Vice president Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi has commended efforts by religious institutions mainly the church to promote education in the country.

Ssekandi made the remarks while visiting Madera Catholic Church in Soroti where president Museveni contributed shs80 towards its reconstruction.

He said that the church has been key in founding many schools across the country which he says has enabled government to reach out to many pupils who previously were missing school due to lack of facilities and also long distances.

Ssekandi says government will continue working with the religious institutions in ensuring service delivery since most of them have a direct contact with people from the grass root.

He says at the time of independence, there were a few government schools in the country yet the demand for education was high but the church helped close this gap by starting up more schools though most of them of since been taken over by government and are implementing the UPE and USE programs.