42,000 students to get free advanced level education

Requirement. To qualify for the scheme, one must have passed in Division One to Three.

A total of 42,000 candidates, out of the 228,513 who passed last year’s UCE examinations have a chance to study for free under the government’s Universal Post-O-Level Education and Training (Upolet) programme, the Education ministry announced on Friday.

However, to qualify for the scheme, one must have passed in Division One to Three.

Basing on Uganda National Examination Board (Uneb) records, 128,773 candidates passed in Division One to Three, meaning that the remaining 99,740 candidates though they passed, cannot benefit from Upolet.

Education Minister Jessica Alupo on Friday said 3,511 candidates, out the 42,000 will be absorbed in Upolet implementing technical and vocational institution.

“We would have preferred to take more but we are limited by resources. But I am sure, we shall be increasing the number every year,” she said.

The Upolet scheme was rolled out early this year to enable eligible O-Level graduates enroll in tuition-free secondary and vocational training institutions. Government pays Shs80,000 per student under Upolet in government-aided schools per term while Shs85,000 is allocated to each learner in private schools implementing the programme. Government spends Shs414,000 on each student per term in BTVET institutions.

Last year, out of 160,000 students enrolled in Senior Five, 41,503 benefitted from the Upolet scheme. Initially, government had planned to sponsor 46,000 students but due to the tight legibility criteria, thousands were left out.

According to Upolet guidelines, the programme only runs in schools already implementing the Universal Secondary Education (USE) scheme. There are 1,014 schools implementing USE, 256 of which are privately owned.

assenkabirwa@ug.nationmedia.com