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Concern as 1 million children drop out of school before PLE
What you need to know:
- Experts say government’s free education policy has failed to arrest the situation.
In 1997, the government introduced the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme, with a view to increasing access to education by children from poor families. As a result, enrolment increased by about four-fold.
Later, the government introduced the Universal Secondary Education (USE) programme in 2007 to mitigate the high school dropout of learners due to high fees.
However, despite these interventions, high school dropouts continue year-in, year-out.
According to education experts, some of the key drivers to this challenge include; high cost of education, poor menstrual hygiene, lack of feeding programmes in schools and cultural issues, among others.
Mr Ssempala Kigozi Ssajjalyabene, a former MP for Makindye Ssabagabo Municipality, who doubles as the principal of Aidan College-Ndejje, said on average, annually, about 1.9 million children enrol in Primary One, but only 800,000 of them go all the way to sit Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE).
This means that about 1.1 million learners drop out of school along the way. He further explained that between Primary Seven and Senior Four, the country has never recorded more than 350,000 candidates.
“This means that out of about 800,000 candidates who sit for PLE, only 350,000 complete Senior Four and it is worse at A-level where we do not record more than 150,000 candidates sitting for final examinations,” Mr Ssempala said.
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According to Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb), 832,654 candidates from 14,691 centres (schools) registered for PLE in 2022 compared to 749,761 in 2020. Of this number, 583,768 (70.1 percent) from 11,306 centres were Universal Primary Education (UPE) beneficiaries, and 248,982 (29.9 percent) of the candidates were non-UPE.
In addition, a total of 349,455 candidates - 175,923 (50.3 percent) males, and 173,522 (49.7 percent) females - sat for the 2022 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE).
At Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE), the total candidature stood at 97,000.
Mr Ssempala also attributed the high drop out to poverty and the current high cost of education.
Pay scale
Recent reports indicate that on average, some private and government aided-schools charge between Shs1.5m and Shs3m per term. Although the government Schools Fees Regulation Policy, which is still being considered, sets the minimum and maximum schools fees and requirements all schools should follow, the proposal has met resistance from the proprietor’s private schools citing the high school operational costs.
Ms Ketty Lamaro, the permanent secretary of the Education ministry, admitted that the high cost of education is the main factor pushing learners out of school.
“There are many factors leading to school dropout but a study we did showed that the major cause rotates around the issue of the cost of education. School fees is still high,” she said.
Ms Lamaro said the government was working out strategies to address school dropout challenge.
She revealed that Cabinet had tasked her ministry to establish a unit cost that will be able to keep learners in school.
Ms Lamaro also noted that Cabinet would make its pronouncement on the pending School Fees Policy after her ministry has presented to the former, the required unit cost per learner as assigned by the President.
Ms Josephine Bebona, the Woman MP for Bundibugyo District, said issues of school feeding and menstrual hygiene should also be looked into as they equality contribute to school dropout.
While presenting their views to the Education Review Commission in Kampala last month, a team from the National Planning Authority (NPA), recommended that government introduces a school feeding programme in primary schools at a daily unit cost of Shs1,220, saying this will contribute to increased enrollment and retention of learners.
