KAMPALA, UGANDA: President Museveni has urged lawmakers to budget for compulsory primary school education in the next financial year as a move to improve the education system across the country.
Mr. Museveni said this in his address to Parliament following the presentation of the 2022/2023 financial year budget by the Minister of Finance, Hon. Matia Kasaija at the Kololo Ceremonial Grounds on Tuesday June 14.
‘We must budget for compulsory primary school education and stop these greedy teachers from sending children back home. We may not do it this year but in the next financial years, we should insist on free and compulsory primary and even secondary education and stop all these fellows who are looking for money through schools,” Museveni urged the MPs.
The president revealed that while on a recent tour in Moroto, he discovered that the primary school completion rate is at six per cent adding that in the whole country, the primary school completion rate is at 38 per cent, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics.
“Children drop out of school because of school charges. It is disgusting to send children out of school because we are looking for allowances. We must say no. Let us budget and stop these greedy fellows from collecting money. This is what I wanted from 1997, but I cannot do it alone,” Museveni said.
He also called for increased budgeting for irrigation interventions saying that the problem faced by Uganda and Africa is lack of food.
“As long as Uganda is producing enough food, there is no problem we cannot solve. The danger to food is some laziness and the other is lack of rain or unreliable rain. That is why in the budget, we are putting irrigation,” he said.
He added that budgeting for improved irrigation interventions will stabilise agriculture and in the long run, avert the shortage of food.
To reclaim the wetlands, the President said that those occupying wetlands in Busoga, Bukedi and Kigezi will be removed and compensated arguing that they were misled into settling there by the British.
“In other areas, people are going against our appeal and I demand that they vacate the wetlands without negotiations. Once we bring back our water, then we shall be able to irrigate easily and have secure agriculture to be able to solve other problems,” Museveni added.
Speaking about the skyrocketing fuel prices, Museveni said that the solution is repair of the railway transport system which he said would reduce transport costs on cargo.
“In the next few years, we shall have our own petroleum but we cannot undersale it; it has to be at par with world prices minus transport,” Museveni added.
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