Improve UPE schools before talking of fees

President Museveni said on Tuesday the school fees paid in some Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools is to blame for the dropout of girls. The President castigated Parent Teachers Associations for asking parents to pay school fees in UPE schools.

Ideally, UPE schools are supposed to provide free education to the country’s children. And like the President said, it should be abaana bonna basomere bwerere (translated as all children should study free of charge).

But in some schools, this is not the case, especially those in urban centres. A school such as Kitante Hill School, a UPE school in Kampala, charges about Shs100,000 in school fees and demands other scholastic materials, including reams of paper and exercise books from their pupils.

This is not different from a host of other urban UPE schools across the country. And evidently, the schools whose pupils pay school fees perform better in national examination, infrastructure, pupil and teacher motivation. This exposes the reality of the problem.

Undoubtedly, UPE is a good move, especially in as far as extending decent education to the underpriviledged in the country is concerned. But because of mismanagement of funds and inspection, UPE schools have since lost many pupils to private schools which have taken a big percentage space in our education.

It is no longer news that a UPE school has not made it to the top performers list in Primary Leaving Examinations. And the recently released National Planning Authority findings indicate that the government has not adequately funded UPE schools, thus compromising quality.

A UPE school on average receives Shs10,000 per year for every child. If the school enrolment is, for instance, 200 pupils, this would on average mean Shs2 million to run a school per year. It is not possible to run a school on that amount of money a year.

This explains why many teachers in UPE schools dodge classes, the pupils leave school because of bad environment and hunger, among other problems. The vision of UPE is right, but there is need to review its implementation.

The President said if the current funding is inadequate, then more money can be allocated. Indeed, this should be the first step in redeeming the good UPE programme. The notion of free education should also be revisited and clauses such as what parents should subsidise, including meals, should be added to the programme.

There should also be a total overhaul of infrastructure in UPE schools because most of them are in a sorry state. Without a conducive environment for children to learn, merely not paying school fees may not be reason enough to keep them in school.