Education sector reforms met with mixed reactions

“They are not taken at the same pace as the primary school children. When they come to class at 8am, we play a parental role. We greet them and play with them as we prepare for oral lessons. We teach them skills of socialising, sharing, and greeting, among others,” Ms Tebitendya said, adding, “We also give them enough time to rest and feed them frequently on a balanced diet for proper growth. The matrons who take care of them in the dormitories are well trained.”

However, Mr Desmus Mutanga, the principal of St Julian Schools, expressed concern, saying while some parents have no choice due to work schedules or family issues, sending children at a tender age to boarding school deprives them of critical bonding time with their parents.

“When you look at pre-primary, you realise that we are cheating these children. They are brought to us as early as three years and they lose touch with their parents. They look at teachers as mothers and fathers,” Mr Mutanga explained.

A lost childhood

The recent report by the Education Policy Review Commission (EPRC), which recommends that children begin pre-primary education at the age of five and shortens the duration of study from three years to one, has sparked mixed reactions.

However, Mr Mutanga remains optimistic that, if implemented, these proposed changes will benefit children. He said the adjustments would allow children to enjoy ample rest, learn their mother tongue, engage more meaningfully with their peers, and start school at the appropriate age. He added: “Let us start showing them parental love at an early stage of development because when they come to school, it is all about speaking English. I support the idea of children joining kindergarten at five years and studying for one year.”

Several educationists, including the First Lady, who doubles as Education and Sports minister, Ms Janet Museveni, have on several occasions expressed their deep regret of horrible scenes of young learners trekking to school at the crack of dawn or returning home late in the evening.

The First Lady also expressed concern over learners who are picked up from home as early as 4am by school shuttles and dropped home at 8pm.

This she said had prompted her to refer the matter to the EPRC to guide the ministry on how the situation can be better. The Ministry of Education has also been advising nursery schools to stop teaching children at midday.

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics’ 2024 report indicates that more than 4.5 million children, between the ages of three and five, are enrolled in pre-primary schools.

Mr Mutanga backed the recommendation of reducing the number of years in primary schools from seven to six, holding that what is taught at lower primary is usually repeated in upper primary. Mr Godfrey Kyazze, a parent, also offered support.

“The family has to come back to a place where we allow it to be a family, where children are nurtured. They cannot be nurtured by anyone else but parents,” Mr Kyazze noted.

Scrapping

PLE Mr Filbert Baguma, the general secretary of Uganda National Teachers Union (Unatu), told Monitor thus: “In the current situation, you find a two-year-old child in a daycare centre, from daycare to baby class, middle class and then top class. Some are subjected to written exams contrary to what they should be doing. What these children need is motherly care.”

Mr Baguma described the habit of picking up children in the wee hours of the morning as torture. “You meet buses at 5am carrying children of nursery schools who are sleeping. This is torture. At that level, they would be learning how to share, live with and play with others,” he said.

He also agreed with the recommendation to scrap Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), saying some Primary Six pupils have in the past sat for PLE and excelled. His prayer is for the government to invest seven percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or 20 percent of the national budget in the education sector. Ring-fencing eight percent of the national budget to the sector doesn’t cut it per the Unatu general secretary.

Opposition Ms Comfort Akampa, the headteacher of St Julian Junior School Gayaza, is opposed to the recommendation of lowering the years of pre-primary school, saying it will render teachers jobless, and affect the school revenue while exposing more children to domestic violence.

“With the busy work schedule of most parents, schools act as a safe haven for children,” she opined.

Ms Barbra Tebitendwa, a nursery school teacher, expressed concern that one year of study may compromise the quality of education as teachers may struggle to cover the whole syllabus in a single year.

Mr Turyatemba Polycap, a Primary Seven teacher of St Julian Junior School Gayaza, is convinced that if a child is exposed to education at a tender age, he or she will adapt very fast, and love the school environment as they continue with the education cycle.

Mr Godfrey Ejuu, the head of early childhood education at Kyambogo University, told Monitor that the initial development of social skills and cognitive physical skills needs a less strenuous environment, which is offered in a natural pre-school; not a primary school.

“Child development is that the brain cell needs a lot of stimulation with less academic work. Making it so academic destructs development for children,” he said, adding, “Children at that level should not be given a written exam because that makes learning more mechanical and robotic than trying to pursue their development.”

On the issue of family bonding, Mr Ejuu said most times parents stay away from home and children are left alone, under the care of a neighbour or maids, some of whom are abusive. He further noted that the few hours that parents spend at home are spent on phones and laptops.