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The RCC of Arua, Maj.Gen.Betty Otekat Akello, cutting the ribbon at the launch on Saturday May 9, 2026 at the school. (All photos by Erema George) By Erema George Arua City The old girls association of St. Mary’s Ediofe girl’s senior secondary school have laun
The RCC of Arua, Maj.Gen.Betty Otekat Akello, cutting the ribbon at the launch on Saturday May 9, 2026 at the school. (All photos by Erema George)
By Erema George
Arua City
The old girls association of St. Mary’s Ediofe girl’s senior secondary school have launched a run dubbed, “the SMEGGS ICT run 2026” to establish an ICT block at the school.
The run that is scheduled for July 18, 2026 under the theme, “for a digital leap” aims at promoting the new curriculum and empowering the girl child with technological skills amid the growing challenges due to limited number of the available computers despite increase in enrolment.
At the launch of the run, Juliet Maxnovitch Tajiri, the Chairperson Of the old girls association highlighted that the ICT run is initiated as a source of funding in order to lessen the burden on the parents in supporting the school.
“We want to identify other sources of funding to ensure that the key gaps of the school are addressed, that’s why the old girls together with the school administration thought of organizing the ICT RUN, as a source of funding to also lessen the burden on the parents in supporting the School,” said Tajiri adding that, “the ICT RUN is not only a fundraising drive but also a strategic plan to empower the girl child with relevant technological skills needed for academic excellence, creativity, research, communication and future employment opportunities.”
According to Sr. Josephine Achiro, the head teacher of the School, there is a shortage of computers at the school that makes it hard to implement the new curriculum at the school.
“In 2020, the government of Uganda rolled out the competence based curriculum in lower secondary, it has now come up to senior six this year. The curriculum emphasizes hands on skills, research, innovation and integration of ICT in teaching and learning and there’s a growing importance of ICT in education. Despite all this, our school is still grappling with critical challenges of technology enabled learning spaces. The student computer ratio is at 22:1 (22 students, 1 computer), St. Mary’s Ediofe has 1330 students and we have roughly 54 functional computers. This proportion cannot help us make them learn better. The limited number of computers, the absence of dedicated spacious and secure ICT block greatly hinders effective teaching and learning of the mandatory computer studies curriculum,” Sr. Achiro explained.
The head teacher, Sr. Josephine Achiro speaking at the launch of the SMEGSS ICT RUN 2026 on May 9, 2026 at the school.
The Arua Resident City Commissioner Maj Gen. Betty Otekat Akello welcomed the initiative and pledges full support during the run and promises to involve the government in the project implementation.
“My office is fully committed to supporting the education sector in Arua city, we will continue to advocate for resources to ensure that your computer labs are world class. Ladies and gentlemen in my own capacity, as a representative of the President his Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in the city, I will provide security during the run and I will write a request directly to the office of the president, specifically to the ministry of education and I will copy you to confirm my commitment,” Akello committed.
Whereas Ayakaka Sharon Andrua, the head girl of the school rallies the different stakeholders to join the cause in order to support the girl child in west Nile.
“If you look at the world of today, it’s more of a digital world so we need to empower the girls so that when they go out there as they are leaving this school, they go out with the experience of ICT, the experience of knowing how to connect on the e-business, e-world, online business, and online meetings and all that is done online. I encourage everyone out there to support this project in one way or the other so that the girl child in West Nile can benefit,” she appealed.
The SMEGGS ICT run is a transformational initiative targeting to raise about 1,790,825,820 UgShs aimed at empowering the girl Child through technology, innovation and digital learning.