Dingo Pingo is excited to enjoy one more classroom discussion before he must return to the United States. He wants to see his brother Jacob again. But he will miss Mrs. Nnakku’s social studies discussions.
Dingo follows Justinian into the classroom. Mrs. Nnakku is ready for the students. They have grown during this term. She is happy with their progress. She is ready for Dingo and Justinian to lead the discussion today.
The questions fly about the room. Even Sijui has lots to ask. Her glasses reflect the light from the windows. She is now sitting in the front row. Dingo remembers the first day when he found her sitting quietly in the back of the room. She has grown.
Dingo reports, “We found book about blankets in the library!”
“What did you learn?” “Everyone needs blankets! Everyone makes blankets! They are all different.” ”Do we make blankets here?”
“Why do we need to import them?” “Why import when we can make them ourselves?” “Why don’t we make blankets here and export?”
“We grow so many pineapples at home. Uganda’s climate is perfect for pineapples. We don’t import them. That’s good. But why don’t we export them? “We read a book about salt!” “But it is not a book about salt in Uganda. We need a book about the salt industry in Uganda.”
“We have salt in Katwe, near the elephants of the national park in the west. There they make salt by hand. There was even a salt factory.” “Now we have only salt coming from outside. We import the salt that we eat.”
“We can make salt here! Why do we import?” The students find the most important questions are the questions that begin with WHY.
More than 115 teachers in Mayuge district have threatened to abandon their classroom duties if their salary arrears are not paid soon.
The angry teachers, who pitched camp at the district headquarters last week, say they are tired of the district’s promises to pay them, but nothing has been done.
The deputy head teacher of Kaluba high school, Jessica Tabingwa, said she was last paid in October 2016 and has been surviving on what are called empty promises.
“I last received salary in October last year and whenever I demand my pay … I’m instructed to come tomorrow and my efforts have been frustrated,” said Tabingwa. “For God’s sake, where can I get the strength and courage to teach other people’s children yet mine are seated at home?”
Twaha Masuba, a teacher from Lukindu primary school, explained that many of his colleagues were under threats from several banks after defaulting on salary loans.
"Since our salaries are not coming through and the banks have started sending us warning messages, we are not going back to classrooms until our salaries have been settled in our accounts to reduce pressure,” Masuba said.
Some of the teachers pitching camp at Mayuge district headquarters
When contacted, the district chairperson of the Uganda National Teachers’ Union, Bashir Kayeyera, called on the government to save the situation before it is too late.
“It is any teacher’s right to receive salary after work, not a privilege as the situation is being portrayed by our bosses,” Kayeyera said. "For now we are laying down our tools but if the situation worsens, all of us are willing to proceed to courts of law.”
However, when contacted, the Mayuge district personnel Officer, Paul Muzige, blamed the situation on the new payment system.
“I know that I am responsible for the payment of all civil servants in the district but I am finding a problem with this new IPPS system that faded out some of the teachers' names and accounts but I am working hard to recover them,” Muzige said.
Mayuge is among the worst-performing districts in the country, registering 23 per cent failures in PLE exams.
Two universities are collaborating on a project to assist the health ministry gather and process data for supporting health care.
Makerere University’s School of Public Health and the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) are working together on what is known as a regional Quality Improvement (QI) learning exchange.
The process, started with a meeting at Speke Resort in Munyonyo that attracted participants from five countries (Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda) for a dynamic, participant-driven gathering to explore best practices, shared challenges, and innovative strategies for use of data for quality improvement in national HIV programmes.
The large data sets are being generated from epidemiologic surveys. Experts met to agree on ways in which data is used to identify glaring challenges in the HIV and Aids prevention in the different countries.
Speaking on behalf of Makerere University’s Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Support (METS), the programme manager, Evelyn Akello, pledged to ensure a link between data collection and the kind of analysis that leads to quality improvement in public health outcomes.
“The treatment scene has changed … it is not only about giving drugs but also about preventive care and assessment,” she said.
She added that through interactive peer-led sessions, the QI learning exchange would provide participants with a unique opportunity to gain expertise, build networks and share QI successes and implementation barriers, while learning new strategies for advancing data use in national HIV quality programmes.
Speaking for UCSF, Dr Rachel King said they were pleased to be working with Makerere and the health ministry to establish a link between data collection and improved health care provision in the region.
The chief guest, Dr Sarah Byakika, of the health ministry, assessed the progress made by her sector in improving the quality of care provision since 1994. She emphasized the need to look at quality improvement in totality instead of focusing on processes.
“The aim is to be less disease-specific and more broad-based,” she said.
Dr Byakika proposed six ways in which quality improvement would result in the best health outcomes.
These include strengthening leadership, improving compliance to health provision standards, developing patient and client participation in all health facilities, strengthening framework for documentation on quality assurance through digitization of health records, as well as implementing evidence-based models of improved care.
Buddo Secondary School celebrated its high achievers at a colourful ceremony held at the school’s premises on Wednesday.
The Achievers’ day was called to recognize teachers, current and former students for their achievements in academics, sports, music, dance and drama.
Speaking at the event, the school’s head teacher, Lawrence Muwonge, said the main reason for holding the event is to inspire the current crop that they too can excel like their predecessors.
“We bring these people for you to interact with and understand how they excelled,” he said. He also called upon parents to give the children their valuable time, saying paying school fees was not enough to breed excellence.
Abbey Kabanda (R) receives his token of appreciation from chief guest Joseph Kawuzi. Looking on is the head teacher, Lawrence Muwonge
The chief guest at the function, Joseph Kawuzi, minister of Local Government in Buganda kingdom, congratulated the school administration for the success attained in the past 25 years up to 2016. He also called upon the central government to use the success of private schools like Buddo SS as a case study for developing the entire education system.
Some alumni of the school like Joseph Ochaya (Uganda Cranes), Hassan Wasswa (Uganda Cranes), Yusuf Kaddu (Kika Troupe), Faridah Nakyole (Teacher), among others, received gold medals for continuing to shines years after they have left the school.
Senior five students cut a cake
Swaleh Kigozi was awarded the outstanding class teacher for 2016 while prefects Enock Muwamula and Shakira Namulwasira were the exemplary students.
The best in last year’s UCE and UCE were also given cash prizes with the best, Joanita Nantale, winning Shs 1m.
The race to lead Uganda’s oldest university started in earnest last Thursday with 17 candidates declaring interest and picking nomination forms, according to the Makerere University electoral commission spokesperson, Abbey Kizito Abasi.
Unlike last year where only 12 males competed for the top seat, this time round, three females have also joined the race. They are Doreen Alituha, Mercy Faith Lakisa and Ruth Nsubuga.
The other aspirants include Andrew Ssentale, Henry Kihika, Simon Wanyera, Stephen Bukomeko, Emmanuel Kizito Luwukya, Abdu Karim Zilitwaula, Lulican Agadi, James Kazungu, Paul Kato, and Timothy Sambwa.
According to Abasi, each aspirant paid a non-refundable fee of Shs 200,000 and submitted a police letter to prove they had no criminal record, among other things.
He added that upon submitting a fully filled nomination form, an aspirant has to meet several requirements as stipulated by article 72 of the guild constitution
“The candidate must meet requirements of membership to the GRC, be a full member of the guild for at least two consecutive semesters, have a CGPA [cumulatuve grade point average] of 2.8 and above and have no pending retake in their entire academic record for the current study programme being undertaken at Makerere University,” Abasi explained.
Voting is scheduled to take place on April 6. Elsewhere, Kyambogo University students will gather today to elect a new guild president for a second time.
Voting was cancelled a month ago after unscrupulous people failed the e-voting system. The students will use an analogue system to determine who of the eight candidates will take over as guild president. At the Islamic University in Uganda, campaigns are also underway to elect a new guild president.
Science, Technology and Innovation minister Dr Elioda Tumwesigye has commended the latest crop of graduands at Uganda Martyrs’ University for their efforts, but asked them to continue improving themselves.
“I urge you to acquire knowledge and skills based on education, good attitudes and values that will help you engage in innovative ways to solve challenges in society,” he said.
His call came during the 22nd graduation ceremony of the university last week, at which 587 graduands received degrees, diplomas and certificates in various disciplines.
Graduands celebrate
However, 213 students did not graduate as their marks were missing. Dr Tumwesigye, who was the guest of honour, also commended the institution for winning the overall exhibitor at the last National Council for Higher Education exhibition at Lugogo.
He advised the graduates to be job creators and desist from immoral acts. In his remarks, the university vice chancellor, Fr Dr Chrysostom Maviiri, also advised the graduates to use the knowledge they acquired to start up creative sectors and remain relevant to both church and society.
“Learning is a process of life, continue to discover knowledge and use it effectively,” he said.
The university chancellor, Archbishop John Baptist Odama, thanked the parents for sacrificing and focusing on educating their children in order to brighten their future.
“Meditate upon Christian values and this will help you became true role models of the country,” he said.
The function saw parents and graduands celebrate each time a name was called out. However, there was a somber moment as Angella Christine Agwang received a posthumous Master of Arts in Human Resource Management degree; she had died while giving birth on March 8.
More male prison inmates continue to enjoy news headlines for their academic activities. However, PRISCA BAIKE was puzzled that female inmates are hardly seen or heard from in that regard. In this third of a fourpart series, she discusses the challenges of formal education in the women prisons.
After 16 years in prison, former death-row inmate Susan Kigula was released early last year. And she is a very different woman from the one who entered Luzira women’s prison in 2000. She used her time in prison to further her education and, consequently, changed her status from a person who was once in conflict with the law to a legal champion.
“I studied Law and I’m proud to inform you that not only have I graduated with a diploma in Law, I graduated with a law degree from the University of London. I am now a lawyer,” wrote Kigula in an email to The Observer. She was out of the country and thus unavailable for a face-to-face interview.
However, this status did not come easy. Kigula, then a seior four graduate, realized that she needed to improve her formal education level. But in the women’s prison it was no easy road. She was compelled to engage both the administration and fellow inmates to secure a formal education.
Inmates at Kigo prison studying Primary 1 English
WOMEN'S PRISONS
Eight years into her imprisonment, Kigula had realized that male inmates were already receiving an education whereas females were not. The men’s and women’s wings of Luzira prison are separate and the two do not share any services.
Kigula mobilized four other female students and the five of them agreed on studying History, Economics, Divinity and Entrepreneurship Management after obtaining permission from the prison administration.
Consequently, Kigula recalls that she acquired a pamphlet on history from a welfare officer, and more textbooks from their parents. Over time, they were connected to the Upper prison school which started sending them notes.
In 2009, the five women sat for exams under Upper prison school. Kigula scored 18 points while her counterparts, who were majorly under her instruction, performed quite well.
Having proven themselves, the rehabilitation officers saw potential in the women and classes at all levels kicked off, with Kigula and her counterparts teaching the rest of the women in the female wing of the prison. However, despite the effort, there aren’t that many women's prisoners engaged in formal education.
Today, there are three women's prisons with education facilities. These are Luzira, Kigo and Jinja women’s prison, with plans to roll schooling out to other prisons.
MAIDEN LAWYERS
Since there was no university programme at that time, Kigula and her friends concentrated on growing the women’s school until in 2011, when Alexander MacLean, the founder of the African Prison project, who was supportive of her court case, encouraged her to study Law.
While her four colleagues did not pass the pre-entry exams, Kigula and three (male) inmates from Upper prison qualified for the course. It was a challenging time for her.
“I had no lecturers. I studied under a tree,” wrote Kigula, “But because I had set my goal to study and help the marginalized in order to bring justice where it was being aborted, I refused the circumstances I was going through to determine my future or stand in the way of fulfilling my dream and reaching my destination.”
She eventually graduated with a diploma in Common Law before she enrolled for a degree in the same discipline. While Kigula beat all odds to reach her destination, many female prisoners have not been as fortunate.
WOMEN ENROLMENT LOW
Women prisoners are not fully utilizing the opportunity to give themselves a second chance at education as they serve their jail terms. In the Luzira Upper prison for instance, only 45 of the 556 inmate learners are female.
Only 45 of last year’s primary leaving exams candidates were women, while out of the 141 candidates who sat for O-level across the country, only nine were women.
Although women prisoners are generally fewer than their male counterparts, only a few of them are interested in formal education behind bars.
“It is the most challenging task a woman in prison can undertake,” wrote Kigula. She explained that by the time they are jailed, most women are demoralized by the length of the jail terms they have to serve. Some are unaware where they left their children, which makes it difficult for them to concentrate on studies.
For instance, Luzira women’s prison had only two female candidates for last year’s PLE while Kigo women had only one female candidate in the same exam, yet there were other eligible female prisoners who chose not to enroll.
Further still, others think studying is a waste of time as they are unlikely to secure their husband’s support for further education when they are released, at the end of their terms.
The senior welfare and rehabilitation officer at Uganda Prisons, Anatoli Owakubaruho Biryomumaisho agrees with Kigula.
“Women generally have a low interest in learning,” said Biryomumaisho.
He explains that women have emotional issues which also affect their stay in school after enrollment. For instance, when they are not visited, they drop out of school despite having books, pens and teachers to teach them.
A welfare and rehabilitation staff in the computer centre at Kigo main prison
Some of the women, who are jailed while pregnant, deliver behind bars and their children are taken away by their relatives at the age of 18 months. The idea of a woman staying in jail with her child can weigh them down emotionally, preventing them from considering school.
Indeed, there are reports that Kigula almost dropped out of school at one time. The officer-in-charge, Luzira women’s prison, SP Stella Nabunya, recalls one such situation. Kigula reportedly once dumped a box of textbooks in Nabunya’s office due to a combination of stress and difficulties in the course.
“Of course, many inmates do not want to go back to school, even when the education is free, but we try to encourage them, but it is not easy.”
Despite the support she got from her family during her imprisonment, Kigula was no exception as far as the pain of an inmate-student-mother was concerned.
“I had left my one-year-old daughter and it weighed so heavily on me as a mother,” Kigula wrote.
Women's prisons have also not been well facilitated, especially with infrastructure. While their male counterparts have a few classrooms and tents, women mostly study under trees.
Luzira women's prison, for instance, only has one room that caters for primary one to primary six. The rest of the classes are conducted under trees, meaning there are no lessons on rainy days. This section has a science laboratory and a computer laboratory to ensure that women are not left behind in the two disciplines.
WAY FORWARD
Anthony Owino, the welfare rehabilitation officer in charge of gender, told The Observer that there is need to re-sensitise female inmates about the advantages of studying while in prison.
“When they get sensitized, they will know why it is important for them to study,” says Owino.
According to Biryomumaisho, there is need to acquire infrastructure to ensure that women enjoy some level of comfort as they go about their studies. The head teacher of Luzira prison schools, Gilbert Niwamanya points out that there is need for women to soar beyond their stress and low esteem, so that they can be able to take on formal education as a form of rehabilitation.
And he should know, since his jurisdiction embraces both the male and female wings of Luzira Upper prison. In tandem with Niwamanya, Kigula maintains that the issue of female prisoners’ children should be addressed if bigger strides are to be made in their formal education.
“These are the voiceless innocent victims of justice. No one cares, not even the prosecuting organs … what will happen to these innocent victims after their parents are imprisoned?” asks Kigula. She urges everyone to rise up and help these ‘forgotten angels’ so mothers in prison have full adherence to the educational programmes availed to them as part of their correctional process.
“They cannot embrace those programmes when their children are on the streets, facing child sacrifice, are in prostitution or undergoing sexual abuse,” remarks Kigula.
As Uganda strives to achieve gender equality, there is a great need for government to address the challenges faced by women prisoners to ensure that they fully partake in formal education which is critical to the country’s economic development as it advances towards becoming a middle-income state.
Every August, successful senior six candidates, also known as 'freshers', are under pressure to apply to various universities. They move from one institution of higher education to another in search of vacancies while paying various application fees.
As YUDAYA NANGONZI writes, the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) wants government to replace this system with a body that can be tasked to centrally handle admission of students countrywide to public and private institutions.
On April 22, 2014, the Higher Education Students Financing Board (HESFB) was inaugurated as a corporate semi-autonomous body mandated to provide loans and scholarships to needy but brilliant students intending to pursue higher education.
In the financial year 2014/15, a total of Shs 6bn was earmarked to start the scheme with financing students’ fees, functional and research fees as well as provide aids and appliances for persons living with disabilities.
According to HESFB loan guidelines, “a loanee shall be given a grace period of one year after study, to start repaying the loan with a seven per cent interest”.
When this was announced then, it got many thinking how the loan board would ensure that all the monies loaned would be re-paid. This is a time when the board’s members decided to visit the Tanzania Higher Education Loans Board to see how to go about this initiative.
Students in long queues applying for admission to Makerere University in 2014. NCHE wants such queues to be eliminated with a central admission system
“In doing the consultations with the team in Tanzania, we were thrilled to learn that all students in Tanzania were admitted centrally at institutions of higher learning, which was not the case in Uganda,” said Kizito Bbosa, the loans and scholarship manager at HESFB.
Bbosa told The Observer last week that the Tanzania Central Admission System (CAS) board ensures that all students pay money to it, and not randomly to various universities.
In Uganda, Bbosa said, parents are cheated through hefty application fees yet; their children are not assured of admission.
“We decided to sell this idea [of central admissions] to the council [NCHE] which regulates these universities to see how they can help parents and students from paying exorbitant fees,” Bbosa said. “In Uganda, it is like parents are into gambling their money for applications. If you miss at one university, you can apply and pay again at another.”
A mini survey by The Observer found that universities charge non-refundable application fees ranging from Shs 25,000 to Shs 50,000. For instance, Makerere University, Kyambogo University, Kampala International University and Uganda Christian University (UCU) all charge Shs 50,000 per student. At Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) students pay Shs 40,000 and Shs 25,000 at Kampala University.
CENTRALISE ADMISSIONS
Speaking at NCHE offices last week, the NCHE executive director, Prof John Opuda-Asibo, said central admission is the way to go if government wants to improve higher education.
“This will imply that all students will apply at once while in secondary school and be admitted to their areas of choice. We can plan to have the admission process done once or twice a year to cater for the working group as well,” Prof Opuda-Asibo said.
According to Opuda-Asibo also HESFB board member, central admissions will help to eliminate admission of students who don’t qualify to join various programmes.
In January this year, NCHE compiled a reports explaining how privately-owned Busoga University (BU) awarded degrees to South Sudanese and Nigerian students who did not meet the minimum entry criteria for various programmes.
The university officials were later given only six months to respond to NCHE’s concerns or risk revoking their license. So far, three months have elapsed. Opuda-Asibo said once government adopts the central system of admitting students, such cases as at the BU will be eroded.
“The central admission board will have a system that is linked to that of Uneb, HESFB and NCHE at the click of the mouse. This business of presenting fake academic papers will also be no more,” he said.
The Tanzania Commission for Universities, an equivalent of Uganda’s NCHE, has a whole directorate that handles admissions to all institutions of higher learning.
According to Bbosa, an admission board will address the challenges encountered by HESFB in awarding loans to students as a result of the different admission dates for various institutions.
“For purposes of fairness and equity, you want to select students for loans when everyone is assured of their admission which is a key input to our work,” he said. For instance, he explained that National Teachers' Colleges (NTCs) usually admit students last and as such, they have time and again got students with low grades after failing to be admitted at universities. Tertiary institutions too have various application dates.
And, by this time, HESFB has already completed the selection process for the prospective students, which Bbosa finds unfair to the needy students. He argues that while Uneb released examinations results by February, it will take universities up to August to admit students because there is no one directly responsible for admissions.
“In the end, parents will be given only two weeks to prepare students to start higher education, pay tuition and hostel fees. Yet, if we have a central admission system, admission can start around April and end in that same month so that parents, students and universities prepare sufficiently to start studies in August,” Bbosa said.
UNIVERSITY LOANS
Due to funding constraints, HESFB is currently supposed to select only 1,000 needy students. But Opuda-Asibo said centralizing admissions should come with awarding loans to all Ugandans intending to pursue higher education.
He cited a country like Tanzania where its government annually sets aside TZs 916bn (about Shs 1.4bn) annually to offer loans to all its citizens. This has been operational for the last 10 years.
“Whether needy or not, as long as you get the marks for entry into higher education, everybody pays tax and the money should be set aside for all Ugandans to study on loan and pay later,” he said.
But parents who can afford funding their children’s education, he said, can go ahead and decline taking on the loans. For the future, Opuda-Asibo thinks this loan initiative will reduce on the unrest at universities in form of strikes and unnecessary tuition increments, among others, since all students will be with loan.
“If a parent has some little money, they can also start repaying the loan at their own pace while the children are studying. This will stop people from the pressure of selling their land, houses, and cattle to educate their children,” he said.
COMMENDED
Evelyn Aijuka, NCHE member representing students, commended the council's move on central admissions, saying it will be cost-effective to students.
“Most times, students apply to different universities for programmes but have not been guided enough on what they want to study. I believe this system will help parents who are conned by students to pay more application fees,” Aijuka said, adding that NCHE and government will easily establish university enrolment figures as well as help students that fall prey to courses that are not accredited.
Prof Joseph Lutalo-Bosa, the vice chancellor at Team University, told The Observer that once admissions are centralized, universities will be relieved of the burden to sort thousands of applications of prospective students.
Lutalo-Bosa also urged government to set up a system to enable private and public universities to compete and work hard to better themselves through research in a bid to improve the quality of education in higher institutions.
As government plans to take up the idea of central admissions, Opuda-Asibo remains optimistic about the challenges to encounter in this bid.
“We are working on this idea but we know there is going to be resistance from people who earn money from these application fees. But, we shall continue with our plans and see how to address such people,” he said.
A civil society report has recommended that poorly performing schools under the private-public partnership (PPP) arrangement should be phased out. In a wide-ranging study, the researchers say the schools are doing more harm than good. MOSES TALEMWA and OLIVE EYOTARU have been studying the report.
The Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (Iser) has advised government to phase out poor-quality low-fee PPP schools since they are not benefitting the public, as initially expected. In a 40-page report, Iser argues that, instead, the state should provide community schools with more support to meet the minimum operating standards.
In their report, Iser add that the quality of education, value for money and financing of these schools is wanting, leading to poor learning outcomes. In explaining the criteria for phasing out these schools, Iser says schools with a combination of unqualified teachers, poor infrastructure and poor learning outcomes ought to be closed down.
The report, completed last August, was finally launched at a conference by Iser at Hotel Africana, last Thursday. Iser also encouraged the sector to build partnerships between PPP, community and not-for-profit schools, as a measure of increasing geographical access to learners in both urban and rural areas.
This follows a finding in the report that showed that PPPs in the rural areas were in a poor situation.
QUALITY OF EDUCATION
The report was compiled from a research study conducted in 28 schools in Kampala, Wakiso, Mukono, Mbale, Kween, Kapchorwa, Lira, Kole and Alebtong districts between March and June 2016.
(L-R): Iser executive director Salima Namusobya, Commissioner for private schools at the ministry of education, Ismail Mulindwa and Prof Jean Barya of Makerere University School of Law, during the launch of the report on PPPs.
The study notes that while the PPPs were intended to ensure improvements in the quality of education especially in areas that did not have public secondary schools, this did not happen.
Researchers found that most of the PPP schools sampled were of poor quality and lacked basic infrastructure, as well as instructional inputs like science laboratories and libraries.
One such school, Kawowo SS in Kapchorwa district, did not have a Uganda National Examination Board centre in 2005, sending intending candidates to distant facilities like Kaserem SS, Nabong SS and Mbale Progressive School.
BACKGROUND
In 2007, government introduced the Universal Secondary Education (USE) to increase access to secondary education for families that were economically vulnerable.
In trying to increase the number of students enrolling in the secondary schools, government also introduced PPPs, to support the numbers graduating from Universal Primary Education (UPE) scheme, launched in 1997, that would not be absorbed by USE institutions.
Under the framework, government would pay a per-student capitation grant of Shs 47,000 per term to private schools to enroll students who qualified at no extra cost. Beneficiary schools included for-profit schools, not-for-profit schools and community schools.
Out of the 1,820 schools under the USE scheme, 852 are privately owned and known as PPP schools. The report also points out the absence of qualified teachers in PPP schools, which has prompted them to recruit Senior 6 leavers and diploma holders to teach the students.
“Paying qualified teachers is very expensive; so, in most cases if they know student X did very well in Mathematics or Biology in S6, they would bring them for that period before they join university so they teach, yet the ministry has parameters on who must teach,” reported Safina Nakulima, a senior programmes manager at Iser.
PHYSICAL FACILITIES
The research study pointed out seven of the PPP schools, St Mary’s Kaptany, Kawowo SS, Toswo SS, Binyiny SS, Oxford High School, Maluku SS and Nkoma High School among those with inadequate physical facilities.
Four out of the seven schools lack a computer laboratory; none has a sports field; most have few permanent classroom blocks; and few have latrines and libraries.
The field visits by Iser also indicated that there is no reasonable accommodation for students with disabilities, with buildings not physically accessible to such students.
MISUSE OF FUNDS
Even though the education ministry issued a directive to PPP schools not to charge students any extra fees, this has been defied by the private owners. The research states that school owners are using the institutions as a money-minting scheme.
“In one of the schools we went to, we were informed by the head teacher that once the capitation grant is deposited on the account, the owner of the school, who is a businessman, goes and gets all the money and does his businesses. It makes it very hard for the school to be run efficiently,” Nakulima said.
The rationale by government to provide the Shs 47,000 capitation grant was to ensure that students from poor backgrounds are enrolled. However, many of the private school owners have resorted to charging extra fees in form of non-tuition and other requirements to make up for the low tuition per capita provided by government. Some of the charges include development fees, lunch, uniforms and school materials.
“While PPP schools are seen to be increasing access to secondary education in the country, there is likely to be little or no benefit for children from the poorest families who cannot afford the additional costs levied upon them, hence forced to drop out of school,” the report reads.
To generate more resources, PPP schools such as St Peter’s Mixed SS, Central View High School, Fairland High School in Mukono district and Fr Aloysious SS in Kole district have created compulsory boarding facilities. This, Nakulima said, is contrary to the MOU signed.
“With boarding facilities, there comes many requirements; so, when summed together, many parents and children from poor families cannot afford and drop-out rates are very high.”
GOVERNMENT BLAMED
Proponents of quality education believe that the state has abrogated its cardinal duty to regulate the sector, leaving it to private self-seekers, whose goal is to make profit.
Prof John Jean Barya, a professor of law at Makerere University, contends that if education is a social-economic right, the economy must promote and protect this right. He says the education policy on PPPs has benefitted a few individuals.
“The problem in education, just like in the health sector, is that because government is overwhelmed, it simply allows private people to operate without regulation...for a public good like education, the primary responsibility lies with the state,” Prof Barya opines.
Iser also recommends that government should regulate fees charged at PPP schools while punishing non-compliance strictly. But Prof Barya disagrees, saying with the current policy on private education, regulation of fees is unworkable.
“Unless you change the policy on private education, which is a business, you cannot regulate fees. As a private individual whom you have allowed to make profit by setting up a school, you cannot come back and say regulate the fees...government has abdicated its responsibility in this area,” he contends.
He argues that private schools are bound to be expensive by their very nature, since their major objective is to earn a profit, while education is only a means to an end.
“To expect PPPs to be affordable is unrealistic … PPPs are bound to be expensive by nature,” he adds.
Prof Barya also adds that the state has also not been keen to improve learning outcomes in the PPPs.
“To expect good grades in a school with poor infrastructure and unqualified teachers is also very unrealistic,” he said. He believes that unless the schools are helped out of their situation, they have no positive future.
GOVERNMENT ADMITS
The ministry’s commissioner for Private Schools, Ismail Mulindwa, acknowledged the loopholes in the PPP policy with private schools. However, Mulindwa says government’s goal to enroll more students in school has been achieved, despite the challenges in implementation.
In order to strengthen the policy, Mulindwa says, the policy is currently being scrutinised.
“What we need to do is see how we put it right, not to say do away with PPP. As we talk now, we are reviewing it and we want to see how we have moved and where we have gone wrong that we must go back and correct,” Mulindwa said.
He admitted that the education sector has been polarised by private individuals, which has given leeway to anyone to join the education business, something government is also looking into.
“It is interesting that you find people who open schools when they cannot even read the word school. You wonder; really, are we serious?” he queried.
However, he offered some assurance, saying he would pass the report on to officials in the education ministry and call for more dialogue on the matter, with a view to improving the situation.
Last week, the education ministry officials appeared before the parliamentary education committee to respond to concerns about the recent closure of schools.
The MPs appeared to be concerned that the ministry had closed down several private schools for failing to meet education standards. However, in the ensuing dialogue, the MPs were more concerned that the private schools had been closed rather than demanding that all schools meet the same standards.
This prompted a sharp response from the general secretary of the Uganda National Teachers’ Union, James Tweheyo, who blasted MPs for blocking the ministry’s ongoing closure of illegal schools.
Tweheyo argued that MPs were pushing for selfish interests in their constituencies and neglecting to provide Uganda’s children with a better education. Tweheyo, who has been at the forefront of criticizing the ministry for allowing low standards, found himself supporting the sector’s push to ensure all illegal schools are closed.
His argument should have been the House’s position - that all schools should adhere to the highest standards of excellence.
It is also our considered view that the ministry is doing a commendable duty by shutting down unlicensed schools, and also pushing local governments to be more stringent against the owners of such institutions, from setting up poor excuses for learning centres.
Parliament should be riled that anyone in Uganda can be allowed to conduct learning in ramshackle circumstances. Stories of learners sitting on stones to learn, while worrying about how harsh the weather is, should be a mark of the past. Every school needs to meet a high standard.
And parliament should be the best advocate in this regard.
Tatu pulls Dingo Pingo’s bag to the car. Isabella holds Dingo’s hand as they all walk across the compound.
They begin their journey to Entebbe airport very early in the morning.
“I still want to travel in Africa,” Dingo Pingo says to Justinian.
Justinian smiles at his best friend. “Perhaps you will be an archeologist, Dingo, and work on the East African coast, like you dreamed.”
“I want to travel not only by book, and by film, and by music, and by dreams. I want to also travel by aeroplane, by bus, by foot, by bicycle.” “Come back soon! Bring Jacob! We will travel!” Justinian is jubilant. “Uncle? When I return with Jacob, can we go to Murchison Falls?” I want to see the hippos at night. Can we go, Uncle?” ”Of course!” Uncle smiles at the bright and curious children.
The family shuts the car doors and Uncle drives the car from the compound. Anansi watches the family drive away. As they roll along the murram road, Dingo Pingo sees the school building. Mrs Nnakku’s questions will stay on his mind.
Uncle’s car passes a group of men working on the road.
“Hundreds of years ago,” says Uncle, “villagers donated their time and muscles to clean and clear the roads. They did this to prevent the roads from disappearing into the bush.”
He continues, “Chiefs organized this volunteer time. Everyone was expected to do it, but rich people could afford to pay poor people to take their turn. Since independence, the organization of volunteer workers has decreased.”
Justinian sees that the group of working men includes the village leader. He waves to Mr. Katamba. “What are they doing here, Dad?”
“The group is filling in a swamp to keep this road from flooding. They are volunteering their time, just like in the old days.
Dingo Pingo is amazed, “History comes to us even while driving past in a car!”
Grace Nakibaala and her team of Makerere University innovators, Isah Ssevume, and Molly Mbaziira Nannyonjo, are an excited bunch after the news arrived last week that their PedalTap innovation had been chosen as one of three winners of the Johnson & Johnson Africa Innovation Challenge at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Johannesburg.
Nakibaala’s team devised the PedalTap to prevent the spread of infections at communal hand washing facilities in Uganda. The PedalTap is a free-standing, universally-fitting connection that can be attached to any water tap.
Rather than turning the tap on and off using their hands, users can control water flow by stepping on a foot pedal that is made from a bicycle brake handle and a spring-loaded water cut-off mechanism.
Nakibaala's team was among the winners
The initiative, which received nearly 500 submissions from innovators and entrepreneurs across the continent, sought the best ideas for new, sustainable health solutions that will benefit African communities.
Transforming the PedalTap from an idea into a usable product has been a challenging process for the team. Indeed, Nakibaala admits that the team has been, “stretched in ways we never imagined, way beyond our comfort zones”.
She adds: “one of the challenges we faced quite early on, as a multidisciplinary team of students, was in making time for our project. Our schedules never seemed to align, but we quickly learned that if this was important to us, which it was, we had to make time for it”.
The other winners include Project Agateka (Burundi) – a sustainable solution to support girls who are unable to afford menstrual pads and underwear. Project Agateka is designed to provide a direct health solution as well as the opportunity for women and girls to generate income in Burundi.
With the inclusion of health information, the initiative also provides health education to support improved sexual and reproductive health. Project Kernel Fresh (Liberia) sources natural palm kernels from smallholder women farmers, increasing their income.
The entrepreneur cold presses the palm kernel oil to be used in organic cosmetics. The project will also create jobs for young women by training them to sell the products throughout Liberia.
The Africa Innovation Challenge is part of the company’s comprehensive approach to collaborate with and support Africa’s vibrant innovation, education and health systems institutions.
The Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies comprises the world’s largest healthcare business and its presence in Africa dates back to 1930, including business operations, public health programmes and corporate citizenship.
The education sector will support a new policy to ensure all graduates go through a skills certification before obtaining employment in the country.
This assurance came from education minister Janet Museveni, as she formally released results of the directorate of Industrial Training (DIT) last week.
“It is my conviction that vocational training is the way to go for any country’s growth and development, she said. “It is my mission as minister of Education and Sports, to see that training targets occupations in the labour market to enhance the employability and improved livelihood of Ugandans.”
As a start, she directed the DIT to fast-track certification for those seeking positions in the oil and gas sector, “since 10,000 jobs can be created directly or indirectly during the initial stages of oil extraction in Uganda”.
She indicated that her ministry was working with Uganda National Roads Authority, Kampala Capital City Authority, National Water and Sewerage Corporation and Uganda Manufacturers' Association to ensure that it becomes mandatory for all business, technical and vocational enterprises in Uganda to employ only certified skilled and competent technicians, craftsmen and artisans.
(L-R) DIT executive director, Ethel Kyobe, Marc Moro, a member of the Industrial Training Council and Education Minister Janet Museveni during the release of DIT results, last week
Museveni explained that in future, having a skilled workers’ certificate will be a prerequisite for the award of contracts to contractors.
In the results released last week, nearly 17,028 candidates passed and obtained certificates in at least 35 occupations, across the country. This compares to 23,368 candidates from 683 assessment centres in 34 occupations in 2015.
Of the 17,028 candidates, 7,220 were assessed on their on-job skills (occupational assessment), while 9,808 were tested for their knowledge of aspects of their jobs (modular assessment).
In her remarks, the director of Industrial Training, Ethel Kyobe, explained that the tourism and hospitality sector registered the highest number of successful candidates at 41 per cent, followed by manufacturing at 40 per cent and construction at 17.9 per cent.
Eastern Uganda registered the highest number of candidates at 56.4 per cent, followed by Northern Uganda at 28.4 per cent. Kyobe also expressed her gratitude to the ministry for finally heeding her call for more funds to make it possible to conclude the backlog of academic transcripts from 2011 to 2015.
“The directorate will make sure that certificates for 2016 are printed and issued by June 30, 2017,” she said.
To the average Ugandan parent, the selection process for senior one and senior five is complicated.
How schools eventually end up with the students who apply there is not as straightforward as it seems. Yet in the recent exercise, CHRISTIAN BASL, a German national, attempted to understand the process and compare it to what happens in Europe.
The main hall at the Uganda Manufactures Association is a place for trade and international fairs. But this time, the big hall wasn’t crowded by marketers and sellers. Instead, about 2,500 secondary school head teachers and their representatives sat in rows, with long lists of student names and their grades, lying on their desks like product catalogues.
On this two-day event, the head teachers were supposed to sift through 541,089 students and determine the ones who would join senior one in their schools. The national chairperson of the Placement Exercise, Baritazale Kule explained the necessity of this event with economic vocabulary.
“We still have students who have to be sold to other schools, simply because of their choosing,” he said. “Not every student-choice matches the available spaces.”
Some of the teachers during the S5 selection exercise at UMA show grounds
MARKETPLACE
To put it more delicately, the students apply for places in senior one, while still in P7, or senior five, while still in S4. So, they choose three secondary and three vocational schools in their application. They make a wish-list, but the final decision is not theirs: “When the students have applied, this is delivered to a computer. Then we look at the number that is required per school. The system automatically gives the cutoff points for each school”, Kule explains.
After the release of the PLE results, the computer checks the list: If the student’s result matches the cutoff point of their first or second choice, they are automatically set up on a list for the school that they applied to. Those who fail, have to then apply in writing to schools for admission.
Beyond the applications, the students hand their fate to the head teachers and the exams that they have to sit. It is literally a marketplace, as many students have little or no control over the application process.
But tales abound of students with very good results, who have to join another institution after the school’s selection list is filled – that is, why 2,500 teacher start to bargain with one another – a practice called selling.
“The teachers must be able to know the capacity and the ability of the students they are dealing with. Because we still have many students who are non-selected,” Kule explains.
OTHER EXPERIENCES
At the age of 14, students of the same age in Finland, the country with the highest-ranked education system, still have two or three years to go in the equivalent of primary school.
Yet across the border in Germany and Austria, 14-year-olds would have already transferred to secondary schools, three years before. Germany and Austria have distinguished themselves as the only countries in Europe that set apart pupils at the age of ten, after four years of primary school. That is due to a school system that basically offers three types of secondary school, depending on the grade point average of learners. At this point, they are free of change.
Thus last month, fourth-graders in Germany received their interim reports. With a grade point average of A or B, they can transfer to an eight-year “gymnasium” (high school). Those with B or C go to a five-year “Realschule” (secondary modern school). The rest go to a four-year “Mittelschule” (middle school).
Thus in Uganda, the fate of the students lies squarely on their performance in exams. Indeed in 2013, several parents hauled their teachers before courts in a failed hope to have the results of the fourth-grade certificates changed. In the end, the parents decide which Gymnasium, Realschule or Mittelschule a student eventually heads to. No teacher has control over the application process.
The market works the other way round in Germany. Here, the parents browse through computers for schools. In fact, a German mother told The Observer, that many schools in Germany advertise for themselves to get more pupils. Her nine-year-old daughter achieved a grade point average of A in the interim report.
Now the pupil and her mother are looking for a good Gymnasium in the next big city.
“I started looking for good secondary schools, when my daughter was in the third grade,”the mother says. “Many schools are offering Open Days. You can visit the classrooms or the sports hall then.”
To help the process along, her daughter’s primary school has organized an information evening at the beginning of the fourth grade.
“In May, the final report of my daughter will be released. Then, I will enroll her at the Gymnasium of our choice. I’ve never heard of a school declining a student,” she says. No head teachers of secondary schools will transform into bargaining barkers after the application in May, as happened in Uganda in January.
But when you believe Kule, the current placement exercise might become obsolete in the future.
“We are trying to explore electronic selection, but choosing the students remains a challenge”, he said. What he is explaining could see algorithms take over the selection process completely, with one’s grades determining which secondary school they join.
Two decades since its inception, prison education is still a work in progress. In this last of the four-part series, PRISCA BAIKE unveils the challenges facing the system and where improvements can be made.
At the release of last year’s O-level exams, 22-year-old Morrish Ogema who had excelled with aggregate 21 carried two feelings; inexplicable joy for the once-in-a-lifetime chance to study as he serves his 15-year jail sentence and that of disillusionment for not being able to study sciences at A-level.
“I’m very happy that I could study and make it while in prison,” said Ogema. “I’m going to do HEG and become the best teacher although I had had wanted to do PEM and become an engineer.”
The soft-spoken inmate from Dokolo appealed to the education ministry to introduce sciences at A-level, a view that was shared by the school’s inmate co-head teacher, Dennis Mujuni.
“It is our humble request that the government avails sciences at O-level. That way, the goals of Prisons Service will be achieved,” said Mujuni at the Upper prison upon the release of the 2016 O-level results.
Prisoners using a computer lab at Luzira prison. More of such facilities are needed across all the prisons countrywide
GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT
Apart from not having sciences, the A-level section and primary section across all the prisons education centers have not yet been taken over by government. They are private schools operating within a public institution under the public-private partnerships, according to Anatoli Biryomumaisho, the officer in charge of formal and informal education in the Prison Service.
“Ministry of education ought to take up its mandate of educating the citizens through providing grants and also providing education programs to all the inmate schools countrywide,” noted Biryomumaisho, adding that there is need for government to consider a block fund to provide assistance in prison schools.
“Our inmates have one parent - government. So, we are looking to government to provide additional funding, books and other scholastic materials,” said Biryomumaisho.
While formal education largely relies on NGOs, the government through the education ministry is supporting skills development through funding, provision of inputs and facilitation of both agriculture and skills development such as tailoring, embroidery and handicrafts, among others. Biryomumaisho hopes the same attention can be paid to formal education so as to give an all-encompassing rehabilitation program to the country’s citizens who are in conflict with the law.
He notes that formal education plays a big role in rehabilitation and it significantly reduces the re-offending rate upon an inmate’s release.
“There is a correlation between literacy and the level and type of crime,” Biryomumaisho says, “Above 90 per cent of the crimes are blue-collar and they are mostly committed by the illiterate.”
This trend, according to Biryomumaisho, justifies the need for government’s full involvement in prison formal education. Agreeing with him is Moses Ssentalo, the officer in charge of Kigo prison. He maintains that formal education helps prisoners to understand national issue and be civically educated while reducing the crime rate.
“Government should take keen interest in what we are doing and support us,” Biryomumaisho said.
He also urges the ministry to consider providing education to prisons in hard-to-reach, work and stay areas.
NEED FOR A DISTRICT STATUS
Today, there are 15 prison formal education units across the country, although plans are underway to establish more. The schools are Luzira Upper, Murchison bay prison, Luzira women prison, Kitalya prison, Kigo main, Kigo women prison, Jinja main prison, Jinja women prison, Mbarara group of prisons (M/W), Masindi main prison, Arua prison, Gulu main prison, Fort Portal main prison, Namalu prison (in Karamoja) and Nakasongola prison.
Out of the 45,000 prisoners in the country, 2,408 are enrolled in primary, 576 are in secondary school, 161 on the university programme while 3,131 inmates are undertaking vocational and technical skills training on a separate training component from the production component.
Female students celebrate their colleague's good performance. Plans are underway to accelerate women enrolment in prison formal education
Only Luzira prison enjoys the full education system from P1 to university. Most other correctional facilities stop learning at secondary school level, with plans to progress further, as the number of learners increases.
Inmates, who are held upcountry but are keen to further their education beyond senior one, can seek transfer to Luzira, depending on the length of their sentences. According to Gilbert Niwamanya, the Upper prison inmate secondary school head teacher, this is done on an exchange basis.
“After P7, students are transferred on an exchange basis … to facilities that have the classes they are going to, and others are transferred out of their [current holding centres],” Niwamanya explains.
Administratively, this has put the prison education system under 15 regions across the country with intentions to expand further. However, Biryomumaisho believes there is need to streamline formal education within prisons.
“We need a district status as prisons to streamline our activities,” Biryomumaisho says, highlighting the need for economic viability to facilitate more teachers.
He believes that district status would be instrumental in rationalizing the prison education system into a robust scheme. This would see the prison district obtaining independent funds that they can use to budget and prepare for learning processes in their areas as needed. The budgets would include infrastructure, scholastic materials and teachers.
PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
The absence of physical infrastructure remains a big challenge across all prison facilities. While a few prisons like Upper prison and Kigo have classrooms and tents, the majority of the prison schools, including Luzira women, study under trees, according to Niwamanya, the Upper prison inmate secondary school head teacher.
“This makes studies dependent on the vagaries of weather,” Niwamanya says.
Due to the limited physical infrastructure, the school only has one laboratory where a few basic experiments can be carried out for all the science subjects.
Biryomumaisho maintains that while Uganda Prisons Service is mandated to rehabilitate inmates, he hopes that the ministry of education will come to their aid in providing physical infrastructure in terms of classrooms. Ssentalo is hopeful about the situation.
“Despite the absence of infrastructure, we have human capital and goodwill. We are capable of overcoming any challenge that may come forth,” he says.
OTHER CHALLENGES
On the inmates’ side, the most outstanding challenge for those who wish to continue with education, while in prison, is the inability to access and provide past academic documents to prove their level of education before admission.
“If someone is going to enroll for secondary, they [need to] produce their primary education certificate which is then followed up at Uganda National Examinations Board to ensure that it is authentic and recorded,” says Ssentalo.
This, however, is not always possible as some people can’t trace their documents while in prison; so, the only option is to re-sit Primary Leaving Examinations before proceeding to secondary.
Upon completion of education and release from jail, many ex-convicts experience stigma and are many times denied employment opportunities despite their reformation and qualification. It is upon this background that Biryomumaisho urges society to be part and parcel of the rehabilitation process.
“Communities should know that rehabilitated ex-convicts are not bad and give them opportunities,” says Biryomumaisho who appreciates organisations such as the United Nations and Mulago paramedical school, among others, for offering employment opportunities to some of their former inmates.
Lastly, top on prisons' agenda, Biryomumaisho and Anthony Owino, the welfare and rehabilitation officer in charge of gender, say there is a need to accelerate education among women inmates as this is important in ensuring gender equity in the provision of formal education in prison.
Over the last three months, a government-sanctioned crackdown closed at least 1,308 substandard nursery, primary and secondary schools and vocational training institutes before the operation was halted last week.
The facts about the closures are shocking - in fact, many are scandalous. A list of all closed private schools obtained and published by The Observer today, shows many were shut because they had no qualified teachers, no structures, no licenses and pit latrines.
In other words, many closed schools met none of the minimum requirements set by the ministry of education. The Observer has learnt that the list was compiled by the ministry of education’s private schools and institutions department and the directorate of Education Standards (DES).
The list also shows districts, sub-counties, divisions, municipal councils (M/C), district local governments (DLG) and town councils (T/C) where the closed schools are located.
Primary children queue outside a temporary latrine. Schools with such poor facilities have been closed by the ministry
The countrywide crackdown, which has since been suspended, followed a 2016 circular from the ministry of education ordering education officers to close schools without the basic requirements and minimum standards (BRMS).
UNQUALIFIED TEACHERS
According to the 2014 guidelines for establishing private institutions, a head teacher for a primary school must be qualified, registered with the ministry and with a qualification not below a grade V teaching certificate.
The same guidelines require all private teachers to be registered and licensed. But at Victory Junior School located in the eastern Kamuli town council, education officials found that: “the school lacked qualified teachers, one teacher seems to be drunk and no learning was taking place.”
In the western Kibaale district, all its 13 closed schools were not licensed on top of employing unqualified teachers that were also poorly paid. All teachers in these schools had neither schemes of work nor prepared lesson plans that are mandatory at every start of a school term.
In an interview with The Observer last Friday, Huzaifah Abdallah Mutazindwa, the director of the Directorate of Education Standards (DES), said most of the closed schools largely lacked qualified staff.
“The proprietors of these schools use untrained teachers; moreover, senior four school dropouts who don’t know the methodologies of teaching but rely on past papers and pamphlets,” Mutazindwa said.
“In cases where they [schools] had trained teachers, they were encroaching on those in already-established private and government schools and employ them on part-time,” he said.
Indeed the list showed that most closed schools had no curriculum books and education officials wondered what teachers used to teach learners. At Sacred Heart PS located in Nakaseke district next to Radio Musana, there was no qualified human resource including the head teacher of the school.
Such schools with unqualified staff, Mutazindwa said, are highly responsible for the dwindling education standards in the country.
POOR INFRASTRUCTURE
Almost every school on the list had issues with its infrastructure. In the island district of Buvuma alone, all the 11 closed schools in Buwooya, Nairambi and Busamizi sub-counties and Buvuma town council were unlicensed due to poor hygiene and teaching facilities.
It is worse in schools in Nakaseke district. Learners at The Bridge PS in Kiwoko town council share the same premises with a secondary school.
“The school has only four classrooms, of which two are illegal dormitories. Children have no beds and are congested yet the latrines, bathrooms and washrooms are very few and untidy,” reads the ministry officials’ report on closing the school.
Male students at Kiwoko Christian High School, also in the same district, are housed almost in the same premises with primary school girls. The school is also not licensed and runs an illegal boarding section.
Crossing over to Kamuli district, inspectors were compelled to close Trust Junior School found operating in an open church.
AFFECTED DISTRICTS
Out of the 1,308 closed schools in 33 districts, Mbarara district local government with at least 11 sub-counties has the most affected schools. At least 132 schools were closed there. Most of the closed schools are located in the sub-counties of Mwizi with 20, Rugando (18) and Bugamba (17).
Some of the closed schools are Bruex PS, Nshuro Quality School, Kashaka Muslim, 3 Stars Junior School, Nshuro SS and Rwentamu Technical Institute. Rakai district follows with 103 closed schools, Kaberamaido (96), Kyegegwa (95) and Mayuge with 87 schools.
Mubende follows with 77 affected schools located in 13 sub-counties. According to reasons cited for closure, most schools did not have qualified staff, inspection reports and the basic minimum requirement standards for setting up a school.
For instance, in the sub-counties of Kitumbi, Madudu, Kitenga and Kassanda, schools like St Noa Nfuka PS, Light Infants PS, Eden PS, St Matia ECD and St Joseph PS had no evidence of qualified staff.
At Glory nursery and primary school, ministry officials found no evidence of teaching facilities for learners and closed the school immediately. In this crackdown, the least affected districts so far are; Otuke and Lugazi/Mukono with nine schools closed apiece and Kole with eight.
For now, ministry of education officials are awaiting MPs to conclude their field visits, which started last week, to establish the basis for closing the schools in the affected districts.
“We shall remain patient and see if Parliament will allow us to continue with our exercise because we are working in accordance with the 2008 Education Act,” Mutazindwa said.
Early this year, the ministry of Education and Sports started a nationwide closure of unlicensed schools. In just two months more than 1,300 illegal schools have been closed. Yudaya Nangonzi talked to HUZAIFAH ABDULLAH MUTAZINDWA, the director of the directorate of Education Standards (DES), which is mandated to implement this exercise.
What prompted the ministry to start this nationwide closure of schools?
As you know, the public is very concerned about the declining quality of education in the country. Last year, we invited the education authorities from local governments at the ministry to discuss the quality of education. What clearly came out of that meeting is that one; with liberalization of education, many schools have mushroomed.
But proprietors forgot … to adhere to the education regulations. In that meeting, we agreed that we needed to work on unlicensed schools because a number of things were going wrong.
People were using untrained teachers … in cases where they had trained teachers, they were encroaching on those in already established in private and government schools.
The sanitation facilities were poor; no spaces for co-curricular activities. We later resolved to warn these schools last year that come 2017, we are not going to allow unlicensed schools to operate. We also told proprietors to put things in order before we close their schools.
A classroom block in Wakiso; the sector had started on closing such schools over poor standards
Did you get any applications to get licenses then?
Yes. Quite a number of unlicensed schools came to us especially those that had the basic and minimum requirements to operate a school. Those that had some gaps here and there managed to address them and have gone through the licensing process.
What are the basic requirements?
These include teaching space, at least for a primary school, each class must have a teacher, teaching and learning materials, sanitation and sitting facilities like desks and play areas.
We have booklets that have all these requirements and proprietors should pick them for guidance. Once a school has those requirements, it can seek a license from the ministry to allow it to operate.
Take us through the licensing process.
The process of licensing schools starts from the local government because the education institution must conform to the development plan and zoning of the area.
When all people at that level are approached, the inspector of schools will come and then the district education officer appends his signature to your file which he/she later sends to the ministry for approval.
Is the license issued at a fee?
No. All ministry of education services are free and we don’t charge private schools to go through all those processes of licensing and registering.
How many districts have so far submitted reports of schools that have been closed?
We have about 70 districts which have, and [others] are still submitting reports because the closure exercise is continuous. You cannot close all schools at once since we need to visit many schools.
I must say … we are working closely with the local governments where the schools are located. Any school that they find without a license or a registration certificate, they close it.
But the countrywide closure of schools has got mixed reactions from the public. What could be the problem?
I think what we really need to know is that yes, the Constitution of the republic of Uganda liberalized education. This means that any person or organisation can establish a school but conditioned on meeting the requirements set by government.
The Education Act 2008 [gives] full effect of the provisions of the Constitution and also the education policies. Also, part seven of the Act under section 31 clearly stipulates the process which one has to follow to establish and operate a private school. So, any school that starts without a license becomes an illegal school. I want to emphasize that we have not been closing legal schools.
But why are some MPs concerned about the exercise?
Yes, we were doing the right thing but many members of parliament were trying to evoke section 39 of the same Education Act, [so] people [can] appeal against certain decisions taken by the ministry. However, the section only covers schools that were already issued with licenses or registration certificates.
Legal schools can go ahead and appeal under the appeals tribunal section 53 of the Act. So, now the schools being closed are operating outside the same law we are referring to.
You will recall that a number of circulars have gone out reminding proprietors that it is illegal to operate a school that has not been sanctioned by the ministry but they did not care to report back to the ministry.
What about complaints that government schools in bad condition have been spared in this exercise?
The process of starting a government school is different from that of private and when it comes to closure, it is the same. In fact, government has a plan to improve even those schools that people say are in bad shape.
Of course due to financial constraints in the sector, you cannot work on all the schools at the same time. But again it is important to note that maybe people are looking at the infrastructure of government schools, but at least they [have] trained teachers, teaching and learning materials and sanitation facilities, among others.
Is the ministry closing only primary schools?
Our jurisdiction for closing schools includes nursery, primary, secondary and part of BTVET institutions. So far, schools in excess of 1,300 have been closed. At the post-primary level, learners and parents are mature and there are schools they cannot go to.
But at the lower level, proprietors are taking advantage of the wananchi. They confuse them with so many things and can easily fall prey. In this ongoing closure, the primary sub-sector has been most affected.
At primary level since it is decentralized, the local governments have a big say in their functioning. I believe that it is not true that some of these illegal schools have been operating without the knowledge of local governments.
But some local government leaders in districts like Mukono also rejected the ministry’s directive to close their schools.
That strengthens my thinking that if they did not work with them [illegal schools] to operate in the first place, why then come and protect them? As I said, it is difficult for a school to operate in a local government without its knowledge. A school is not something you can hide under your bed. The children are coming in and out every day - and you don’t see them?
So, are local governments to blame for the existence of illegal schools?
I don’t want to engage into that blame game. But I think we need to know that the process [of licensing] begins from there. Of course there are issues around the decentralization policy and some people tend to think everything is supposed to only be handled at that level [of local government].
This ongoing closure should be looked at as wakeup call because some time back, we did a similar exercise; so, people thought it cannot be done again.
Recently, parliament put a halt to the school closure exercise. Are you taking on its recommendations?
That is the reason why we went to parliament to meet MPs sitting on the education committee. [Note: Education officials appeared before the education committee on March 21 over the closure of schools].
We explained to them why we were closing and to me, they seemed to understand us but they also indicated that they would be going to the field … soon and come up with a report. Of course, we have to oblige when parliament wants to do its oversight role. We have decided to suspend the closing exercise and wait for their findings.
For schools that are already closed, are they going to open?
My understanding is that they [MPs] were not telling us to re-open illegal schools but just to halt the process. So, those schools will remain closed.
What are the challenges you have encountered in closing the schools for the last two and a half months?
The closing exercise is affecting so many people the wrong way. For instance, if you close a school with about 200 learners, these are so many families and other people are thinking about their jobs. But it is saddening that many people are also politicizing this process.
Amidst the politics around the exercise, we indicated in parliament that there is no right time to close a school because a school programme runs every year. For us, we are comforted in the knowledge that we gave people ample time and our doors are open to ensure that those who put in place the minimum standards get licenses and are later registered.
If really proprietors of closed schools were concerned, you would have found people waiting to be attended to at the reception. We also have no appeal backlogs for closed schools at all our regional offices.
For the future, what are you doing to ensure high education standards?
On our part, we are going to strengthen our vigilance on illegal schools. We are also working towards making the directorate of Education Standards a semi-autonomous body as provided for in NDP II, the NRM manifesto and the ongoing restricting in the ministry.
This will give us more leverage to enforce standards. As of now, because we are part of the [education] ministry, the enforcement mandate is not provided for.
Makerere University has secured land within the university to construct the centre of performing arts, with a groundbreaking ceremony scheduled for later this week.
The principal of the college of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof Edward Kirumira, said construction of the multimillion-dollar dance and film facilities will start on March 30.
That same day is also scheduled as an open day for the department with students and staff expected to showcase their work. Prof Kirumira added that the Norwegian government would help fund construction of the centre.
“With support through Norwegian College of Dance, we are going to start the construction of a multipurpose facility; the facility will house, among others, a 350-seater amphitheatre, a 250-seater auditorium, a music archive, music practice rooms, music, dance and film studios, lecture theatres and conference rooms,” he said.
(L-R) Prof Nawangwe, Prof Edward Kirumira, Patrick Mangeni, the dean of School of Liberal and Performing Arts, and Niles Cole, the Cultural Affairs officer at the US embassy, Kampala
Kirumira made the revelation on the sidelines of another function in which the college received videography equipment, worth $9,000 (about Shs 32.4m), donated by the American embassy in Kampala last week.
The equipment, to be housed in the school of Liberal and Performing Arts, will enhance training.
“This will be first of all a linkage between theory and practice especially for courses like music, drama and film, but also it will be used by students from the department of Journalism and Communication who have a broadcasting element,” he said.
Dr Sylvia Nannyonga- Tamusuza, the head of department, said they had not yet established the final cost of the structure. However, she admitted that the school had received two architects from Norway and they were already working on the plans and bills of quantities.
Edward Ssekandi waters the mango tree at the school
Thousands of former students, parents and well-wishers thronged to St Joseph’s SS Naggalama recently to mark the school’s golden jubilee celebrations.
Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi was on hand as guest of honour as the institution marked 50 years of existence. Ssekandi and Bishop Christopher Kakooza, who led proceedings, planted two mango trees to commemorate the school’s jubilee.
And for good measure, the vice president congratulated the school on marking this milestone, pledging more assistance. He then commissioned a newly built boys’ dormitory complex named ‘Prince of Peace’ with the capacity to accommodate 450 students and a new dining hall for the school.
On her part, the school head teacher, Agnes Nsubuga, thanked government for creating a conducive environment for the growth of private schools.
She urged the government to address the taxation concerns of private schools and the fee increment issue, where schools seeking to increase school fees are required to seek government authorisation.
The event was graced by Kasule Lumumba, the NRM secretary general, and former head teacher Dr John C Muyingo, now minister of state for Higher Education and also owner of Seeta High Schools.
Started in 1967 by the Catholic Church, St Joseph’s Naggalama has been among the top-performing schools in the country. It is presently under the management of Lugazi diocese, where Bishop Kakooza is the serving prelate.
Taibah International Schools - Primary recently concluded their month long-sports competition with an extravaganza at their Bwebajja campus, with Rwenzori Red house winning the event for the second time running.
The event, which is in a unique situation of being run by the learners, saw every one of the 650 students engaged in at least one sport of their preference.
Puplis play the baloon race game guided by their teachers
The houses in contention were Rwenzori Red, Elgon Yellow, Mufumbira Blue and Moroto Green and the event was managed by students from 9:30am to 2pm.
According to the deputy principal of Taibah International School, Edward Lukwago, the annual event was the climax of a month of sports activities, including badminton, swimming, soccer and cross country. “The final day was reserved for some activities for the parents to cheer on their children,” he explained.
The parents took part in gymnastics and in races with teachers, including a tug of war. “The parents won the tug of war,” Lukwago said.
The carrying race
Rwenzori Red won the competition for the second time running, followed by Moroto Green and Mufumbira Blue, with Elgon Yellow in the fourth place. For their win, Rwnzori Red secured a bull from the head teacher, Judy Musisi, to be roasted at later date.
The runners-ups, Moroto Green, won two goats, while the last two houses obtained a basket of goodies from the head teacher.
