MTN Uganda, through its corporate social responsibility arm, MTN Uganda Foundation on Thursday handed over a newly finished and furnished classroom block to Malongo Ark PEAS High School in Mayuge district.
The school was started by PEAS (Promoting Equality in African Schools) a UK based NGO, to absorb the soaring numbers of learners who had no accessible and affordable secondary schools to join upon completing their primary education.
In order to create more space for the ever-increasing number of primary school leavers, PEAS entered a partnership with MTN Uganda Foundation that saw the telco donate UGX735M for class room construction in 2017, thereby creating 720 additional school places for needy students.
Following that successful partnership, MTN Uganda Foundation entered into a second phase of the partnership that saw the Foundation donate UGX1.3bn to construct and furnish classroom blocks and sanitary facilities in 6 schools under PEAS across the country.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, Mr. Bryan Mbasa, the Ag Manager, MTN Uganda Foundation stressed MTN’s commitment to supporting education in Uganda as an ongoing, long term project.
“Our reason for supporting Malongo Ark PEAS High school with a new classroom block was to create space for more students to be enrolled to the school,” said Mbasa.
The fully furnished three classroom block will create space for 200 students in Malongo Ark PEAS high school. To our knowledge, the new classroom blocks will be used for advanced level (A’level) students. The school started in 2012 with 224 students today the school has 422 learners and with the new blocks looks at getting more students.
Mr. Henry Senkasi the Country Director PEAS Uganda expressed his gratitude to MTN for showing passion and compassion for needy students by providing them with state-of-the-art infrastructure.
“We are happy to note that with this new classroom block, the school will be able to enroll more learners and also decongest their old classroom. This will improve their learning and performance,” he said.
The school’s Director; Mr. Samuel Bawuba voiced his gratitude to MTN Uganda Foundation thanking the Foundation for supporting their cause of providing quality education to the less privileged students.
“A good learning facility definitely leads to better performance,” Bawuba said during his remarks.
In addition to the classroom block, MTN Foundation also constructed a sanitary facility for the school.
Meanwhile PEAS operates in Uganda and Zambia with the aim of improving and increasing access to better education services in hard to reach communities. In Uganda alone, PEAS runs 28 schools, serving close to 15,000 learners (51% of whom are girls).
