Chadwick Namate, one of the oldest primary schools in Entebbe needs more than 290 million Shillings to replace its structures that were recently devastated by a storm.
The school’s staff quarters and classrooms were badly hit by strong winds and a storm, that was preceded by a 5-hour downpour on February 17. The storm blew off the roofs of three staff houses and two classrooms at the school.
The school headteacher Robert Muwonge says the Municipal Engineer and plumbers who have now assessed the damage and said that the needed renovations will cost not less than 290 million Shillings. This includes re-roofing affected classrooms, renovating toilets, plumbing and electrical installation works.
Muwonge says that the classrooms, staff quarters and the two blocks of water-borne toilets that were erected in 1901, 1940 and 2004 respectively will all need re-roofing because their tiles are either broken or iron sheets are currently leaking. The budget also covers the cost of roofing incomplete staff housing units in Katabi-Busambaga which had stalled due to financial constraints.
Muwonge, however, says that the storm was a blessing in disguise because it justifies the need for major renovations of the school’s structures which were all dilapidated. He explains that the technocrats at Entebbe Municipal Council had already indicated that the staff quarters which were built in 1901, cannot be renovated but need to be demolished because the building developed major cracks.
Muwonge says the school plans to organize a fundraising drive, counting on well-wishers and old boys and girls for the money. These include, among others, Rebecca Kadaga, the Kamuli Woman MP, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of East African Community-EAC Affairs, who attended primary one at the school.
Joseph Ogutti, the Deputy Headteacher of Chadwick Namate Primary School, is now urging the government, former pupils and other well-wishers to support the school’s efforts to do major repairs and renovations of the structures. Similarly, the schools’ teachers explain that their lessons are disrupted whenever it rains.
Pupils led by 10-year-old Bright Okubot and Peace Akiror, both in primary three, say lessons do not take place when it is raining because the window glasses are missing and the roofs are leaking.
Entebbe Municipality MP Michael Kakembo says the Ministry of Education and the office of the Prime Minister have to intervene because a fundraising drive may take time before the 290 million Shillings is collected and yet most of these are emergency works.
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