By Edward Byamukama
Government has revealed plans to drop the policy of construction and equipping a secondary school and Health Centre III in every Sub-county, citing the lack of funds and bloated administrative units, which has made the implementation of this policy untenable.
The pronouncement was made by Henry Musasizi, Minister of State for Finance, while interfacing with MPs on Parliament’s Committee of Government Assurance where he was updating the Committee on the status of financing the policy of construction of a seed secondary school per sub county, a technical school per county and a public university per region as had earlier been promised by Government.
“However, in view of the increase in administrative units, the current policy of having a secondary school and Health Centre III in every sub-county may no longer be tanable given the current resource constraint. This Ministry and Ministry of Local Government will continue to study the policy and its effects and take appropriate action,” said Henry Musasizi, Minister of State for Finance.
The Minister attributed the shift in Government’s position on Parliament’s decision to create new administrative units ahead of the 2021 general elections, contrary to advice by the Ministry of Finance at the time that warned that expanding administrative units would cause a strain on Government resources.
“In FY2020/2021 towards elections, we added 332 new sub-counties, 46 new Constituencies, 10 Municipalities and 10Cities. At that time, the Ministry of Finance told us, you go ahead and establish these new administrative units but you must also know that they will have financial implications which you haven’t provided for. Now, here we are, 3 years down the road, we are saying every sub-county must have a Health Centre III, every sub-county must have a secondary school. We are saying that we are cognizant that we must provide education that is feasible and accessible as possible but in the circumstances, it isn’t tenable to implement this policy as had been planned because of change of circumstances,” adds Minister Musasizi.
Abed Bwanika, Chairperson Government Assurance Committee resolved to write to the Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanjato get the final position of government on seed schools before reporting back to Parliament.
