Girl children who have benefitted from TotalEnergies EP Uganda scholarships in Nwoya District are cautioned to guard against involving in any form of unruliness to save themselves from being discontinued from the scheme.
Ms Caroline Namyalo, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Manager at TotalEnergies EP Uganda, said during the handing of scholastic materials to 10 beneficiaries that the oil company that is developing the Tilenga project in Nwoya and Buliisa districts will be coerced to discontinue the scheme against any naughty beneficiaries who misbehave at school.
She said the company at one time experienced such a case and decided to cease the programme at the detriment of the naughty scheme beneficiaries for the sake of discipline.
The CSR manager advised the beneficiaries to focus on education for posterity now that they scooped the opportunity of receiving scholarships after attaining first grades in the 2022 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE).
Ms Namyalo tasked the beneficiaries’ parents to keenly monitor their girl children during holidays so they do not suffer the impact of the students’ misbehaviour vowing that the benefactor will not tolerate any kind of unruliness at school where the beneficiaries have been secured vacancies for their entire ordinary level education.
The beneficiaries will use the scholarship for all their four academic years at Sacred Heart secondary school in Gulu city.
“We had cases of indiscipline that resulted in the discontinuation of about three beneficiaries out of the more than 200 – which was not good for their future. But we had no option because the acts they committed went against school rules and regulations,” she said.
Adding: “We (TotalEnergies EP Uganda) spend a lot of money on each child under the scholarship programme which calls for total commitment from the beneficiaries so as to perform well holistically and avoid being discontinued from the programme.”
Ms Namyalo disclosed that under the scholarship scheme, the French oil giant spends about Shs11.2m on each student per year.
The scholarship programme covers a variety of benefits including medical insurance, boarding fares as well as transport to and from the school for both students and their parents during visitation days.
At the function, the students were given suitcases, bed sheets, bars of laundry soap and Shs200,000 for upkeep at school among other items to enable them easily compete with their male counterparts in the slot of the advanced level of education as an affirmative action.
Speaking at the same ceremony, the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Nwoya district, Ms Jennifer Egunyu, advised the benefitting girls to put their minds off unscholarly matters but stick to studies to see them climb higher academic levels.
The CAO cited teenage sexual immorality as the biggest monster ruining girl education in Uganda advising them to be careful of what they fill their minds with as the battle begins in the mind in order to flee sexual immorality in addition to other sorts of indiscipline at school and at home.
“It’s high time you focused on classwork while prioritising science subjects as they are core and on top of the ruling (NRM party) agenda and TotalEnergies EP Uganda. Don’t engage yourself in sexual immorality as it will ruin your pursuit of academic excellence,” Ms Egunyu advised.
Ms Lucy Akot, a parent of one of the beneficiaries, lauded TotalEnergies EP Uganda for the financial support saying the company has bailed her out of the financial burden.
However, she urged the oil company to always give chances to the beneficiaries’ parents to select schools of their choice that they know perform better.
