Authorities in Masaka City have revealed that the burnt dormitory at Kasaana Junior Primary School in Nyendo Mukungwe division was initially a tailoring room before it was turned into a dormitory.
Stephen Kakeeto, the Masaka City education officer revealed that the dormitory was originally a tailoring room but was converted to accommodate boarding pupils.
“In August 2012 while inspecting this school to see whether it was capable of being given a licence, this dormitory that caught fire was shown to us as a tailoring room, not as a dormitory. However, like the case with many private schools when the number of pupils or students increases, they find provisions. They do not think of enlarging dormitories they just do what they want. This is the reason they even have triple-deckers and not double-deckers as recommended within the law,” Kakeeto said.
He however noted that the education department of Masaka City is not well facilitated, noting that the two vehicles they have are mechanically down, adding that this shortage cripples their efforts to regularly monitor and assess the safety and conditions of the schools.
“Masaka City has 55 private secondary schools, 55 primary government-aided schools, 213 private primary schools, 150 nursery schools, seven tertiary institutions and two government institutions. To monitor all those institutions and schools requires us to have a very good vehicle that is in good condition but currently, we do not have a means of transport and this limits our mobility. It also becomes a bit difficult for us to visit most of these schools as required by the law because we are supposed to visit private schools once in a term and government schools twice in a term but we managed to visit all once .”
Kakeeto emphasized that had the department possessed sufficient vehicles to inspect schools more frequently, they might have discovered the unsafe conditions in the converted dormitory at Kasaana Junior Primary School before the tragic fire occurred.
“If at all we had a vehicle in good condition we would have visited this school twice and discovered that the tailoring room was converted into a dormitory.”
He said the fire incident is now a wake-up call for the local government and education authorities in Masaka City.
The death toll in the Masaka school fire has reached seven after another five pupils who had been admitted to Kiruddu Hospital died on Tuesday.