President Yoweri Museveni has warned ‘greedy’ head teachers in public schools to desist from charging learners extra fees.

The President is furious that the country will experience high levels of illiteracy  because majority learners are dropping out of school.

While delivering his address at the National Budget reading on Tuesday, Museveni said 8 million learners have since dropped out of primary school to God knows where. He explained that the level of completion in Primary public schools has dropped to 3.8 percent.

“We shouldn’t be talking of 2 million children in Secondary school, We should be talking of 10 million because secondary school is like primary, so where have the others gone? He wondered.” 

He says the latest Uganda Bureau of Statistics,UBOS report shows  that 62 percent of learners who enroll in primary schools across the country do not complete the Primary education. 

The President accused head teachers in public schools for creating unnecessary fees on learners, hence driving them out of school.

Public schools mostly charge fees for  uniforms, lunch, and PTA (Parents Teachers Association).These fees are reportedly used to pay allowance to teachers and also meet the remunerations of teachers who are not on the government payroll.

Museveni says it is sickening for teachers to demand fees from learners meant to study for free.

“All these fellows who are looking for money in free education ,get out and go to private schools and look for money there, this is disgusting, sending children out of school because you are looking for money for allowances,it’s disgusting” he says 

The President now wants Members of Parliament to fulfill the NRM  manifesto for the 2021 campaign cycle by budgeting to allocate more resources towards UPE and USE in the next financial years.

“In the next 1or 2 financial years, we should work on free and compulsory primary, maybe even Secondary education” he added

The Ministry of Education and Sports recently increased the capitation grant for several levels of education as one of the ways of improving service delivery in the sector. 

The capitation grant rate was raised from 7,000 to 20,000 Shillings per learner in primary school in the last five years.