Research consultancy
THE ROTTEN SIDE OF UGANDA’S EDUCATION
In the recent interview Jeff Benzo’s (the world’s 2nd richest man) when asked about his philanthropy, he said he was going to donate 2 billion dollars to support early childhood education, in unprivileged communities; the reason he gave was that when a child is left behind in early childhood such a child will never catch up in life.
Though the Ugandan government has achieved high enrollment in Universal Primary Education (UPE) (3.1 million in 1996 to 7.6 million in 2003) since its introduction in 1997. The government of Uganda forgot the most critical part of Education; the Early Child hood education (ECE) whose enrollment in 2015 stood at only 433,258 yet there were over 5 million aged 3-5 years children. Hence, for every 100 children of preschool going age (3-5 years), only 9 were enrolled. 90.5% will wait until they are 6 years to join primary education most especially those in the rural communities
The absence of government owned ECE centers in Uganda indicates that the government of Uganda has left out more than 90.5 percent of its school going children from this critical part of Education. This threatens the quality of Education in Uganda and limits the nation from grooming highly competent professionals.
When we compare Uganda with its neighbors in the region, Uganda’s enrolment in preschools is far behind. In Kenya, enrolment is at 53.5%; Tanzania at 35.5% and Rwanda at 29%. The Korean background report, 2003 indicates that South Korea which had previously neglected Investments in ECD which is observed by the fact that although the first private kindergarten was established almost a century ago in Korea, the first public kindergarten was established only in 1976, However ever since South Korea started investing and emphasizing Nursery school education there has been enhanced performance in mathematics and science and south Korea is one of the best countries in the world in science.
It is therefore unwise for the government of Uganda to fail to build nursery school, which has left few urban located Nursery schools to provide this much needed service and above all the few privately owned Nursery schools do not give teachers formal contracts, most Nursery school teachers are told to teach by word of mouth and given very poor salaries , this therefore makes one wonder if a teacher earning meagre salary can really deliver quality lessons to the pupils.
President Yoweri Museveni has been emphasizing the study of sciences and one time threatened to import doctors from Cuba; “ I would like to make it clear that CUBA despite the sanctions it has been facing it invests 12 percent of its GDP on Nursery school Education and the enrollment rate is at 99.5% of young children going to nursery.
Thus, the absence of Early childhood education centers in Uganda indicates that ECE may not be perceived as important which is a great over sight. It should further be noted NPA (2015) indicates Over 80% of the population cannot afford the fees charged for pre-primary education, which limits access.
Government failure to invest in the construction of Nursery schools and left it for profit oriented private sector who are mainly in Urban area and also only serve rich parents. Therefore, indicates that the entire education systems in Uganda is in a failed state.
Therefore, the entire system is rotten.
Oketcho wilbroad
