Last week, the ministry of Education and Sports presented its final ministerial statement to parliament, which highlights some of the strategies to be reached in the coming fiscal year. MOSES TALEMWA has been looking at the statement and finds that the sector will continue work towards more infrastructure growth.
A year from now, Anna Kanyesigye will be in senior one. For now, she is looking at how to get through her primary school in Bundikahungu village in Bundibugyo district. And she is not the only one working to make progress.
Education minister Janet Museveni last week presented a ministerial statement for debate by Parliament, which indicates that more government primary schools like the one Kanyesigye goes to, will see some improvement in the 2017/18 budget.
If approved by the House, the budget will see the rehabilitation of 85 primary schools in deplorable state under Global Partnership Education and continuation with procurement of instructional materials.
The ministry also plans to vigorously undertake community engagements on key policy issues like school feeding and governance in primary schools through training and sensitization of school management committees.
Already, the primary subsector received Shs 2,447.66bn in the budget, of which Shs 1,378.66bn (56.3%) is for wages; Shs 482.19bn (19.7%) for non-wage; Shs 153.27bn (7.8%) for domestic development (all this from the local resource envelope) and Shs 396.92bn (16.2%) from donors.
In her presentation, the minister indicated that the subsector had seen increased monitoring of Early Childhood Development Centres (nursery schools) and primary schools to assess compliance with the set basic requirements and minimum standards.
There was also some support to primary teacher recruitment in local governments through procurement of instructional materials (textbooks) for P1 and P2 to primary schools, in an effort to improve the pupil-to-book ratio (PBR) to 5:1. A further Shs 800m was disbursed to the Teachers’ Sacco by the end of December 2016.
SECONDARY EDUCATION
This subsector will also see some construction, starting with the building of secondary schools in sub-counties without any. This will be taken from the limited seed capital under a transitional development grant for decentralized secondary development, to be provided in the next budget.
The subsector has suffered from a shortage of science teachers, and recruitment should start before the end of this year. There will also be some funding towards support supervision and monitoring of the Universal Secondary Education (USE) and non-USE schools.
Currently, the subsector has had to make do with a budget of Shs 15.904bn,which has been used to monitor 621 secondary schools; train 3,283 science and mathematics teachers under the SESEMAT programme; and induct newly appointed members of board of governors, newly promoted head teachers and newly promoted deputy head teachers, among others.
The sector also completed construction of classrooms and toilets at several schools across the country.
HIGHER EDUCATION
This subsector will see the Higher Education Students’ Financing Board (HESFB) supporting an additional 4,400 beneficiaries and the construction, rehabilitation and expansion of facilities in six public institutions under Higher Education Science and Technology (HEST) project.
There are plans for the construction of a classroom and hostel block at Uganda Petroleum Institute Kigumba, as the subsector works to support the Oil and Gas sector.
There are plans for a taskforce under Gulu University to plan the establishment of an agricultural college in Karamoja; carry out an academic audit; conduct research seminars and training; make publications; prepare and present research proposals for approval and funding; procure vehicles and equipment; and start new academic programmes in three new universities (Lira, Kabale and Soroti).
Presently, the subsector has been operating on an approved budget of Shs 157.07bn. With these funds, the sub-sector was able to: facilitate 3,799 students (2,725 male and 1,074 female) under the Higher Education Students' Financing Board (HESFB); continue with construction works of seven institutions; pay top-up allowances to 316 students studying abroad; and fund 130 PhD and 21 master's degree students, among others.
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
This is a huge and growing subsector embracing both formal and non-formal training in skills development, targeted at post O-level training. This sector will continue to see a lot of infrastructure development, mostly funded by donors, but also by the state.
There will, for instance, be a scale-up of non-formal skills training; continued facilitation of examination bodies (UBTEB, UNMEB, UAHEB); development of 120 sets of UVQF (non-formal education) assessment materials; inspection and accreditation of assessment centres; conducting four regional labour market scans; continuous assessment of 22,000 student nurses and midwives and 9,560 candidates in 46 institutions for 24 academic programmes, among others.
Presently, the sub-sector has been working with an approved budget of Shs 216.307bn. It was able to: develop level 1-3, theory and practical performance test items for non-formal education; develop curriculum for diploma in Electrical and Automobile; and train 63 BTVET instructors in a number of fields including management skills under continuous professional development (39 instructors are being trained locally in Uganda while 24 instructors are being trained in Japan).
There has also been construction and rehabilitation of facilities at several BTVET institutions (UCC Aduku, UCC Bushenyi, UTC Kyema, UTC Elgon, UTC Kichwamba, Hoima School of Nursing, Tororo Cooperative College, St Kizito Technical Institute and Butabika School of Psychiatric Nursing).
The sector also commenced the construction of a boys dormitory and staff quarter at Lake Katwe Technical Institute; completed architectural designs and bills of quantities for John Kale Institute of Science and Technology (in Kisoro); and supervised and finalized development of five institutional development plans for Uganda Technical College Kyema in Masindi, Kasese Youth Polytechnic in Kasese, St Joseph Vocational Technical Institute in Fort Portal, St Simon Vocational Technical Institute and Millennium Business School.
SPORTS SUBSECTOR
This subsector will see emphasis on civil works at the National High Altitude Training Centre (NHATC) in Teryet, Bukwo district. The subsector will also finalize the designs for Akii Bua stadium in Lira and kick-start civil works and provide support to national teams; support 32 sports centres of excellence; and enhance teaching of physical education in schools.
The subsector has been operating under an approved budget of Shs 12.21bn. With these funds, it was able to: support the Secondary Schools National Swimming Ball Games II and International Athletics Associations Federation championships; Primary Schools National Ball Games and SNL championship as well as the Uganda Cranes during preparations for Afcon qualifiers.
CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES
For students like Kanyesigye, this extensive construction should result in improved learning facilities in a year from now. However, there will be concerns for her younger sisters, who will hope for sanitary towels to make it into the 2018/2019 budget.
The sector will also hope to support some gender, environment and HIV/Aids prevention programmes. These will include programmes on sanitation and hygiene management practices, care guidance and counseling services as well as promote environment protection and conservation in schools.
If approved, the next budget will only see a marginal increment of Shs 26.58bn to Shs 2,474.24bn against the current allocation of Shs 2,447.66bn.
Out of this, Shs 1,455.86bn is budgeted for wage (58.8%); Shs 476.16bn (19.2%) for non-wage; Shs 153.27bn (6.2%) is government contribution and Shs 388.96bn (15.7%) is external financing.
The allocation represents a share of 11.25% of the overall resource envelope of Shs 21,993.16bn, which constitutes a decline of 0.73 percentage points from the sector budget share of 11.98% for FY 2016/17.
Budget experts say it is too early to look at the budget allocation. However, some like James Tweheyo of the Uganda National Teachers’ Union (Unatu) say the present allocation represents a continued investment in the future, with actual increments in salaries and causative factors for improvement of learning outcomes expected to come in future budgets.
”We are waiting to see how the parliament decides, however, we expect emphasis to be on improved infrastructure for the time being,” he said.
mtalemwa@observer.ug