Article 11: EDUCATION
The Committee congratulates the Ugandan Government for the efforts made in the
education sector, notably:
- the construction programs of classrooms for primary schools;
- the provision of education material for students;
- the prohibition of corporal punishment;
- the establishment of primary universal education;
- the introduction of free tuition at the kindergarten level.
The Committee observes with satisfaction the notable rate of enrolment of girls, in
fact of a total of 7,377,292 children enrolled in primary school in 2004, 3,644,364 are
girls; that is 49,39%. With a total of 141,461 primary teachers.
Despite encouraging results at the primary level, the Committee observes that:
- the number of students enrolled at secondary level is very low (697,507
enrolled for 37,313 teachers);
- the net rates of enrolment and admission at the secondary level are 14,55%
and 6,06% whereas the rates of gross enrolment at the primary school are
129,88% and 125,05% (2003) respectively for boys and girls;
-
a high proportion of young people of the age to attend the secondary are
outside of the education system;
The Committee notes that the efforts made at the primary level risk not bringing the
desired effects at the secondary level and that the enrolment capacity of the public
secondary level may not be able to take in the acceptable proportion of 7 million
children registered in the primary and that the present number of teachers may not
be sufficient for the future number of students in the secondary.
The Committee urges the Ugandan Government to:
- continue the school enrolment policies of girls;
- continue universal primary education (UPE);
- liberalize the education sector so as to increase the proportion of private
institutions which can compensate the shortage of public institutions.
The Committee further recommends to the Ugandan Government:
- to Invest more resources in the secondary so as to anticipate the massive
influx of children from the primary to the secondary;
- to emphasize the training of teachers, the increase of their number and to
ensure their equitable distribution across the country
- to create motivation conditions of teachers;
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