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.
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.
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.
pbaike@yahoo.com