Kiryandongo School where pupils are taught in five languages
	New Vision News
	19/10/2015
	http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/674633-kiryandongo-school-where-pupils-are-taught-in-five-languages.html

By Eddie Ssejjoba

Teachers at Conram Primary School located in Kiryandongo Refugee Resettlement have to use five different languages to communicate to pupils who come from different dialects and nationalities.

The school has 3,120 pupils, making it one of the most highly populated in the country; with majority of the pupils are from the Nuer and Dinka tribes in South Sudan. Others come from DR Congo, Kenya and Tanzania. Most of the children do not understand English, with majority of mature age pupils studying in lower classes.

The speech by the Right Rev. Fr. Francis Banura of the Holy Family Katukire Parish was last week halted when the Nuer pupils complained that they could not understand the translation from English to Dinka language.
The pupils raised their voices asking for a Nuer interpreter as well, but the school administration asked them to calm down, saying the Dinkas were the majority and that they had not prepared for more people to translate for all the languages.

Rev. Banura, the coordinator of the Network Against Malaria (NAM), a Catholic Church affiliated organization under Hoima diocese was speaking to pupils before distributing free treated mosquito nets to the school. NAM, with its headquarters in the State of Illinois in USA is funded by the McGlynn Family and run by the right Rev. Christopher Mujjule and has been distributing free mosquito nests to primary school pupils in Hoima diocese for the last seven years. The distribution is intended to reduce malaria infection amongst school going children, which is attributed to rampant absenteeism, hence poor performance.

Fr. Banura said the organization had recently distributed nets to over 27,000 pupils in 27 primary schools in the sub counties of Mutunda, Kiryandongo and Bweyale Town Council. He said the diocese established that many children in this area missed school due to malaria sickness and yet their parents and guardians were incapable of paying for their proper treatment. He said in most health centres, the highest number of complaints was due to malaria especially ages between 0 and 12, yet fewer families could afford to buy a mosquito net.

"We want to concentrate on prevention of malaria, this area, which borders R. Nile and Apac district, is highly prone to malaria prevalence," he said.

He said a sample survey indicated that absenteeism had drastically reduced in areas where they had given out the nests and now targeted covering every pupil, by going back to earlier beneficiary schools to as well give new entrants in lower primary and nursery section.

The organization has also embarked on sensitization the communities of how to properly use mosquito nests. According to Fr. Banura, they want to avoid having scenarios of beneficiaries using the nets in fishing or trapping white ants. The head teacher of Conram Primary School, Albert Onencan said many children stay away from school for weeks due to malaria infection.

He said most of the cases are referred to the two health centers in the refugee settlement facilitated by UNHCR and UNICEF but he complained that they were too congested, which he said slowed delivery of services. "We appeal to government to set up more health centres because the area is highly populated. We also need a one at school, give us a nurse and help us set up a sickbay and equip it with drugs to minimize incidents of children falling sick," he said.