The fire that gutted a school dormitory at Kasaana Junior School in Nyendo-Mukungwe, in Masaka City has exposed glaring weaknesses in the levels of adherence to safety standards issued by the Police, and the Ministry of Education and Sports.
The fire, which the Police in the preliminary report has attributed to electricity short-circuiting, claimed the lives of seven pupils in the pre-primary section and left five others including the matron hospitalized in critical condition.
Despite the grisly incident, the school’s management and the Masaka City Security Committee resolved to keep it open to allow for the continuity of lessons.
The requirements set by the Ministry of Education and Sports demand for use of only single and double-decker beds in schools, spacious dormitories, burglary proofs-free windows and doors on dormitories, putting in place firefighting equipment, fire emergency exit plans, qualified security personnel among others.
However, the level of compliance to the safety at the affected and several other boarding schools is visibly too low, something that points to a lack of routine inspection by the duty bearers in the area.
For instance, the learners are still sleeping on squeezed triple-decker beds, with stronger burglar-proofs in the widows, which makes it difficult for occupants to easily escape in case of a similar accident. Several schools have paperboard ceilings in their dormitories and deploy semi-trained guards to oversee their night security.
Stephen Kakeeto, the Masaka City Education Officer says that the department has inadequate human resource capacity to enable them to conduct routine inspections of all schools.
According to records, Masaka City apparently has over 300 schools, but the education department has only three staff members the Education Officer, the Assistant, and the Sports Officer.
Kakeeto indicates that the limited staff is overwhelmed by the workload, however adding that as a remedy, they regularly engage with the schools’ administrators on the set safety standards but some of them could have remained adamant.
According to him, they issued a circular and a checklist of requirements to all schools in the area, and they expect the administrators to adhere to demands for the safety of learners and the properties.
The Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba who visited Kasaana Junior School on Wednesday called upon the Ministry of Education and Sports to heighten the levels of supervision in schools to ensure safety.
Besides reinforcing the inspectorates departments, Mpuuga prefers that the government support private schools’ proprietors to enable them to put in place the required equipment, which will eventually improve adherence.
He called upon the Police to undertake a forensic investigation into the two school fire incidents that occurred in the area to enable the administrators to avert similar eventualities.
Early last month, Masaka Senior Secondary School in Masaka City also suffered a fire outbreak that gutted part of the girls’ dormitory.
Frances Atima, the Director of Education Standards at the Ministry of Education noted that they took note of the concerns in the report by the Masaka Education Officer and the Ministry will act accordingly.
He noted that in the meantime, the Ministry is going to summon all school proprietors to deliberate on preventive measures for similar eventualities.
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