Over the years I have thought and reflected on
Uganda’s education system with keen interest in primary education. Let me give
a highlight of this.
In 1999 there were 6 million pupils receiving primary education, compared to
only 2 million in 1986. Numbers received a boost in 1997 when free primary
education was made available for four children per family. Only some of primary
school graduates go on to take any form of secondary education. This is contingent
upon them passing their Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE).Uganda is one of East Africa's developing countries, bordered by Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, and Kenya. It occupies 236,040 square kilometres (91,140 sq mi) and has about 41.5 million people (Source: World Bank).
General Survey: Preprimary children can begin school at age of three. Most urban areas have fine preschool facilities. Preschool is very commercial, and the private sector dominates such schools. The government is concerned about the lack of regulation at this level. Fees are often seen as excessive and exclusionary. The quality of education is very uneven, as are teaching methods, facilities, and alleged violations of sound pedagogical principles of child psychology and development. The problem with the better schools is competition, which is so high for the few positions available that parents must literally enroll the child at birth to assure that the child will find a place in these preschools.
The main problem facing primary educators in Uganda is budgetary. Beyond this there is a great disparity between the education available in cities and in remote rural areas. This attracts Ugandans to cities like a magnet and is the source of many urban problems when unsuccessful students drop out and take to crime or other self-help activities to support themselves. More vocational training is being introduced into primary school curriculums in an attempt to address this problem.
Curriculum: Primary students study arithmetic, natural science, farming, health, reading, writing, music, English, religion, and physical education in grades one and two. Grades two through seven add art, crafts, language, history, geography (often of England and the United States), and cooking and domestic science for young girls. Curriculums are established by the National Curriculum Development Center (NCDC). Panels of teachers and members of examination boards, university professors, and educational inspectors review all curricula. The NCDC examines syllabi and textbooks, as well as teachers guides. They even write textbooks or recommend revisions. The Ministry of Education implements the recommendations of the NCDC. Many primary schools have libraries to encourage the habit of reading as a lifelong activity.
Teachers: Primary school teachers are very mobile, and there is a persistent shortage of such teachers. In 1979, some 16.2 percent of approved teaching positions were unfilled. In 1980 there were 38,422 primary school teachers in almost 4,500 schools. The teacher-pupil ratio was about 1:34. Most were trained in grade three teacher training colleges. This means that these teachers have at least finished secondary school before being admitted to grade two teacher training. In the past they could teach primary school if they had finished grade seven. A few unqualified teachers from the old system are still teaching but they are being phased out.
Current education system and relevance in regard to the young ones
Having given the above background of the education system in Uganda, my focus is first on the current nursery system in this country. Most often I have felt so bad looking at the toddlers on motor bikes very early in the morning 4 to 6 parked on a single bike as early 6:00am. Is this the kind of education that we admire currently in the country? Ok, then they get to class and leave as “early” as 5:00pm, hey do you know the age bracket here (2-3 years), apart from singing and playing which is also great for their development, isn’t that early morning sleep important as well to them?. Every morning from Monday to Friday they are disrupted as they take their last morning nap.
English is
the official language in Uganda yes, what about their mother tongue?. Some
parents currently even punish their kids because they spoke “vernacular” at
home. When should they learn their language? It is the reason that today these
children will grow up into adults and they cannot speak fluently and
confidently in their mother tongue. The toddlers……..
Now my upper
class boys and girls out of baby, upper and middle classes (the graduates), you
will be shocked at the rate they are pumped and handled with stuff.
One evening
at around 6:00pm, I followed pupils that had just left evening classes. Guess
what they carried huge bags approximately 5-10kgs of books.
I imagined and
compared myself to these pupils, during my primary days in the 90’s I remember
I carried about 6 to 8 books and revision seemed not to be part of me. I did it
if I must but as early as primary two they do serious revision, talk of home
works the parents are now part of homework session with lots of embarrassment
because of the kind of questions that kids currently have to answer. As a
result of the hard core questions they resort to their saviors’ the parents who
also have to google to get the answers, oh the Uganda education system!!.
And now the
school fees, the amount of money they pay currently is equivalent or more than
what University students pay for the 4 months semester and they will pay this
in three months. Because UPE seems not to be performing, affording parents will
run to these expensive private institutions. The requirements are very annoying
if I may use that word, several rolls of toilet paper, rims of paper, brooms
name them. My question is has the Government done enough to regulate levying of
these “business” schools fees or its laisevez??
In a
nutshell I have so many questions here with fewer answers and if they are not
addressed am afraid we may be headed for a tougher, too expensive and
challenging education system in Uganda. Much as it is said “If you think
education is expensive then try ignorance”, at this rate many may actually go
for ignorance.
The writer is a blogger and Computer Scientist.
