- Busende Senior School and Samia Girls’ High School have received school buses under the NG-CDF Board’s Best Practice Demonstration Programme.
- Governor Paul Otwoma has called for more teacher recruitment to address staffing shortages, while welcoming continued NG-CDF investment in school infrastructure.
- MP Geoffrey Odanga has urged that special needs schools receive dedicated transport support
Two secondary schools in Busia County have received school buses under the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) Board’s Best Practice Demonstration Programme (BPDP), which seeks to improve learning infrastructure and support school activities.
Busende Senior School in Matayos Sub-County and Samia Girls’ High School in Samia Sub-County received the buses during ceremonies held at the respective institutions.
Speaking during the handover ceremonies, Principal Secretary for Economic Planning Boniface Makokha said the programme was helping to address critical infrastructure and other challenges affecting schools and communities.
“The programme addresses critical infrastructure and other needs in our schools and the surrounding community. Transport has remained a challenge in our local schools, resulting in learners missing opportunities to participate in co-curricular activities,” Makokha said.
He said Busia had received a significant share of the 25 buses distributed across the country under the programme. “Since the previous financial year, eight buses have been allocated to schools in Busia County, with two schools benefiting in each of the county’s four sub-counties.
Four additional schools, St James Nasewa, St Brigit Namuduru Girls’, St Stephen’s Kengatuny Mixed and St Paul’s Kakemer, are also set to receive buses,” he said. Makokha commended the partnership between the NG-CDF Board and local leaders, saying it was contributing to the advancement of the education sector through infrastructure development and other support programmes, and urged leaders to ensure that public funds and other resources were properly planned and managed to deliver meaningful benefits to communities.
Busia Governor Paul Otwoma called for the recruitment of more teachers to address staffing shortages in schools across the county. “The government has worked hard to employ more than 100,000 teachers, but we still have a deficit. We want more teachers to be employed in our schools so that there are enough teachers to handle our learners in all sectors,” Otwoma said.
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The governor welcomed continued investment in school infrastructure, saying improved facilities were essential to enhancing learners’ welfare and the overall learning environment. “We need to continue working together in support of the government to improve infrastructure in our schools and the education sector. NG-CDF is addressing equity by ensuring that development resources are distributed fairly. We need to continue championing this approach,” he said.
Matayos MP Geoffrey Odanga urged authorities to give special attention to schools serving learners with special needs, saying four such schools in the sub-county were performing well academically and in co-curricular activities but faced challenges transporting learners to events and competitions.
“We have four schools serving learners with special needs in our sub-county. These learners are performing exceptionally well in co-curricular activities and academics, but they face challenges participating in activities because of inadequate transport. We need to work together to ensure they are provided with school buses,” he said.
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He further appealed to secondary schools that own buses to allow their affiliated primary schools to use the vehicles without imposing unnecessary conditions. “Many secondary schools receive their students from primary schools. When a school has a bus, it should be made available to its affiliated primary school without unnecessary conditions. The only requirement should be to fuel the bus. Many primary schools cannot afford to hire transport, and as a result, learners are unable to attend educational activities,” Odanga said.
Funyula MP Oundo Mudenyo also commended the contribution of NG-CDF projects to development in his constituency and other parts of the country, particularly in the education sector, and urged parents to work closely with teachers and schools to improve learners’ academic performance.
By Lizzy Aluga
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