our reporter on the sidelines of the school’s annual general meeting- AGM held over the weekend said the school is currently experiencing an acute accommodation crisis.
According to Logira the current boy’s dormitory is designed to accommodate only 120 students but it is currently accommodating all the 691 boys admitted at the school.
He however, says that save for the female students who are fully housed in the two female dormitories, their counterparts on the other hand have been forced to share beds while others have opted to sleep in shifts.
Logira observed that the accommodation shortage has greatly affected students’ learning as many of them are sometimes seen dozing off during lessons.
Logira further explained that the stumbling block has been that the school lacks funds to develop the required accommodation facilities further revealing that the school collects only about 12 million termly which isn’t enough for such developments.
One of the affected students who spoke to our reporter during the same AGM meeting said many of them are not comfortable sharing beds with their colleagues due to health concerns.
He wants the school authorities to engage parents, government and other stakeholders in order to address the crisis.
Accommodation issues were also raised in Losakucha primary school in Kapeta sub county where pupils use the same classrooms they study in as dormitories at night.
