Parliamentary Committee on Education conducts an oversight visit to Gulu University.

The Parliamentary Committee on Education and Sports has conducted an oversight visit to Gulu University ahead of the historic Parliamentary Sitting to be hosted by Gulu city at Kaunda Grounds from 29^th to 30^th August, 2024.

The committee was led by Hon. Asiimwe Molly Musiimwe, the Deputy Chairperson Parliamentary Committee on Education and Woman Member of Parliament Rwampara district who commended the University for the Successes registered over the years.

Hon. Asiimwe said they are carrying out the oversight visit to universities, primary and secondary schools in the Northern Region to find out among others infrastructural development progress, performance in education, and challenges hindering progress in order to find workable solutions to the problem affecting the different education institutions in the region.

Prof. George Openjuru Ladaah, the Gulu University Vice Chancellor who presented the University progress report to the committee confirms that the university is doing very well in all major aspects including the operationalization of the new Campus in Kotido.

He said Gulu University Management on 7^th June 2024 handed over the 30 billion shillings Construction site for Senate Building to the National Enterprise Corporation (NEC), the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) commercial wing and relocated the initial planned site to a new one.

“We have moved the construction of the Senate Building from the Main Campus to the Forest Campus taking part of the university playground because we wanted to continue using the buildings in the middle of campus which it was to replace” adds Prof. Openjuru.

The VC said the University also handed over the site for construction of Gulu University Moroto Constituent College Multipurpose building in Nadunget worth UGX39.9billion to the UPDF Engineering Brigade on 10th May, 2024 and the construction commenced and still progressing well.

He however, raised a concern about the degazettement of Gulu Central Forest Reserve that is meant to facilitate the expansion and development of Gulu University but there is no visible progress to date yet all the degazettement processes have been completed.

“The degazettement of Gulu Central Forest Reserve and the gazettement of the university Land in Nwoya is a process that has gone silent. We have completed all the processes including the environmental impact assessment but we don’t know now what is happening” The VC shares his disappointment before the committee.

The VC brought to the attention of the committee that the process of constructing Gulu University Specialized Teaching hospital should be sped up because this will not only be used as a university hospital and teaching facility for medical students but also a hospital for the general public.

“We need the teaching hospital and it will serve the entire Northern Region including South Sudan” The VC said.

While responding to the Vice chancellor’s report on the specialized hospital, Hon. Asiimwe asked the university to write a letter to President Yoweri Museveni expressing the urgency of the matter.

This is not the first time a parliamentary committee is visiting the university. On 26^th June 2023, the Parliamentary Committee on Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) also conducted a visit to Gulu University as part of their oversight responsibilities to monitor all projects funded by the STI Secretariat.