3.0 Major achievements, both quantitative and qualitative 3.1 Access to Education a) Primary Education i) Classroom construction There has been marked shortage of classroom resulting from the destruction of classroom during the 1970s coupled with the rapid rise in enrolment. Deliberate effort had to be made to put up additional classrooms. In 1998/99 the ratio of pupils to classrooms was 131:1, before improving to 118:1 in FY 2000/01 and it is expect ed to reach 82:1 in the FY 2003/04. A total sum of she 53.9 bn/= was spent on classroom construction during the period 1998/9 to 1999/000. A total of 6,689 classrooms were constructed under CCG, SFG/GoU and NDB during the same period. In the financial year 1999/00, out of th e planned total of 3,975 classrooms to be newly constructed/completed under School Facilities Grant (SFG), 3,331 classrooms were constructed. In the current Financial Year, 2000/ 01, shs 50.2 bn/= has been earmarked for construction of classrooms. By the end of the plan period (2003) a stock of 78,152 permanent classrooms will have been built. ii) Providing Free Education Since National independence in 1962, education has not been free in Uganda except at Public University level. This factor in its self militated against access for all in education. Government therefore has made efforts to progressively provid e free basic education. In 1997, Government declared that it would provide free Education for four children per family. Where applicable, 50% of this number was to be girls. Government continues to encourage families to send all their school going age children to schoo l although Government sponsorship will still be limited to 4 children per family. This policy has freed poor children to access educa tion and in 1997 – 1998 the enrolment at primary school dramatically rose from 2.9 million to 5.4 million. This rise continued and reached 6.5 million in 1999 and 6.8 million in2000. iii) Grant-Aiding of Primary Schools To increase the number of schools at this level, Government has been taking over Community schools, staffing them with teachers and paying their salaries. Between the year 1990 to 2000 over 4000 schools were Grant-Aided. 12 A total of 767 primary schools were grant aided in the FY 1999/00, raising the number of primary schools to a total of 10,597, of which 9,060 are Government and 1,481 are private, while the rest are considered community schools. iv) Payment of PLE Fees by Government Payment of Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) fees for P7 candidates was implemented in year 2000. A provision of shs 10.2bn/= has been included in the MTBF for this purpose for the next three financial years. This has improved retention further. v) Alternative Basic Education This programme incorporates expansion of semi-formal opportunities adopted to reach the unreached in Nomadic communities, Fishing communities and working children. Over 19,000 pupils have been enrolled in school through this programme b) Post-Primary Institutions At Secondary level strategies include: i) Construction of Seed Schools Provision has been made over years,1998 – 2003 for the construction of 60 seed secondary schools and construction work at; Mukura , Serwanga Lwanga and Okwang S.S. has been completed and the schools are already commissioned while 35 million shillings has been releas ed to the following Districts Mubende Kabarole Kamuli, Kiboga, Ssembabule, Kotido, Moroto, Nebbi, Kitgum, Kisoro. ii) Rehabilitation of existing schools In some cases the rehabilitation and expansion of existing schools has increased their capacities significantly. Recently, 73 secondary schools have received Capital Development Grants towards their construction and rehabilitation works and 16 secondary schools have been identified for expansion and rehabilitation. The latter will serve as centres for Comprehensive Secondary Education. iii) Grant-Aiding of Community and Private Schools Government also grant aids community and private schools nnually. For example 94 Community or Privately owned schools have been Grant-Aided and staffed this financial year, 2000/2001 while an additional 180 will be Grant-Aided over the next two years. Grant aiding is generally cheaper than constructing new schools. 13 For Technical, Business, Vocati onal Education and Training, the strategies include: i) Establishment of Community Polytechnics beginning with the piloting of 45 colleges w.e.f. next academic year March, 2002. ii) Providing Grant-Aid to Private Providers. iii) Shillings one billion has been budgeted for rehabilitation of Technical and Farm Schools in the next three years. c) Tertiary Institutions and Universities i) Opening New Public Universities With effect from October 2000, Government will open Kyambogo University and Northern University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. This will bring total number of Public University to 4. ii) Abolition of Cost-sharing Government has abolished Cost-sharing in Government Tertiary Education Institutions with effect from July, 2001. This policy enables the poor but eligible students to gain access to these institutions. iii) Introduction of Quota System Public Universities under Gove rnment has introduced District Quota System to ensure equitable distribution of opportunities of access to Public Universities under government sponsorship. iv) Expansion Makerere University has widened access as a result of expansion of space and introduction of new courses resulting in increase of undergraduate students from 16,042 in 1998/99to 20,360 in 1999/00, while the post graduates rose from 1,000 in 1998/99 to 1220 in 1999/2000. v) Private Universities As a strategy to increase access to University Education, Private Universities were licensed between 1999 and July, 2000, namely: Ndejje University and Martyrs University. 14 vi) Free Education Government has doubled its sponsorship at Makerere from 2000 to 4000 and Mbarara University from 350 to 700 students with effect from October, 2001. The sponsorship is to particularly benefit poor students. In Primary Teacher Colleges Government will provide free Education for 31,900 students, while in National Teachers Colleges (NTCs ) it will sponsor 9000 students. Another 13,566 students will be sponsored by Government in Technical, Business and Vocational Educat ion and Training Institutions. The various measures to increase acc ess in tertiary institutions has significantly increased enrollment. Refer to annex v. 3.2 Equity in Education One important policy thrust in Uganda is to enhance equity. In the light of Universal Primary E ducation’s objectives there is urgent need to : Develop parameters leading to a clear definition of disadvantaged groups of children; Determine the rigidities in the Formal Education system; Determine why there are no policies to accommodate the provision of productive Education for disadvantaged groups; Assess the needs of the disadvantaged groups in order to formulate realistic policies and implement meaningful initiatives; Find out why Government has minimal direct involvement in experimentation and piloting of programmes, approaches and strategies for disadvantaged groups; Determine the rational for centralised curriculum, with the view of making it i.e. more flexible and realistic, in addressing the needs of the disadvantaged groups; Determine logical mechanisms of funding “door-funded” Education Projects and parameters leading to su stainability of such projects and programmes; Assess teacher management and training programme needs to include aspects of working with disadvantaged groups. 15 Meanwhile, there are also specific measures which have been introduced to increase equity, this includes: i) Community mobilisation ii) Creation of community awareness iii) Putting in place gender sensitive policy Other strategies to improve equity at various levels in clude the following: Government has provided free Primary Education for 4 children per family. This intervention has enabled children from poor families to attend school. In addition, Government has also encouraged education of children with special needs. Table showing enrolment of children with special needs in mainstream schools
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 12:02:37 +0000