She said that the bicycles would help the councillors in serving their people in a more effective manner and also facilitate those who are farmers to transport their produce to the trading centres.

Kadaga was responding to a concern about transportation raised by the councillors during a courtesy call they had paid on the Speaker on Thursday, 20 June 2019.

The councillors, led by Ronald Mayanja, appreciated the Speaker for the gesture and promised to work even harder.

Not done yet, the Speaker went on and promised the delegation sewing machines and chicken for commercial farming.

Busoga funding

The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, has succeeded in lobbying for support to Busoga schools with academic performance challenges.

In a meeting with Busoga youth who are under internship with the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) on Thursday, 20 June 2019, Kadaga said upon receiving dispiriting results of poor performance from the schools, an intervention was made to lessen possibilities of a repeat of the failure.

“We identified the poorly performing schools in Busoga and took the teachers to a workshop; 83 schools are now going to get support from donors,” said Kadaga.

She criticised the attitude of looking at child education as a lesser need in the region, terming as irresponsible, the habit of neglectful parents.

Ms Faridah Lule, an elections analyst with FHRI said the interns would like to intervene by raising awareness through caravans, meetings and visits to the region.

“Most of the parents are not taking care of their children, they are not schooling them,” said Lule.

“We intend to go and sensitise the parents using door to door visits especially to those families that have failed to educate their children,” she added.

Attitude change will advance efforts to promote education in the region.

Ms Mary Nangobi, the Team Leader for the interns, said their interest was aroused by the persistent stories of education decline and alarming failure rates that the region registers every year.

“We are here to advance the right to education in districts of Busoga and we are going to embark on an aggressive grassroots campaign to expose and shed a spotlight on parents who are reluctant to educate their children,” she said.

Examination results released every year point to a worrying decline in the drop out as well as failure rates in the region.

Alarmed, leaders under the Busoga Development Consortium under the tutelage of the Speaker are crafting means to correct the course of child education in the region.

Kadaga equally warned complacent and complicit parents, saying a failure in attitude change will frustrate any efforts to make the region the bastion of educational excellence it once was.

The interns’ campaign is to start in August with Luuka District, and Speaker Kadaga is expected to grace the occasion.