RACHEAL NINSIIMA
Hon Rebecca
Kadaga, Uganda’s speaker of parliament has advised headteachers and parents to stop
the torture of children if they are to succeed. Her advice was based on the
premise that there is a growing trend of school children waking up early in
order to beat the 7:00AM deadline of arrival time at school, studying long
hours and being made to carry heavy books to school.
In fact, a
study conducted by researchers in the Department of Anatomy at Makerere
University’s College of Health Sciences on the effect of heavy school bags among
532 school pupils indicated that 88.2% of them reported having body pain
especially in the neck shoulders and upper back, with lower back pain affecting
close to 39% of them.
This
research also established that 30.8% of the pupils who were included in the
study carried school bags which were way too heavy for their weight; more than
the recommended limit of 10% of their body weights.
“During our
days, things like waking up at 5AM to go to school were never there. However,
these days, on top of waking up early, children, even those in nursery are
loaded with homework yet they return from school late,” Kadaga said while
officiating at the opening of St. Catherine Junior School in Namugongo last
week.
She added
that parents and headteachers remain the best advocates for safety promotion of
the health of children. Kadaga also urged headteachers to include vocational lessons
on the school’s curriculum in order to make a child’s education holistic and
for parents to embrace Universal Primary Education (UPE).
“There was a
lot of human resource wastage in the past when women were made to stay at home
but UPE has made it simpler for all people to access free education and parents
need to recognize its value and embrace it,” she said.
The newly
opened school consists of a nursery and day care section and parents will part
with shs 500,000 for their children to access education in the school.
ninsiima@observer.ug
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