AMURU, 4 June 2009 (IRIN) - More than a third of the primary schools in northern Uganda's Amuru district, where thousands of people are trying to rebuild their lives after being displaced by two decades of war, lack physical classrooms, according to the district's education office.

Across the country, where primary education is supposed to be free, more than 1.1 million primary-aged children do not attend school, according to UN data compiled by Save the Children.

"I did not go to school today because we were beaten by the rain," a child in the village of Mutema told IRIN as he splashed around in a muddy pond during school hours. The Otici primary school consists of the shade of a fig tree.

Thirty-eight of the 95 registered primary schools in Amuru have no classrooms. Fifty-four of the schools have yet to regain their original sites, abandoned when much of the population of northern Uganda was moved into camps during the war against the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group.

"We are returning to sites that were abandoned for 20 years during the war," said Labalping Mogi, head-teacher of Abalokodi primary school. "Some school structures collapsed or were destroyed."

Lack of facilities

Amuru district education officer Ben Okwamoi told IRIN that 21 of the schools in Amuru had no latrines. Lack of such facilities is known to deter girls in particular from attending school.

"We need a total of 488 classrooms to address the problem of writing and sitting space, which up to 70 percent of pupils lack," he said.

For every teacher in Amuru, there are 78 children, according to the education authority, which also noted that some 46 percent of those teaching at primary level in the district had no formal qualification.

"Looking at all this information, one can really understand the poor level of education in the district," said Okwamoi. In 2008 the district suffered the country's worst primary school performance since the introduction of free primary education in 1997.

Another concern in the district is corruption.

"Last year we recovered up to 9.8 million shillings [US$4,456] from teachers who claimed payments but did not show up at their respective schools to teach," district education secretary Gilbert Olanya told IRIN.

Some 24 schools in Gulu and Amuru districts have been selected for rehabilitation, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"Five primary schools in Amuru District are still displaced due to lack of basic infrastructure, including classrooms, latrines, teachers' accommodation and clean water, at their original sites. The schools – Abbot, Pogoogwera and Marawobi in Pabbo sub-county, Abalokodi in Atiak sub-county, and Kochlipakia in Koch Goma sub-county – await assistance from the district and partners to effect return," OCHA said in a monthly bulletin.

"Although donors have increased their focus on meeting the education needs of children" in fragile, conflict-affected countries, "there is still a long way to go", Save the Children warned in the 2009 edition of its annual Last in Line, Last in School report http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/54_7769.htm , which examines donor trends in such states.

"Education has positive long-term effects that contribute to the rebuilding of systems in the aftermath of an emergency or crisis," it said.

"Funding levels need to increase significantly, and support must be given to innovative aid delivery mechanisms, if the [Millennium Development] goal of universal primary education is to be achieved by 2015," it urged.

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