Education ministry protests budget cuts

KAMPALA.

The Ministry of Education and Sports has warned that if the ministry’s budget is not reinstated, it will be difficult to effectively deliver quality education two months to the reading of the 2018/2019 national budget.
The ministry has highlighted 16 of its departments which have experienced major budget cuts, among them the National Curriculum Development Centre and Directorate of Education Standards (DES) whose budgets reduced by a half from Shs4.9b and Shs2.9b to Shs2b and Shs1.4b, respectively.
In a letter to the budget committee chairperson, Mr Amos Lugoloobi, which Saturday Monitor has seen, the ministry’s permanent secretary, Mr Alex Kakooza, expressed concern that while the areas which have been affected are categorised as consumptive, they are key in delivering their mandate to inspect schools to ensure they are teaching the right curriculum in a conducive environment.
As such, school inspectors are expected to be facilitated to move to the various institutions across the country to monitor the performance of teachers in delivering the approved curriculum. In addition, the curriculum developers currently reviewing the lowering of the secondary syllabi have to consult different stakeholders and retool the teachers on the revised curriculum.
However, the budget cuts have left the ministry officials worried that not much will be done if this is not addressed.
“Unfortunately, this funding has been categorised as consumptive expenditure and the funds were cut by 50 per cent in the 2018/ 2019 financial year amounting to Shs10 billion. This has negatively affected execution of work within the ministry. The decision to subject them to budget cuts should be carefully thought through,” Mr Kakooza said in the letter.
He added: “Effective education service delivery cannot flourish without close inspection and monitoring. As long as the mandate is trivialised, the quality of education will remain unsatisfactory and we shall continue to lament about it and castigate the ministry. I appeal that you increase the non-wage budget by previous cut of Shs10 billion to enable this ministry effectively operate.”
Ministry of Education closed more than 2,000 primary and secondary schools last year over failure to meet minimum standards and teaching unapproved curriculum. The enforcement was supposed to be continued this year but this has not been possible in some areas because of funds.
The Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Keith Muhakanizi, was yesterday reluctant to comment on whether the money will be refunded but said the issues the Education ministry raises will be looked into.
“Leave the matter to the ministry,” Mr Muhakanizi said, adding that they will reconsider.
Ms Goretti Nakabugo, the country director of Uwezo, an NGO that has been key in assessing quality education in the last eight years, said she was worried that key units that are supposed to facilitate the improvement of teaching and learning have continued to be underfunded.
To her, this questions the government’s commitment to providing quality education.
“It’s unfortunate. We have failed consistently over the years on quality education. While they might have budget cuts, they can look at the units which are key in improving the quality. DES has been struggling with little funds and now that it has been cut, it is cause for worry as stakeholders because this will compromise the quality if there are no inspections. There is no commitment on part of the government to improve the quality of education,” Dr Nakabugo said.