Dropouts on the rise in Oyam schools: FICH report

Oyam | Children’s enrolment ratio in Oyam district is 51% for boys and 49% for girls, with dropout rates of 36% (boys) and 64% (girls) respectively.

This was revealed during a breakfast meeting held on Tuesday October, 22, 2024 by Foundation for Inclusive Community Help (FICH) in Oyam district.

The meeting, dubbed the “joint community dialogue,” brought together various stakeholders from the Oyam district.

The engagement aimed to streamline and strengthen the education system while also providing solutions to the district’s various educational gaps.

Denis Opio Olabo, Monitoring and Evaluation Manager at FICH, revealed during the presentation of the “School Attendance and Assessment Report, 2023” that data was collected from two sub-counties of Loro and Iceme in the schools of Alanyi P/S, Lela Olok P/S, Angweta P/S, and Amido P/S.

Others included Acanpii, Aloni, Iyanyi, Akwangi, and Alidi P/S.

Opio Olabo cites the results and says the district and other stakeholders must act quickly to address the concerning dropout rate in these schools.

“For example, we discovered that 33% dropped out due to sickness, 23% due to lack of scholastic materials, 13% due to financial constraints,12% due to lack of uniforms, while 8% due to child labour related activities. Meanwhile, another2% dropped out due to farm work activities, 8% dropped out due to other activities,” said Opio Olabo.

Victoria Harriet Anyango, the Programmes Manager in charge of education, emphasized the importance of identifying loopholes and gaps in the Oyam district’s educational system.

She added that the engagement is to streamline an education policy that will be presented to council.

“From this meeting, we will come out with an Education Policy that will be presented to the district stakeholders and then later to the members of parliament,” said Anyango.

Anyango challenged the various stakeholders to perform their roles while also being accountable.

What leaders say

Nicholas Opio, the LC 3 chairperson of Iceme sub-county, strongly agreed with FICH’s survey. He has urged parents to embrace education.

“Each and every family should look at the value of education because if we don’t offer the required materials needed at school, monitor them and also encourage them, then we are killing their future.”

He stressed that all the three parties: learners, parents, and teachers have a vital role in monitoring and supervising leaners’ education.

“We all need to concentrate and all of us must do our roles at different roles to see development however much government comes in to monitor and provide favourable policies in the education system if quality education is to be realised.”

He did, however, call on the government to provide motorcycles to school inspectors so that they can access difficult-to-reach areas due to the district’s poor road network system.

Daniel Okello, LCV Councillor and Ag. Chairperson of Education, Health, and Community-Based Services, recognized FICH’s efforts and role in boosting and enhancing the education system in Oyam District.

“I also want to believe that organistions like FICH play a vital role in supporting the community and government. I want to give reference… when the district has planned to construct eight boreholes for a financial year, an organisation will come and construct 50 boreholes in one financial year. So, what FICH is doing to improve education is a good aspect,” said Okello.

“The statistics here were very clear that we can’t doubt it. We have observed challenges especially during the harvesting seasons that we see an increase in the enrolment among the learners,” Okello added.

Based on the data, Okello urged various stakeholders to improve the sensitisation mechanism and encourage parents to change their attitudes toward education.

He also urged the community to support the government through the Parents and Teachers Association by building more classrooms, among other initiatives.

Connie Atto Ogwang, the chairperson of Finance, Planning, and Administration in Oyam district, referred to the data and identified Lela Olok Primary School as the most difficult to reach.

“There is a time I took an initiative to visit Lela Olok Primary School and I discovered that an inspector last visited the school 10 years ago. So, many things have to be considered especially for the hard to reach schools when collecting data,” said Atto Ogwang.

“I am glad that when the issue of inspectors was raised before council, the district immediately allocated more energetic inspectors. However, their work is suppressed due to mobility factors. If you go their department, there is no vehicle to boost their inspection work,” she added.

As a result, she requested that the district provide mobility machines to assist these inspectors in moving around, particularly in difficult-to-access schools.

She also challenged parents and stakeholders to hold the government accountable for its failure to address education policy implementation issues.

“Our performance will never improve if the government does not implement what is in the policies including our mind set towards education”, she stated.

On behalf of the District Education Officer, Benson Ongom the District Inspector of Schools urged learners, parents, teachers, leaders and other stakeholders to join efforts to ensure development in the education trend in Oyam.

“Education has parents, learners, teacher, stakeholders including religious, teachers all have roles to play and each of us has a role to play to change the community mind set towards education,” he said.

In response to the issue of education inspector mobility, Ongom stated that the level of inspection in Oyam district has significantly improved, unlike in the past.

“I want to assure you that the level of inspection in Oyam district has improved because the Lela Olok she is talking about, I personally I have been to the school and I have sat with the management, PTA, teachers and we have resolved issued affecting education,” he added.

He strongly agreed that transportation remains a significant challenge, noting that the entire inspectorate department lacks a motorcycle.

“The whole inspectorate department have no vehicle for inspection, we are using our personal motorcycles. We hope that with time, the district will facilitate the department respectively,” he said.

A recent three-year study disclosed an alarming trend in Oyam primary schools, where over 9000 pupils drop out annually.

The district education department survey conducted in 65 out of the 109 government-aided primary schools, revealed that a total of 28,109 pupils dropped out between 2020 and 2023, with 9,520 in 2020, 9,086 in 2022, while 9,503 in 2023.

The dropout issue affects all primary grades, from Primary 1 to Primary 7. For instance, in 2023 alone, 1,641 pupils dropped out in Primary 1, while 1,029 pupils dropped out in Primary 7 across the surveyed schools.