When will Uganda attain quality education, lifelong learning?

Literacy. Pupils with reading materials in class being guided by their teacher during the Booking Reading Day in 2018. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

Last part: In order to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 4, Uganda will have to improve the quality of teachers and national curriculum, low literacy rates, and increase the budgetary allocation to the education sector, among others, Bamuturaki Musinguzi concludes in this last instalment.

SDG 4 is about ensuring inclusive and quality education for all and promoting lifelong learning. The target is to ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy by 2030.
According to the United Nations, obtaining quality education is the foundation to improving people’s lives and sustainable development.
Major progress has been made towards increasing access to education at all levels and increasing enrolment rates in schools particularly for women and girls.

Basic literacy skills have improved tremendously, yet bolder efforts are needed to make even greater strides for achieving universal education goals. For example, the world has achieved equality in primary education between girls and boys, but few countries have achieved that target at all levels of education.
The 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PRILS) report indicates that, reading literacy levels are on the rise across the globe, giving young students a set of strong skills to serve them in their future as well as contributing to the implementation of SDGs, in particular those related to inclusive and quality education.

According to the 2016 PRILS report by the International Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement at The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) headquarters in Paris, 96 per cent of fourth graders from more than 60 education systems achieved above the international benchmark.
“An early start in reading literacy has lasting benefits, with students who had attended pre-primary school for three years or more reporting higher average scores,” UNESCO says.

It also highlights the impact of supportive home environments - with parents engaging their children in early literacy activities - and safe and well-resources learning environments with qualified teachers associated with higher achievement scores.
Furthermore, the report also shows that female students outperformed their male counterparts in 48 countries and dependent territories by an average of 19 points.
Presenting the Budget for Financial Year 2017/18 to Parliament on June 14, 2018, Finance minister Matia Kasaija reported that during the year, the universalisation of education has continued with primary school enrolment increasing to 8.8 million pupils in 2016 compared to 8.1 million in 2011.

The completion rate at primary education improved to 61.6 per cent in 2016 compared to 54 per cent in 2010. Secondary school enrolment increased to 1.4 million students in 2016 from 1.3 million in 2011. The completion rate at O-Level secondary improved marginally to 40 per cent in 2015 from 39 per cent in 2010.
According to the National Population and Housing Census 2014, about 87 per cent of the boys and girls of primary school going age (six-12 years) were attending school. About 1 in every 10 children of primary school going age had never been school. In addition 22 per cent of secondary school age (13-18) students had already left school.

Fifty eight per cent of the population aged six years and above have attained primary education, according the 2014 census report.

Reading. Pupils at Abok Primary School, Oyam District, read a book by the roadside last year . PHOTO BY BILL OKETCH


There is almost balance between girls and boys who have completed primary education indicating that gender parity has been achieved at this level.
The share of girls who had completed the Advanced level of education is lower than the share of boys. The proportion of the population with tertiary education increased from three per cent in 2002 to 4.3 per cent in 2014. According to the National Population and Housing Census 2014, literacy is the ability for one to read with understanding and to write a simple sentence meaningfully in any language. Literacy leads to an increase in opportunities for an individual.

At national level, about 72 per cent of the population were literate, higher than about 70 per cent in 2002. Literacy among females was lower (68 per cent) than for males (77 per cent). Literacy rates were higher in urban areas than rural areas.
There has been a steady increase in the literacy rates from 54 per cent 1991 to about 72 per cent in 2014. The male literacy rate has been persistently higher than that of their female counterparts over the three census periods, the 2014 census report adds.

“…despite this progress, challenges in education include declining proficiency in literacy and numeracy; skill gaps, infrastructure deficits, teachers’ absenteeism and cases of ‘ghost’ pupils/students that distort budgeting for and release of capitation grant…,” Minister Kasaija observed.
The United Nations highlights the following challenges; enrolment in primary education in developing countries has reached 91 per cent but 57 million children remain out of school; more than half of children that have not enrolled in school live in sub-Saharan Africa; an estimated 50 per cent of out-of-school children of primary school age live in conflict-affected areas; and 103 million youth worldwide lack basic literacy skills, and more than 60 per cent of them are women.

If we are to go by the findings of a 2015 assessment by Uwezo at Twaweza, Uganda is not on track to meet the targets set under the Education for All Goals (EFA).
According to the Uwezo Uganda report titled “Are our Children Learning? The Status of Education in Uganda in 2015,” despite marked progress in increasing access to education in recent years, Uganda has not fully met its commitments under EFA. And the improved national average figures conceal stark contrasts between the different districts and wealth classes of Uganda.

Policy and resource focus
“In addition,” according to the report, “there has been an intensive policy and resource focus on primary education at the expense of early childhood development, adult literacy and vocational and other training for young people. Even in primary education, the high investment has not translated into learning outcomes; too many children in Primary 3 to 7 are unable to complete Primary 2 level work.”
The fifth Uwezo assessment found that 6 out of 10 pupils in Primary Three (59 per cent) have attended two or more years of early childhood development education.

According to the Uwezo report, enrolment in primary school is high. Only 4 per cent of children have never been enrolled in school.
However, the national average conceals stark inequalities: many children have never been enrolled in school in Kotido (61 per cent), Nakapiriprit (35 per cent), and Moroto (27 per cent).
Another major issue identified by the Uwezo data is the slow rate of progression through primary school. Many children are more than two years too old for their grade and the problem gets worse among older children. At age eight, 31 per cent of pupils are two or more years too old for their grade and at age 13, 82 per cent of pupils are two or more years too old for the grade they are in.

According to the Uwezo data, the learning outcomes are as follows; in eastern, 21 per cent of Primary Three to Seven pupils are able to read a Primary Two story and do Primary Two level division, compared to 41 per cent in central.
In private schools, 31 per cent of children can read a Primary Two story (in English) and 36 per cent can do Primary Two division.
In government schools 12 per cent have basic English literacy skills and 23 per cent have basic numeracy skills; and girls and boys tend to perform similarly in literacy and numeracy across all grade levels.

Despite these contrasts, the Uwezo data shows that the national picture is also troubling, among pupils in Primary Three to Seven, just three out of 10 (32 per cent) can read a Primary Two story and do Primary Two division; among pupils in Primary Three, only 13 per cent have Primary Two level English literacy and numeracy skills.
Among pupils in Primary Seven, 74 per cent have Primary Two English literacy and numeracy skills. In addition, 10 per cent of pupils in Primary Three can read a Primary Two level local language story and in Primary Seven, the figure is 31 per cent.

The 2015 Uwezo data show that 64 per cent of mothers have primary education or below, while 24 per cent of mothers have no education at all. Given these figures and the low availability of adult literacy programmes, the data indicate that the Education for All Goals on adult literacy and lifelong learning are not being met.
In addition, the data point to a relationship between mothers’ and their children’s literacy; half of children whose mothers can read a Primary Two level story can read the same story whereas 36 per cent of children whose mothers cannot read the story can themselves read it.
Significant inequalities exist in terms of access to education and learning outcomes.

Uwezo data show that children in erastern region have the highest pupil to teacher ratios (62 pupils per teacher, compared to 41 per teacher in western and central), and pupil to classroom ratios (104 pupils per classroom compared to 64 per classroom in Western). The fifth learning assessment also found that 3.5 per cent of children in school have problems with vision in one or both eyes.
According to Twaweza’s Sauti za Wananchi 2017 survey, three in four children aged six to 16 (74 per cent) are current primary school pupils, most in government schools (54 per cent). One in 10 of this age group are not attending any school.

The most referenced school associated problem is distance, cited by one in five parents (19 per cent) followed by excessive school contributions (12 per cent).
However, more parents (25 per cent) reference teaching issues than any other, when asked about the main problem affecting their child or children’s schooling: one in ten (11 per cent) mention a shortage of teachers and a similar number (9 per cent) cite the poor standard of teaching. A further one in twenty (5 per cent) mention teacher absenteeism.

Similarly, in the Sauti za Wananchi 2017 survey, shortages of facilities and teaching supplies are named by many (24 per cent): inadequate books and teaching tools (9 per cent), inadequate space (8 per cent), and a lack of water and/or electricity (7 per cent).
Those in urban areas are slightly more likely to cite school contributions (14 per cent) and space (10 per cent) as problems, and less likely to cite a shortage of teachers (6 per cent), but distance is the top problem in both urban (18 per cent) and rural (20 per cent) areas.

Facility. The National Curriculum Development Centre in Kyambogo, Kampala. Photo by Bamuturaki Musinguzi

Sauti za Wananchi is a nationally-representative, high-frequency mobile phone panel survey.
For this brief, data were collected from 2,000 respondents in the baseline survey of the Sauti za Wananchi panel, conducted in August and September 2017. The brief highlights nine facts about Ugandan citizens’ experiences of education, health and water services.
The education and sports sector was allocated Ushs2.5 trillion in the Financial Year 2017/18, representing about 11 per cent share of the national budget.
This allocation is much lower than the 26 per cent of the national budget, as recommended by the United Nations for the education sector.

Strategic bottlenecks
The Education and Sports Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) 2017-2020 points out key strategic bottlenecks that have to be overcome such as inadequate school inspection which creates room for ghost pupils, teachers and even ghost schools and/or absenteeism of both teachers and learners.
According to ESSP 2017-2010, the Universal Primary and Secondary Education Programmes have covered the larger part of inclusivity, equitability, and lifelong learning for all. “The one part that we now must strive to address is the “quality” aspect; which if achieved; we will have fulfilled the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 4,” the ministry of education says.

“We are steadily towing the line to achieve SDG Four because government has done a lot to support the development of instructional materials, sensitisation and admissions. So, inclusivity is being met in terms of accessibility and curriculum materials for all types of learners,” the curriculum, creative art, and fine art specialist, at the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), Christopher Kagolo Muganga told Daily Monitor.

According to ESSP 2017-2010, the establishment of new schools and training institutions at all levels, construction of new classroom blocks, workshops, renovation and expansion of existing facilities resulted into improvements in the pupil classroom ratio from 72:1 in 2007 to 63:1 in 2015.
According to ESSP 2017-2020, the planned outputs and outcomes are estimated to cost approximately Ushs17.9 billion, of which the available Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) allocation is Ushs7.7 billion (43 per cent) and Ushs10.4 billion (57 per cent) is the funding gap. The wage bill takes over Ushs4.9 billion (63 per cent) of the allocated MTEF, leaving only 37 per cent for operations of the sector.

“The end of the period for achieving the Education for All Goals offers an opportunity for us to take stock and reflect on what our education system is and isn’t delivering. Budgets for education have been dropping in real terms for a number of years. It is also clear that primary education has been prioritised at the expense of other aspects of the education system,” the manager of Uwezo Uganda at Twaweza, Dr Mary Goretti Nakabugo, said.

“And even in primary education, learning outcomes are low and inequitable. We need to make primary education more efficient and effective, increase government’s role in the provision of early childhood development and education, and expand adult literacy and youth training programmes. Otherwise we are unlikely to be able to achieve our vision for a prosperous and stable Uganda,” Dr Nakabugo adds.
“Education will not deliver its full potential to catapult the world forward unless participation rates dramatically improve, learning becomes a lifelong pursuit and education systems fully embrace sustainable development,” UNESCO notes in its Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2016.

The 2016 gem report
Remarkable gaps . The 2016 GEM report emphasizes the remarkable gaps between where the world stands today on education and where it has promised to arrive as of 2030. The gaps in educational attainment between rich and poor, within and between countries, are simply appalling. In many poor countries, poor children face nearly insurmountable obstacles under current conditions. They lack books at home; have no opportunity for pre-primary school; and enter facilities without electricity, water, hygiene, qualified teachers, textbooks and the other appurtenances of a basic education, much less a quality education.

The 2016 GEM report notes that there is an urgent need for greater headway in education. On current trends, the world will achieve universal primary education in 2042, universal lower secondary education in 2059 and universal upper secondary education in 2084. This means the world would be half a century late for the 2030 SDG deadline.