Schools in Wakiso ordered to seek district permission for future study trips

Schools in Wakiso District will be required to obtain approval from the district before organising educational trips outside the district.

This is part of the new measures announced following last week's deadly bus crash that claimed the lives of Kings David Junior School director Tadeo Ssekadde and dozens of pupils.

Speaking at Ssekadde's funeral on Monday, Wakiso District Chairperson Ian Kyeyune Ssengonzi said the district would tighten oversight of school trips to improve the safety of learners.

He directed the Wakiso District Education Officer, Primrose Nanyanzi to ensure that every school seeking to organise a study tour first obtains clearance from the district.

"From today onward I am instructing our District Education Officer to ensure that all trips in the district are cleared by her office," Kyeyune said.

The district chair said his administration is currently discouraging schools to travel outside the district for school trips, which he said was unnecessary.

Schools, he said, should first make use of the many educational sites within Wakiso before planning trips to other parts of the country.

"To begin with, we do not encourage schools in our district to take study trips outside the district. We have plenty of sites that you can visit here. First exhaust all of them before going outside," he said.

"We have the zoo, we have Entebbe Airport, we have Mandela National Stadium, we have several royal tombs. We have a lot. You therefore do not need to go far out," he said.

For schools with valid reasons to travel outside Wakiso, Kyeyune said they would have to justify their requests before permission is granted.

"If you must, you must get clearance from us and you must explain to us why," Kyeyune said.

"We must take a look at your means of transport to ensure it is in the right condition and the driver's state of mind," he said.

Kyeyune further warned schools against organising trips without the district's knowledge, saying enforcement measures would be introduced.

"I don't want to hear any more about schools travelling outside the district without authorisation. We are going to set checkpoints to implement this," he said.

The announcement comes as the government continues investigating the Kapchorwa bus crash and has suspended all school trips across Uganda pending the outcome of the inquiry.