KAMPALA, Uganda 

New classrooms and offices for a high school in Uganda were officially opened Thursday courtesy of Turkey's state-run aid agency, in collaboration with the Ugandan government.

The new block for Nateete Muslim High School, set to benefit some 300 students, cost over 300 million Uganda shillings ($81,186), provided by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA).

Yahya Acu, TIKA coordinator in Uganda, said that some schools in Uganda are under-resourced and lack facilities, which often makes the quality of education and the learning environment suffer.

“TIKA aims to help the government of Uganda raise school enrollment rates and the quality of education, and as well help the school administration to improve their internal efficiency,” he said.

“That is why we set up this structure at Nateete Muslim High School and we will extend this kind of support to other schools in need,” said Yahya.

“We used highly qualified and experienced personnel whom we procured through a highly competitive selection method, using international competitive bidding, to come up with a more efficient product, and value for Turkish taxpayers’ money,” he added.

On behalf of the Education and Sports Ministry, Ismail Mulindwa, Uganda’s commissioner for private schools, welcomed the support from TIKA, saying the new block will allow the school to reduce classroom size and bring down the student-teacher ratio.

TIKA has completed a variety of about 25,000 developmental cooperation activities in 170 countries through its 61 program coordination offices, located in 59 countries, including 20 in Africa.

It has tackled projects in the fields of education, health, water and sanitation, agricultural development, infrastructure, restoration, and tourism, among others.