P.3 pupils of Okokolako primary in Alebtong seated on the floor while lesson is ongoing. Photo by Simon Eluk
By Simon Eluk
Alebtong: An estimated 80,000 primary school pupils in Alebtong district are sitting on the floor due to a shortage of desks.
The shortage of desks is affecting learning and performance in the Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) in many schools including Ajobi, Okokolako, Okut, Tyengar, Baropiro, Ojul, Obuo, and Alanyi primary as the most affected.
According to the 2008 Education Act, the desk-to-pupil ratio should be 1:3, however, in Alebtong, in schools such as Ajobi primary school, 1,068 pupils share 80 desks, implying that the desk-to-pupil ratio is 1:13.
At Okokolako Primary School in Omoro sub-county, 1,300 pupils are using 76 desks, meaning 17 pupils shared one desk. While at Okut Primary School, there are only 100 desks for 1,419 pupils, meaning 14 pupils share one desk. The shortage forces many pupils to sit on the classroom floor.
Emmanuel Okello, the head teacher of Ajobi, appealed to the district to buy more desks to improve effective teaching and learning in the class.
Julius Peter Odwee, the headteacher of Alanyi Primary School said the school has an enrollment of over 1,000 pupils with only 70 desks.
“Most of the pupils come with the polythene sacks to sit on,” Odwee said.
Lameck Atak, the chairperson of the School Management Committee of the school, said the shortage of desks forces many pupils to sit on the floor.
Atak argued that the challenges in the government schools are enormous and need urgent solution if they are to compete favorably with private schools.
He said because of the few desks, primary one to three sit on the floor, and only pupils in the upper classes sit on desks.
Pupils speak out
Vicky Akello, a primary five girl at Okokolako, revealed that some of her friends dodge the afternoon lessons because of a lack of sitting desks and poor hygiene in the classroom.
Akello said sitting on the floor does not encourage them to continue with education because it is like being punished for no good region.
Akello wishes her parents could afford to pay her to study at a private school.
“Private school is better since there is everything needed for learning … I would have been transferred,” Akello said.
Levi Ebong, a primary P.7 candidate does not sit on the floor but feels sorry for his colleagues.
Grace Apita, a parent, complained that children who sit on the floor return home when their clothes are soiled with dust.
Apita called upon the Alebtong district local government to consider providing desks to the school and handling some of the challenges if performance is to improve.
Poor performance in some schools
Moses Agel, the Senior Education Officer, said several challenges are causing the poor PLE performance in the district, including inadequate desks and fewer teachers in classrooms.
“Our desks are inadequate because of the increasing number of learners,” Agel said, adding “A desk is supposed to have three or four learners but with the overwhelming numbers it goes beyond the recommended number.”
Asked how it affects performance, Agel explained that sitting on the floor affects performance when a child is developing literacy because they are unable to write well.
Information from the district education office in Alebtong shows that there are 75 government-aided primary schools in the district with 94,000 pupils and only 2000 desks.
In the 2023 PLE results, Alebtong got 94 pupils in division one, and 1,400 in the second division. At Okokolako Primary School that has few desks, only nine candidates passed in division two, 13 in division three, 16 in division four, and 12 failed.
At Ajobi primary school, no pupil got division one, four passed in division two and the rest got division four.
Call for intervention
Agel requested development partners to intervene since the budget from the central government is not enough to solve the problem.
“The money has to cater for many areas such as construction of drainable pit latrine, construction of classrooms and rehabilitation of pit latrine,” Agel said.
According to Agel, the district procured 1,131 desks in the 2022/2023 financial year and distributed them in schools, but they were still not enough.
