Who should take blame for failing education system?

The report published by the World Bank titled ‘Ugandan Children not learning’ in the Daily Monitor of February 5, 2019 in relation to Uganda’s education sector is an indictment on the current regime and its National Developments Plans (NDPI and NDPII).
While our country may have lagged behind in improving its overall development from the 1960s to 80s due to bad governance, there is no evidence to link the poor performance in our education sector today and the past regimes.

I would want to believe that the education system then was suitable for the needs of the day, but the current government that has been in power for more than half the time Uganda has been independent seems not to have done much to make the education system relevant to the needs of the day.

The Minister of Education in response to the World Bank Report blames the declining education system on the chaos that prevailed in the 1960s to 80s. She says that the government has only started recently to rehabilitate the system.
For crying out loud, the Minster of Education, is also the First Lady of Uganda who has been in power since January 26, 1986. Being a First Lady is a privileged position which she could have used even before becoming Minister of Education to influence improvements in whatever sector she thought was not doing well, including education.

I would, therefore, say the more than 33 years of consistent stable political leadership should not be understated as being recent because it is not! I say not for a variety of reasons: The opportunity and time the current government has had to make improvements in the education sector is more than any other government has had, the 30 plus years that the current government has been in power is more than half the time Uganda has been independent, majority of the population in Uganda are youth who have seen no other government (including myself) and it is difficult to relate any of the existing challenges to past regimes, not to mention that the majority of teachers and other stakeholders implementing the education system are largely products of the current government.

During the past 30 years, several learning institutions and universities have been established by both the private sector and the Government in a bid to improve enrolment, however, the dropout rate is alarming as per the report. What the government needs to do is establish the causes of the increased dropouts and establish an education system that improves competencies of the learners.

What does it take to improve the competencies of the students? Whereas I am not an expert in matters of education, I draw my experience from having attended a British curriculum for my High School which helped me identify my core skills/competence at an early age thus helping me identify and grow my career path. This is not the case with our schools teaching the national syllabus, the focus is mainly on passing exams rather than helping learners identify, build and develop their core skills.

This is one of the key challenges identified in the World Bank Report that the government needs to expeditiously work at perhaps by a fundamental change in the method of teaching.
Considering that quality education is a human right and is key to the development of any economy, it is unfortunate that the current government has not given it the regard it deserves during the past 30 years while the country has had a fairly stable political environment.

There has been repeated talks indicating a desire on the part of the government to change the national curriculum to what is most desirable, but this has not yielded fruits.
I believe that if there was political will, some real strides would have been made by now. Now that we have the First Lady as the Minister of Education, let us hope to see a fundamental change in our learning institutions.

A syllabus that does not address the needs of the 21st Century is totally outdated and should be reviewed to bring on board skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity and give an opportunity to learners to become familiar with new technologies that will enable them cope with the rapidly changing work place.

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