By Patience Aimbisibwe
When her daughter was joining Namagunga Primary School last year, Ms Namata was asked to buy at least three textbooks of different authors per subject.
She wondered if a P2 child was going to use the books in that year because as a requirement, every pupil in the school is expected to buy the textbooks for every subject in the level they have reached.
“She is just a P2 pupil. I don’t think she will use the books but I want the best for my child so I have to buy them. The challenge is where do these books go after the child has left this class because then I will have to buy others?” Ms Namata asked.
She added: “I am a guardian to a student at Kibuli Secondary School. We were also asked to buy textbooks but hardly had the term ended when the boy called me telling me that someone had cut his suitcase and stolen all the books worth Shs200,000.” This is the dilemma of many parents.
Schools demand for books but whether the students use them or not is another issue.
In Kiboga District, the education officer, Mr Prosper Lwamasaka, recently reported that about seven government primary schools have lost textbooks worth millions of shillings to suspected thieves. He said the government had, as an intervention supplied books to schools including Lunya, Sinde, Kalagala, Kirinda, Bukomero and Kasega, but some people broke into the lockers where the books were kept and stole them. However, he could not put a cost to the stolen books.
“The government distributed new textbooks to seven schools in my district. We have not yet established who stole them and where they were sold. But police are handling it. I encourage teachers to put books in the hands of children because teachers,” Mr Lubwama said. But walking on Kampala streets, one asks where books sold on these streets come from.
At one stop opposite the General Post Office on Kampala Road, this reporter picked the essential Pure Mathematics 1 by JK Backhouse, a textbook widely used in secondary schools in Uganda. It had a stamp on the first page but clearly, there had been efforts to distort it. A potential customer would find difficulty identifying where it was got.
After haggling, we settled at Shs35,000 for a copy. When I threatened to move, I was called back. At Aristoc Booklex, a few metres away, the textbook was Shs5, 000 dearer.
For Judith Ninsiima, a student at Royal College Makindye, she would rather buy books on the street than go to bookshops because she believes they are generally cheaper. She says although her mother is strict on what she buys, as a person, she doesn’t mind whether the book has a stamp as long as she can have some change to help her go and watch a film at National Theatre.
Emma, by Jane Austen, and Lyssitrata by Dudley Fitts go for Shs13,000 and Shs10,000 respectively on the street. “These books are cheap. I bought Introduction to Biology and it had a stamp. My mother is strict.
Now I have to first check if there is a stamp. But I don’t mind because when I finish using these books I can bring them back and sell them to these people,” Ninsiima, a senior five student, said. Julius (he only identified himself thus), has sold books on Kampala road for 30 years now and says the business is not bad although it is seasonal.
Dealers depend on when students are going back to school and when institutions of higher learning open. He has been able to take care of his family of four children and bought land in Jinja, which he has developed. During the season, according to Julius, one can make between Shs600,000 and Shs2m a day in profit. “My biggest customers are students, especially at the beginning of the term.
In some cases, universities, ask us to supply them with textbooks. I buy these books from Kenya but sometimes when people no longer want to use a book, they bring it and get a bargain here,” Julius added.
