For the fourth year of the NRM manifesto 2021-2026, the Manifesto Implementation Unit has rated the Education and Sports sector at 90% for 2024, up from 64% in 2023. YUDAYA NANGONZI brings you an overview of the sector this year as shared by the minister of Education and Sports, Janet Museveni, at State House, Nakasero.
The manifesto contains 30 commitments across seven priority areas of the education sector, aimed at enhancing the quality of education at all levels.
According to Wills Bashasha, the director of the Manifesto Implementation Unit, the sector showed remarkable progress in 2024 compared to the previous years. However, challenges remain, such as addressing teacher and learner absenteeism, limited ICT usage in schools, funding gaps, and mixed reactions to the new O-level curriculum.
Below are the sub-sector highlights.
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT (ECD)
The government’s commitment to ECD focuses on institutionalizing caregiver training at public Primary Teachers’ Colleges (PTCs) and enforcing regulatory standards. The implementation report showed that the ministry integrated ECD caregiver training into the primary school teacher training package.
This offers a career progression pathway for teachers from certificates to PhDs. Despite scholarships to facilitate ECD training, Mrs Museveni noted that enrolment remains low.
“The enrolment for ECD diploma training is still hindered by caregivers trained in unaccredited private institutions [at the certificate level], making them ineligible for admission scholarships to PTCs,” she said.
In 2024, out of 2,300 scholarships, only 605 caregivers were enrolled. The government plans to provide another 2,300 scholarships in 2025 for caregivers to upgrade their education during holidays or weekends.
Meanwhile, effective 2023, the ministry started enforcement of the Basic Requirements and Minimum Standards (BRMS) for pre-primary teacher training institutions. In May 2024, the cabinet also approved the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) policy. The draft BRMS for ECD centers is expected to be finalized by December 2024.
PRIMARY EDUCATION
There are six commitments under this level. These are; providing instructional materials, introducing a school feeding program, inspecting schools, and recruiting teachers. The key commitment is to ensure children complete at least 11 years of school (P1-S4) and acquire job-market skills.
Museveni observed that although UPE, USE, and UPOLET programmes target disadvantaged learners, additional illegal charges still inhibit learners from attending school.
“We still have a problem with these charges but as the education budget improves, the extra charges will be catered for by the government such that the burden is shifted from the parents,” she said.
The ministry of Local Government was tasked with passing a resolution on illegal charges through village assemblies but failed to facilitate this undertaking. This year, the Education ministry developed a draft National School Feeding Policy scheduled for implementation in UPE schools by the financial year 2026/27.
The government will provide schools with funds for feeding learners using locally sourced food. The feeding policy, with the ultimate goal of stemming school dropouts in public primary schools, has raised concerns about its sustainability.
SECONDARY EDUCATION
To enhance secondary education quality, the government rolled out the revised lower competence-based curriculum to equip students with practical skills. With the pioneer students of the curriculum in S4 vacation, the public anxiously awaits their results under a new grading system in early 2025 amid Uneb concerns of a mismatch between teaching methods and curriculum demands.
Through the UgIFT program, 258 new secondary schools are under construction by the UPDF engineering brigade. Of these, 114 seed secondary schools are completed and the rest are set for completion by June 2025.
The scope of construction for all new government schools must comply with BRMS which includes at least six staff houses. Additionally, the ministry plans to construct an additional 1,572 teachers’ houses. In the next financial year 2025/26, the ministry will progressively start rehabilitating 120 traditional public secondary schools across the country with funding from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE II) and the World Bank.
Asked why the ministry chose to rehabilitate these schools that relatively charge high fees that would cover their infrastructural demands, the spokesperson of the Education ministry, Dr Denis Mugimba, had this say:
“We are not rehabilitating these schools for them to charge less fees but to continue providing quality education to Ugandans. Regardless of their school fees charges, the rehabilitation plan is mainly to appreciate their contribution to our country.”
The ministry will construct additional classrooms, dormitories, laboratories, and staff quarters, among others.
TECHNICAL & VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
This sub-sector included three commitments; complete construction in 22 Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions, upgrade six TVET institutes to centers of excellence and establish Nwoya Agro- processing Technical Institute, and deal with under-utilization of public TVET institutions.
In 2024, the entry criteria for TVET were relaxed, eliminating the need for a pass grade in English and Mathematics at P7. Modularized training and assessment systems were also implemented to enable learners to study at their own pace.
The government developed plans for Nwoya Institute, but construction awaits funding. Six TVET institutions; Bukalasa Agricultural College, Uganda Petroleum Institute Kigumba, UTC Bushenyi, UTC Elgon, UTC Kichwamba and UTC Lira, were rehabilitated into centers of excellence.
Out of the 22 TVET institutions due for construction, only 13 were completed while civil works are still ongoing in nine institutions located in Luweero, Amuria, Iganga, Tororo, Kazo, Moyo, Kakumiro, and Apac.
HIGHER EDUCATION
There were five manifesto commitments. On providing more scholarships and supporting students joining science courses, some 4,000 degree and 3,000 diploma students were supported in the financial year 2024/25.
Efforts to establish a Gulu University constituent college in Karamoja are ongoing, with construction at 8% since the site handover on May 7, 2024. Under commitment three, the ministry had to revamp Busoga University and Mountains of the Moon University (MMU) which were taken over by the government as public universities.
Construction of study facilities at MMU stood at various stages while at Busoga, Shs 29bn has so far been allocated for operations of the university task force. Plans for a public university in Bunyoro are progressing after the ministry secured 120 acres of land in Kikuube and Masindi. The physical plans and architectural drawings of the university await approval by relevant authorities.
The government also committed to continue with the student loan scheme for needy but brilliant students in science-related fields. This commitment, however, continues to face a dwindling resource envelope.
The executive director of the Higher Education Students Financing Board (HESFB), Michael Wanyama, noted that the demand for study loans surpasses the available resources. In the academic year 2024/25, the board received 6,661 applicants and gave study loans to 1,838 students. This forced 1,200 who missed out to appeal to the board for study funding.
“To fund student appeals, it required new funds worth Shs 5.2bn yet parliament had already appropriated to us Shs 7.2bn for the new cohort of students. We needed a supplementary budget but due to competing demands by the government, we did not get a new resource envelope,” Wanyama said. Students were advised to reapply in 2025.
SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION
The manifesto’s sole commitment in this area focused on progressively revamping Mbale SSS and Wakiso SSS – all schools for the deaf. The schools received infrastructure improvements and equipment for tailoring and catering.
Going forward, the disability fraternity anticipates approval of the long-awaited National Inclusive Education Policy now before the cabinet secretariat for discussion.
The policy was first drafted in 2006 and shelved around 2011 as it neared submission to cabinet. It was later revised in 2015. The policy, which stakeholders including the education ministry, agreed that it has dragged is critical for ensuring equal access to quality education for children with disabilities.
nangonzi@observer.ug
But since its inception was it in 1998, if 90% of the children who enrolled for the UPE couldn’t advance to qualify for PLE, the 90% success story is not only a nullity, but the sadism and absurdity of the regimes “Reverse psychology” (Blame the victim/someone else).
In other words, just like everything else, the 90% success story only has PROPAGANDA VALUE!
E.g., like in the above photograph: in the 21st Century, the students are still being trained using the rudimentary tools introduced by Explorer Henry “Stanley” (Hand Wood plain/shaving.
In other words, how can such students/graduate qualify to work in modern Woodworks and/or furniture workshops that require High precision power tools and/or computerized tools/system.