In 1997, as a fulfilment of the 1991 Jomtien resolution, the Government of Uganda initiated the Universal Primary Education(UPE), in which four children per family would access free education in government schools. Realising the need and increasing pupil population, the government took up the audacity of educating all children from the initial four per family. Admittedly, the number of school going children increased by six digits.
However, if we take a look at the status quo of our education before the inception of the program in terms of its quality, one is left wondering whether uganda was ready for the program, or was just bound by the requirement as per the jomtien. The reality is that Uganda had a functional Primary system before 1997, which was marred by the introduction of UPE. In fact, the biggest mistake the government committed was increasing pupil populations with staticism in resource, which means the student population surpassed the available school resources.
Moreover, primary schools had been heavily supported by the parents from the communities around. With UPE andand the consequential deteriorating quality of education, many withdrew their support and took their children to good private schools, leaving these schools for the children of the poor only. Even as the adage says, 'there is no education system better than the quality of its teachers', the government didn't do much to up the quality of the teachers, moreover they were already demotivated given their meagre salaries meant for survival, only drawing inspiration from the need to survive.
The deteriorating quality of education and unmotivated teachers served as a yardstick to poor performance of learners at primary seven, sending poor quality graduates to secondary at senior one. The situation gets worse for a secondary school teacher, who has to nurture such a student so that at the end of four years, he can get worth a grade. Dull would be the person who cannot realise such enthusiasm of the teacher.
To ascertain the fact that Uganda is indeed a man eat man socirty where a few who are strong survive, at the entry of senior one, there is always a national selection of students joining Senior one under Universal Secondary Education (USE), in which the bright oned from majorly private and first class government schools, get admitted to best government schools that take only best students. The remaining residues are sent to poor government schools where resources are a dream.
Owing to such archive disparity in our education system, it is unfortunate that majority of UPE/USE graduates cannot represent themselves in English through the power of the tongue, which means they cannot competite with their counterparts who complete from good schools.
Universal Education therefore remains a scar in the conscience of Ugandans. Something has really to be done if the native must enjoy and reap from the program.
The writer is a concerned citizen who feels vexed by the way the program is handled, showcased by the quality of its graduates.
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