Review of education policy in uganda

Review of Education Policy in Uganda
Working Paper Submitted by Ojijo™ to the Young Leaders Think Tank for Policy Alternatives-Uganda, Feb, 2012

Executive Summary
This paper looks at the content of Uganda government education policy and critiques the extent to which it has
enabled the learner to acquire skills and value systems necessary to create solutions for present and future
problems, and ultimately, live happy lives. The paper analyses the full scope of education sector, starting from pre-
primary and primary, through secondary, university, vocational and professional education, to job training and
adult education policies.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 2
BACKGROUND................................................................................................................................ 2
SCOPE OF REPORT........................................................................................................................ 2
METHODOLOGY & OBJECTIVES ..................................................................................................... 2
ORGANIZATION .............................................................................................................................. 2
LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATION POLICIES ................................................ 3
THE 1995 CONSTITUTION (AS AMENDED) ...................................................................................... 3
OTHER ACTS OF PARLIAMENT ....................................................................................................... 3
ANALYSIS & CRITIQUE OF THE EDUCATION POLICIES OF UGANDA ................ 5
PRE-INDEPENDENT (COLONIALIST) EDUCATION POLICIES ............................................................. 5
POST INDEPENDENT, PRE-NRM EDUCATION POLICIES ................................................................. 6
NRM-ERA EDUCATION POLICIES................................................................................................... 6
ALTERATIVE POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS (THEMATIC) ................................ 11
SCOPE ......................................................................................................................................... 11
EQUITY IN ACCESS ...................................................................................................................... 12
INFRASTRUCTURE ........................................................................................................................ 13
CONTENT QUALITY ...................................................................................................................... 13
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................... 13
REFERENCES & SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHIES ......................................................... 15

™
Ojijo is a bunch of solutions from Homa-Bay County, Kenya.
Ojijo is AHA Volunteer; public speaker & trainer on financial literacy, personal (talent & career) development & political leadership; lawyer & lecturer on
legal rhetoric, e-commerce & e-governance law; performance poet; social entrepreneur & investor; and author of 19 books on religion, sexuality, poetry,
politics, economics, medicine, law, history, entrepreneurship, network marketing, retirement planning, languages (Swahili & Luo), financial literacy, investing
and personal (talent & career) development. Ojijo is the board chairman of Ojijo Foundation, which supports volunteerism (www.ahainitiative.net); financial
literacy & personal (talent & career) development (www.informedinvestors.biz); public speaking & political leadership training
(www.allpublicspeakers.com); open religion (www.openreligion.org); and indigenous cultures (www.kycf.org).

Review of Education Policy in Uganda! Ojijo

Introduction

BACKGROUND

Education is the process of imparting/acquiring skills and value systems to be able to provide
solution to present and future challenges for the purposes of living a happy life. Education
policy, on the other hand, refers to the official government statements and commitment on the
provision of education, both as a private and public good. The system of education in Uganda
has a structure of 7 years of primary education, 6 years of secondary education (divided into 4
years of lower secondary and 2 years of upper secondary school), and 3 to 5 years of post-
secondary education. The government has addressed the challenges facing the education
sector through commissions, committees and Taskforces.

SCOPE OF REPORT

This paper analyses and critiques the Uganda government policy on education by sector of
education, namely, kindergarten, or early childhood education/development; primary
education; secondary education; senior secondary education; university education; and
graduate/research education. The analysis will also cover professional certification courses
for post graduate diplomas, adult education and vocational educational policies. This policy
analysis will seek to state the objectives of the government policies with regard to particular
sectors, (where there is such policy), and the extent to which the objectives have been met.

METHODOLOGY & OBJECTIVES

The report was conducted through primary data collection from key informants, including
Prof. Senteza Kajubi, the author of the 1987 Senteza Kajubi Report on Education in Uganda;
the Prof. (Nkumba); Prof. Vensayious (Makerere); Prof. (Higher Education); Director,
Curriculum Development Centre; and Commissioner of Education at ministry of education.
The report also benefited from extensive literature review from secondary and primary
(government) sources. Both the interviews, which were open ended, and the literature review,

2 Review of Education Policy in Uganda. Ojijo
were thematic, seeking information on the history and development of education policies in
Uganda; the quality, character and effectiveness of the various policies; and the possible
recommendations to the policies on education, both formative, and substantial.

ORGANIZATION

This first section of the report is the introduction. The second part will cover the background
of education policies in Uganda, including the various processes that have led to the
development of current policies and the objectives that were targeted. The third section will
be the particular policy analysis and critique. The fourth and final section will be the
recommendations from the particular analysis.
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Legal Framework of Education Policies

Education policies and training in Uganda is governed by the constitutions directive
principles and, statutes including Education Act and other related Acts of Parliament,
including University Act, Tertiary institutions Act various other Acts and Charters for
universities.

THE 1995 CONSTITUTION (AS AMENDED)

The 1995 Constitution (as amendend), is the grundnorm, and hence, the source of all legal
authority. The 1995 constitution posits education as a right, specifying that each child is
entitled to basic education, which is a shared responsibility of the state and the child‟s
parents.

The constitution however needs to take the wording of the ANC constitution and provide for
actionable rights and duties, so that the government can be put to task to provide education,
without relying on the defense of poor social-economic status.

OTHER ACTS OF PARLIAMENT

¥ Children’s Act

The children’s act provides that all children must be educated. It tasks the state to provide resources,
and obliges the parents to make sure the children attend school.

There should be a clear duty on the government to ensure that classes are limited to the UN ration of
1:40, so as to ensure quality, and to move from ‘bonna basome’, to quality education provision.

¥ University Act

The university act is the overall law that governs provision of university education in the country. It
provides for guidelines on operations of universities. Together with the charters of universities, the

universities act establishes rights, duties and responsibilities for all stakeholders in the higher
educations sector.

There should be a clear provision that all universities offer research unit which is compulsory. Further,
all unites, apart from business courses, need to offer a training course in entrepreneurship and
transferable skills development, to open the ‘eyes’ of graduates to take advantage of and exploit
opportunities in the environment, hence building creativity, and ultimately fighting unemployment.

¥ Tertiary Institutions Act

The act establishes the regulatory framework for tertiary institutions.

There should be a clear delimitation of tertiary institutions being transformed into university colleges,
or universities.

¥ BITVET Act
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This is an innovative piece of legislation that promotes vocational education in the country. Of note, is
that the act establishes a portal, and regional nodes for provision of vocational training.


¥ Education Act
The education act provides, for inter alia, the licensing of education institutions, and
regulation of content.

There should be an amendment to make it illegal to acquire and transform one type of
academic institution, especially tertiary institutions, into a university college, since this
reduces access opportunities.

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Analysis & Critique of the Education Policies of Uganda

PRE-INDEPENDENT (COLONIALIST) EDUCATION POLICIES

During the pre- independence period, Uganda‟s education policy was controlled by the
British Colonial Government and so was the curriculum. The objectives of the curriculum did
not reflect the aspirations of ordinary Ugandans since they were mainly designed to serve the
interests of the British colonial Government.

The Catholic and Protestant missionaries were sent to Uganda, like anywhere else they went,
by their respective societies to preach Christianity to, and spread it among the different
peoples of the country. One of the ways which these missionaries conceived to be most
effective was to make sure that the converts could refresh their religious knowledge in their
homes by reading the bible and other simple books.

Between 1900 and 1924, the Missionaries established schools and taught children and adults
with no, or little, Protectorate Government financial assistance. They designed their own
school curriculum to suit their missionary purposes.

Between 1877 and 1879, children and adults were taught religion, reading, writing and
arithmetic. The missionaries' houses and compounds formed the initial formal schools.

In 1901, a Catholic chief, Stanislaus Mugwanya, requested the missionaries to start a school
that would mainly teach English. It was this that made the missionaries think of offering a
form of education designed to help build character of pupils and prepare them for the
changing world in which they lived.

Therefore, between 1902 and 1906, seven boarding schools were opened to serve this purpose.
The majority of these schools were attended mainly by children of chiefs and influential
families who, it was assumed, would sooner or later hold positions of responsibility in the
society.

The curriculum consisted of religion, reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar,
geography, mathematics, music and games.

Commissioned Groups to Review Education (1924-1962)

During this period, the Protectorate Government appointed five different commissioned
groups of educationists and others to review the education situation in Uganda and make
recommendations.

The following were the five Commissions:-

1. The Phelps - Stockes Commission (1924): The Commission found out that the education
offered in Uganda by the missionaries was too literary. The educational activities in
the schools were not related to the community needs of the people. Amongthe
essential components missing from the curriculum were agriculture, health, care by
women, and hygiene. It led to the Policy on Vocational Studies, whereby in 1926,
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there was a strong view that the educational system for Ugandans should, in addition
to academic subjects, provide vocational education and prepare the majority of the
pupils to live well in the villages.


2. The Earl de la Warr Committee (1935) mainly examined the state of Makerere College
and its source of inputs. Among its other recommendations were to improve and
expand primary education and to develop education for girls.
3. The Thomas Education Committee (1940) dwelt on the administration and financing of
education.
4. The de Bunsen Commission (1952) looked into teacher education and the educational
structure.
5. The Binns Study Group (1957) was sent to East Africa towards the period of
granting independence to the colonies in order to study and recommend on how to:

A critique of the ideological foundations of African education is advanced by Mazrui
(1978:13); he regards neo-colonial cultural dependency as a threat to African psychological
autonomy and sovereignty and reports that: “Very few educated Africans are even aware that
they are also in cultural bondage. All educated Africans … are still cultural captives of the
West.”

The policy of all colonial education was “subordination of Africans”, as they did not provide
education according to European standards, rather, they served to perpetuate colonial
domination.” (Victor Uchendu,1979:3). There was a clear neglect of African culture and
history by mission schools, causing Africans to lose self-respect and “love for our own race”,
leading to what Ngugi wa Thiongo called “cultural genocide” perpetuated intellectual
dependency on the West. (Ngugi, 1972)

POST INDEPENDENT, PRE-NRM EDUCATION POLICIES

Prof Edgar Castle‟s Education Commission

After Uganda gained independence in 1962, the first step the new government took was to
formulate post independence Education Policy that would address the needs of a free
Uganda. In 1963, the then Prime Minister, Dr. Milton Obote, instituted the Prof Edgar Castle
1963 Uganda Education Commission to examine the content and structure of education in
Uganda and consider how it could be improved and adopted to the needs of Uganda . This
was due to the realization that the pre-existent education system was not geared towards the

objects of producing skilled Africans for the African economy, but rather, skilled workers for
the colonial industries. Since 1963, education policy in Uganda was mainly guided by the
Castle Commission report up to the inception of the 1922 Government White Paper, which
laid a strong emphasis

A strong emphasis on the quality of education for all people; argued for raising standards of
agriculture; technical education; expansion of girls‟ education; provision of adult education;
training teachers for especially primary education; and Africanisation of content of education
curriculum.

NRM-ERA EDUCATION POLICIES

In 1986, the post-conflict government, the physical infrastructure had deteriorated with nearly
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twenty years of civil strife. A large percentage of the primary classes met in temporary
structures; permanent structures had received little or maintenance for nearly two decades.
Text books, instructional materials were almost nonexistent in most schools, making teaching


and learning extremely difficult. There were few trained teachers, most having fled the
country, and the curriculum content needed to be changed drastically.

¥ Education Policy Review Commission (Prof Senteza Kajubi Commission)

The NRM‟s first bold move to enhance education was to establish an education commission,
chaired by the reknowned educationist, Prof. Senteza William Kajubi, to provide solutions to
education sector. The findings led to the 1992 White Paper on Education, which was the basis
of UPE, USE and Education for All policy. The commission also recommended inclusion of
civic studies, vocational skills and financial management practice (financial literacy) among
other courses on the school curriculum.

The commission defended universalisation of primary education thus:

“Only when every child is enrolled at the right age and does not leave school without completing the
full cycle of primary education it would be possible to ensure that all citizens have the basic education
needed for living a full live. Also it will help in achieving a transformation of society leading to greater
unity among the people, higher moral standards and an accelerated growth of economy.”

¥ Primary Education Reform Programme (PERP)

In 1991, government designed the Primary Education Reform Programme (PERP) to address
issues of declining quality of basic education. This Programme was launched in 1993 and it
focussed on three central issues of increasing access to quality learning opportunities;
improving school management and instructional quality; and strengthening planning,
management and implementation. In order to implement the PERP, government formulated
Primary Education Teacher Development Programme (PETDP) to spear head the Primary
Education Reform Programme.

¥ 1992 Government White Paper on Education

The 1992 Government White Paper on Education is the basis of official policy on the purpose
and programmes of education. Its aims are to promote citizenship; moral, ethical and spiritual
values; promote scientific, technical and cultural knowledge, skills and attitudes; eradicate
illiteracy and equip individuals with basic skills and knowledge and with the ability to
“contribute to the building of an integrated, self-sustaining and independent national
economy”. The White Paper accepted the major recommendations of EPRC.

¥ Policy of Education as a Human Right
As a product of the White Paper, in Uganda, education is a constitutional right enshrined in
the constitution of the republic of Uganda, articles 30 makes educations for children a human
right, and article 34 states that all children are entitled to basic education by the state and
parents.

¥ Equitable Access Policy
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The key policy thrust in the educational sector for both rural and urban Uganda includes
providing equitable access to quality and affordable education to all Ugandans, propelling the


nation towards achieving the goals of Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP), meeting
commitments to achieve Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) by 2015, providing relevant education and enhancing efficiency, and strengthening
partnerships in the education sector. More resources have been allocated to lower educational
public sector through the UPE programme in order to enhance equity of access at that level
between boys and girls (MoSE 1998 b).

¥ Affirmative Action Policy
This equitable access policy has led to the affirmative action policy, supporting more women
enrolment, by reducing cutoff points for entry to university by women, disabled, and
challenged persons, including students from hardship areas, mainly northern Uganda.

¥ Universal Primary Education (UPE)
The Universal Primary Education (UPE) was launched in 1997 following recommendations of
the Education Policy Review Commission (EPRC, 1989), and the subsequent relevant
stipulations of the GoU White Paper (1992) and the development of children‟s Statute (1996).
The policy advocates for the redistribution of resources vis-a-vis reforming the educational
sector. More resources have been allocated to lower educational public sector through the
UPE programme in order to enhance equity of access at that level between boys and girls
(MoSE 1998 b).

¥ Education For All (EFA) Policy
This was an enviable move by the government to ensure that everyone, child and adult alike,
benefits from the timeless and universal advantages of education. However, lack of clear
monitoring of performance, lack of infrastructure, and the then persistent LRA insurgency in
Northen Uganda greatly impaired the realization of the mission. Uganda‟s social diversity has
brought a collateral concern for preservation of cultural heritage, social justice, human
dignity, political equality and multicultural education. To this end, the curriculum has
incorporated cultural studies, but this is still limited, and students are not studying such

things as fables, proverbs, idioms and rhetoric in traditions. Cultivation of oral and written
fluency in local African languages is important in building self-esteem, preserving culture,
and advancing the literary output and identity of African peoples. In addition to the MDGs,
Uganda is also committed to meeting the Education for all (EFA) goals (set in Jomtien in 1990
and reaffirmed in Dakar in 2000). The current Government efforts in education sector,
especially the launching of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) policy are, by and large,
premised on the recommendation of the Government White Paper on Education of 1992, but
also focus towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for
All (EFA) goals.

¥ Community & Adult Education Policy

Under the white paper, and further bifurcated by the access to all commitment, the
government of Uganda has established a community and adult education policy, which is
implemented through classes that teach literacy in communities, and also through
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professional courses in universities to train and equip adult educators.


¥ Policy of Decentralization Of Education Service Provision

Uganda implemented the policy of decentralization, under which policy; the central
government has channeled public service. Under the local Government Act of 1997, nursery,
primary schools, special schools and technical schools fall under the administration and
management of District Councils. Each district has the authority to formulate, approve, and
execute its own development plan. Registration for UPE children, distribution of textbooks
and monthly remittances for schools from central government are all channeled through the
district Administration officer. Decentralisation has brought the schools closer to the
administrative units above them and therefore potentially could be more responsive.

¥ Policy of Vocationalisation of Education

Given the high drop out rates, and the fact that informal economy contributes in great margin
to the development of the economy, on top of other factors such as the high unemployment,
and the lack of job skills, the governments since pre-independence have had vocationalisation
as a major tool of advancing education. However, it is the NRM government that officially
formalized the system through the statutes, and a celar policy on vocational institutions. To
this end, the vocational education training is provided in all regions, though the accessibility
is lowered.

¥ Policy Of Liberalization Of Educations Sector

One major recommendation of Prof. Kajubi Commission was the need for opening of the
space for education service provision to seal the gap created by the insurgency and civil war
vacuum, and hence, as a result, the government opened provision of education, and has since
seen the chartering of over 30 universities, and countless other initiatives, by the public,
private, civil society sectors, and cross-partnerships amongst and between sectors. Higher
education especially tertiary education is increasingly becoming liberalized, which in fact

means privatized. All these have led to Uganda being referred to as „regional social/education
capital‟, by providing home to the largest number of foreign students in the region, than any
other eastern African country.

¥ The Education Sector Strategy Plan (ESSP)

The ESSP commit the government to assuring universal access to primary education as the
highest priority, points to the removal of financial impediments and pay particular attention
to gender and regional equity. Putting the plan into practice was envisaged through shared
contributions by the public and private sector, by the household and community. The ESSP of
Uganda‟s Ministry of Education and Sports (MoSE) covers the fiscal years 2004/5 to 2014/5,
and it succeeds the Education Strategic Investment Plan (ESIP of1998-2003.
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¥ Policy on Regular Curriculum Revision


Curriculum revision provides another measure of post-colonial educational reconstruction in
Uganda and this import cannot be more explicit with the creation of a national curriculum
development centre. The new NRM government has promoted policy of africanisation of
education content, through africanised textbooks. Innovative community-based education
focuses on collective farming, hygiene, literacy and political education. The country‟s mainly
agricultural economy is served by school-based farm programs that aim to reduce the rural-
urban social division; in addition, these programs tried to build acceptance of the dignity of
manual work. This emphasis has expanded at the secondary level with agricultural,
commercial, industrial and social service courses of study. Such vocationalisation reflects the
concern for life adjustment found in traditional African education. Curriculum development
in the 1990s has addressed several problem areas affecting Uganda‟s well-being and unity;
these include environmental education, population and family life, multi-cultural education
and education for peace. However, the system formal education system is still rigid, test-
based and competitive, rather than flexible, cooperative and research based. Curriculum
review has been institutionalized through the National Curriculum Development
Centre(NCDC)

¥ Education Language Policy

Since independence, education language policy after independence has been marked by very
gradual Africanisation. Until recently in Uganda, English has been used as the only medium
of instruction in primary, secondary, tertiary and adult education. Therefore, schools in the
pre- and early post-independence era followed a „straight for English‟ policy. However,
British colonial policy had encouraged mother tongue instruction, especially in early primary
grades. Mother tongue or the dominant local area language is used for teaching in pre-
primary and primary grades 1 to 3 while English is taught as a subject.

¥ Job Training /Continuing Professional Development Policy

The government has a policy for continuing professional development, but this is partial and
only applicable to certain professions, mainly law and medicine. Other professional courses
like accountancy, architecture, etc, do not have these legal requirements. Further, continuing
career development is not just limited to professional courses, and there is need to have
incentives for employees, to ensure that staffs attend refresher courses to ensure they are
better equipped to address to the dynamic and continually challenges of a changing economic
situation of Uganda and the world.

¥ Implementation of Policies

Development of education sector has been guided by the first Education Sector Investment
Plan (ESIP-I) 1998-2003 and the second Education Sector Investment Plan (ESIP-II) 2004-2015.
The Education Sector Strategic plan (ESSP) for the fiscal years 2004-2015 is set to succeed the
ESIP in two ways.
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Alterative Policy Recommendations (Thematic)

SCOPE

¥ Pre-Primary Education/Early Childhood Development

This is the age (between 3-6 years) where talent is best identified and development begins
(Ojijo, 2011). However, the current policy framework does not provide for a comprehensive
talent identification and development program, including a talent test, amongst other
strategies.

¥ Primary Education

The policy on primary education is about access to all, and the government has over and
again stressed that the goal is to get everyone to class, and then handle quality issues later.
However, it is now evident that the primary education system is a pitfall for children, causing
massive future disillusionment, as the content is skewed, attention is lacking, and
infrastructure, both in terms of physical facilities, and teachers, is thinly stretched to
maximum.

¥ Secondary Education/Senior Secondary Education

The level of secondary education is where most students identify their career goals, and start
to specialize for future professions. However, the current system still burdens the student
with very many subjects, confusing arts with sciences, and hence limiting chances of
specializing, and ultimately producing a jack of all trades, and specialist in none. The new
economy needs specialization, as a factor of enhancing efficiency (Adam Smith, 1730). The
policy shift should move towards intensive career guidance, followed by limited subject
choices for the purposes of specialization.

¥ University Education

The current policy of university education is lacking in practical skills and transferable skills
formation, on top of value based content. The university student graduate today sits at home,
waiting to be employed, and when he is lucky to be employed, he lacks practical skills to
supplement his theories, and where he has the practical skills, he lacks the transferable skills
exemplified by letter writing, effective communication and interpersonal skills.

The inability of the graduate to create a job is explained by both attitude, and also lack of
skills. Very few courses, notably medicine, and social work, demand a compulsory internship
placement, even though there is a government agency for the industrial placements. Further,
there lacks incentives by the government to companies to absorb interns, through tax waivers,
etc. also, the students lack creative skills partly due to lack of methodological training in
transferable skills and personal development, and partly due to lack of research skills, since
research, though being the only true way to generate new knowledge, is not compulsory, but
an elective subject. It is important that research is made a compulsory subject. Further, every
course unit should have a compulsory entrepreneurship module, to prepare students to
market their skills, and hence transform their skills to cash.
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¥ Graduate Research Studies

A quick look at graduate research curriculum will reveal a repetition of content. Indeed, in
most law schools, to take an example, graduate students take course units with under
graduate students, and instead of specializing in graduate studies, the courses are generic.
Further, the period of mastering is two years, as opposed to international one year periods,
which makes education pursuits long and unattractive.

¥ Professional Certification Courses

Currently, careers options of law, medicine, architecture, accountancy, and related financial
services, offers a regulatory regime for compulsory professional certification, mainly due to
the fiduciary duties held by the professionals to their clients. This is progressive, but for the
fact that the monopolization of legal professional training, as opposed to accountancy and
medicine, leads to crammed classes, and lack of personal attention. There is need to
decentralize examination of law graduates, and to remove the cap on admissions, so that all
lawyers who qualify should attend and be released to the market, where due to competition,
they will then become creative and specialize.

¥ Vocational Training

The government has done tremendous work with vocational institutions, under the statute,
and previously through community based institutes. However, the policy of transforming
vocational and technical institutes to university colleges and universities ultimately reduces
the infrastructures for vocational studies, and ought to be halted. Institutions willing to be
universities should start as such, and work through the process, so that the youth who fail to
make it to universities, or who do not wish to go to universities, are not deprived of access to
institutions for vocational training.

¥ Adult Education

Uganda seems to be guided by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere‟s Adult Education „Declaration of

Dar es Salaam‟ in which he wrote: “Adult education is anything which enlarges men‟s
understanding, activates them, helps them to make their own decisions and to implement those
decisions for themselves.”

Of special note however, is the gap in training adults about important aspects of financial
management, as was proscribed by the Prof. Kajubi Commission. This area, also referred to as
financial literacy, is an important segment for adults, especially for planning for their old age.

¥ Job Training

Apart from the professional careers of law and medicine, there is not mandatory requirement
for continual job training and improvement. This is a clawback since the value of an
employees contribution, and hence his income, is equivalent to his knowledgebase, and where
the employee does not improve, then his contribution to the market, and workplace, becomes
redundant. There is need for an incentive regime, backed by legal and regulatory provisions,
for require the continual improvement through job training. Companies offering such
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programs should benefit from tax incentives, and other privileges.

EQUITY IN ACCESS


Until the early 1990s the education policy was fraught with gender disparities in enrolment,
dropout, performance and general attainment. (Kikampikaho and Kwesiga,2002). The
development of gender equity is another case of transformative policy. This innovation
remains far short of the goal of gender parity. In traditional African education, boys and girls
were segregated with different curricula that prepared youth for their divergent life goals.
This transition has met with cultural resistance and remains controversial; nevertheless, the
evidence of added value that female education brings to child-rearing, health, family
wellbeing, economic life and community makes a compelling case for gender equalisation in
African educational reconstruction. (Tripp and Kwesiga, 2002)

Pre-school education, when available, is urban and elitist. Special education is not
institutionalized, nearly non-existent in certain areas. In many areas, rural schools are fewer,
more remote, poorly equipped and understaffed. Access to basic education is reduced due to
emphasis on the secondary/tertiary levels; nevertheless, in 1994 only 30% of primary school
graduates found places in secondary schools, and this is less than 5% of the school-age
population.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Inadequate facilities and instructional resources affect most African countries, including
Uganda. Many circumstances contribute to this situation. The war was a decisive factor in
areas of northern Uganda. Further, rapid urbanisation causes a growth in school-age
population that continues to outpace school construction; this leads to overcrowding and
reliance on substandard and unsanitary buildings. Also, the UPE policy leads to an influx of
students, but lack of physical, and human resource infrastructure. Insufficient supplies of
textbooks and lack of essential facilities and equipment for science laboratories detracts from
the quality and potential of instruction.

CONTENT QUALITY

A final concern involves the relevance of education to the social and economic well-being of
each country and to each individual‟s fulfilment of potential. There is low completion rates,

high grade repetition and significant numbers of drop-outs. These facts seem to indicate either
that the schools are not teaching students well or that the curriculum is irrelevant to their
needs. In many cases, formal school curricula have been criticised for being unrelated to the
conditions and demands of life in rural areas. There is likewise a need to increase the use of
African languages as mediums of instruction in areas where these are the only effective means
of communication. Another dimension of relevance involves philosophical consistency. As
more African countries move to expand democracy, schools should not only teach how this
form of government works, but also restructure themselves as participatory, open forums in
which students and teachers can practice democracy through debate, discussion and
exchange of views about their political destiny.

In contrast to traditional African education, where methods involved active participation,
observation and learning by doing, instructional methods in modern, formal African schools
continue to be dominated by rote learning, pupil passivity, limited verbal interaction, and
reliance on text and test. One reason for this is the shortage of trained teachers. Another factor
is the climate of competition and high-stakes testing which encourages memorization for
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examinations more than acquisition of applied skills, critical thinking or creativity.

CONCLUSION


The current education policy in Uganda espouses universal education, with equal
opportunity for all. However, policy reconstruction is an ongoing, never-ending process. It
works in the context of the present crisis, but moves to transcend this by creative integration
of past successes with future goals. The core goals reflect traditional values of training in
social justice, morality, and responsibility, along with acquisition of life skills needed in the
local environment. Modern policy goals include national development and unity along with
individual service to the nation.

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References & Select Bibliographies

Government of Uganda, Government White Paper on the Education Policy Review
Commission Report Entitled "Education for National Integration and Development"
Government Printer, Kampala, April, 1992.
Ajayi, J.F.A., Goma, L.K.H. & Johnson, G.A. (1996) The African Experience With Higher
Education. London: James Currey.
Bassey, M.O. (1999) Western Education and Political Domination in Africa. Westport, CT: Bergin
Harvey.
Berkson, I.B. (1940) Preface to an Educational Philosophy. NY: Columbia University.
Nwomonoh (Ed.) Education and Development in Africa, 25-40. San Francisco: International
Scholars Publications.
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