1,800 candidates in Agule County get PLE food

By Lawrence Okwakol

About 1,830 primary leaving candidates in Agule county, Pallisa district have been given food to consume during examinations days.

  Patrick Arionget on behalf Polycarp Ogwari the member of parliament on Friday gave out 30kg of rice and 60 000/- cash to buy meat for each  of the 18 schools in Agule county   .

Arionget said that MP Ogwari had pledged to provide P 7 candidates with the mid-day meals on 8th-9th November, 2022 to avoid the learners from leaving the examination centres in such of raw mangoes.

Moses Okiring the Agule county head teachers association chairperson appreciated the offer but said it was going to cause friction between school administrators with parents because the food given cannot handle two days and challenged Arionget to openly tell parents to supplement the food by contributing  for the second day.

John Peter Akode the head teacher of Opadoi primary school said with his 85 candidates he will only need additional 10kgs of rice and six of meat.

“Am going to make my parents top up 2,000 to add food for the last day,” Akode said.

Yusuf Edakasi a parent from Okunguro said ogwaris intervention is timely as he came to rescue parents hit by famine.

Edakasi said most candidates were going to eat light porridge as their mid-day meal.

“The problem of less food distribution i blame head teachers because out of 18 only ten made a submission and this 600 kg’s and 1,800,000 was meant for the ten but as Ogwari was out they had to divide the available equally, ” Edakasi said.

However, Robert Okiria the chairperson school management committee of Opadoi primary school said leaders needed to buy sets for schools which take long and help many pupil.

Okiria said some candidates are going to do examinations without sets because parents neglected.

In her statement Agnes y appreciated members of parliament who took trouble to feed candidates saying in Pallisa pupils’ complete primary education without food and only test food during final examinations.

Lukendo said the poor performance of learners in Pallisa is a attributed to lack of feeding.

Oguru Oken the head teacher of Good Shepherd nursery and primary school in Kameke sub county, Pallisa district said because of parent’s commitment to support the education of their children he was certain of passing over 50 of the 111 he registered this year.

” Our candidates have done over 13,sets this term and we have exploited the entire syllabus i see no hidden topic Uganda national examination board is going to set questions from,” Oken said.