NN40, May 2008
Education for Sustainable Development? Or The Sustainability of Education Investment? A Special Issue
Implementation of the Universal Post-Primary Education and Training (UPPET) Programme and Economic Growth in Uganda
By J.G. Mbabazi, Ministry of Education and Sports, Kampala
Email: jgmbabazi@yahoo.comThe Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) for Uganda highlights but also challenges the importance of sustaining the economic growth that the country has been experiencing in recent years in addressing poverty. The Government of Uganda considers quality education at both primary and secondary levels, in particular a focus on life skills, a critical factor in economic development. To date, Uganda has been successful in achieving its access goal at primary level. Data from the Education Management Information System (EMIS) indicate that following the introduction of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) Programme in 1997, the enrolment of pupils in primary schools rose from 3 million to over 5 million in the first year of the Programme. The number of pupils currently enrolled in primary schools stands at over 7 million. However, only about 30% of a cohort of pupils who join the primary education cycle go on to complete the cycle, with a full seven years of study. This wastage is detrimental to the country¡¦s economic development and clearly unsustainable. The Government of Uganda has committed itself in recent years to addressing some of the impediments to education, which include: poor quality, lack of focus on literacy, numeracy and life skills, negative attitudes, cultural practices that prefer sons to daughters, early marriages, petty trade preferred to schooling, and insecurity in some areas of the country.
The Government of Uganda has also recently turned its attention to addressing access and quality problems at secondary level. The Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) for Lower Secondary Education (S.1 - S.4), which represents the number of children enrolled in S. 1 ¡V S.4 as a percentage of the children entitled to be in school, was only 18.55% in 2005. It increased to 22.10% in 2006, and to 34.20% following the launch of UPPET in February 2007. However, not all the pupils who complete the primary education cycle are able to join secondary education. Only 50% of the candidates who completed primary education in 2005 joined secondary education in 2006. Following the launch of UPPET in February 2007, the transition rate has increased to 67%. But it must be remembered, as we said above, that this is 67% of the 30% who actually manage to complete 7 years of primary.
In contrast to primary education, the incidence of secondary education has become more unequal, with the public sector not adequately targeting the poor. According to the Uganda Government¡¦s Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) for the period of 2004/05 - 2007/08, the incidence of secondary education is highly skewed towards the higher income groups and urban or semi-urban dwellers. This is impeding economic development in Uganda, which relies on an un-educated and un-skilled workforce. Uganda¡¦s National Poverty Assessment Report of 2003 indicates that post primary education and training is prohibitively expensive and therefore, inaccessible for many learners who would otherwise attend Secondary Schools or Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions. The TVET institutions seek to develop students¡¦ vocational skills, including entrepreneurship skills. In an effort to address the problem of inaccessibility of post primary education and training, in February 2007 Uganda introduced the Universal Post Primary Education and Training (UPPET) Programme. The challenges of UPPET in Uganda are many and specifically:
?« The rationale for implementing UPPET and its role in Uganda¡¦s sustained economic development
?« The equitable development of this Programme
?« How it meets national objectives, in particular development objectives and international commitments
?« Implementation modalities
?« Training and deployment of teachers
But none is greater than the financial sustainability of the Programme. But we should end on a more positive note of hope, despite these massive challenges that lie ahead.
The Government of Uganda, through the Ministry of Education and Sports, is committed to addressing these challenges and thus eventually providing a high quality secondary education for every child in Uganda. A quote from a parent I met at a local market highlights the public support for UPPET ¡V ¡¥I am so happy and I thank God that my daughter can now get the chance of going to secondary school. She is bright and can now have a better future than me¡¦. Ugandans will strive to make UPPET a success because it is necessary for sustainable development.
Back to full contents of NORRAG NEWS 40.
Download the full issue of NORRAG NEWS 40 in pdf.