ONLY 2% of Ugandan children receive early childhood education, a report has said.
The latest Education for All Global Monitoring Report shows that Uganda has a gross enrolment in nursery schools of 2.1%.
This is a decline from the 1999 figure which put the enrolment at 4%.
In Seychelles and Mauritius, the enrolment rate is over 100%, according to the report.
The education and sports sectors’ 2007/2008 performance report showed that over 76,000 pupils were enrolled in pre-primary schools. About 38,000 of these, were girls.
According to the Education for All Global Monitoring 2009 Report, underage pupils represent the biggest percentage of grade one pupils and have high repeating rates.
A recent World Bank paper showed that early childhood education led to better school performance.
The paper showed that if pre-schooling is increased by 40%, repetition rates would reduce from 20 to 15% and school completion rates would be enhanced by 13%.
In a meeting by legislators and ministry officials at Speke Hotel Munyonyo, the United Nations Children’s Fund country representative, Margo O’Sullivan, called upon the Government to pay keen attention to nursery education.
“It is difficult and expensive to compensate for educational and social disadvantages among older children and adults than providing early childhood education,” O’Sullivan said.
She noted that the completion rate at primary level in Uganda for both boys and girls was 43% and the drop out rate was 57%.
though government does not invest in pre-primary schools, it has a partnership with private owners of such establishments.
Due to the absence of enough primary schools in rural areas parents are tempted to send underage children to primary schools, the early childhood specialist, Ndayidde Hajara, said recently.
Today, most nursery schools countrywide are neither licensed nor registered.
Uganda started Universal Primary Education in 1997.
Some educationists say this might increase the neglect of pre-primary education.
They argue that most parents look for only free primary education.
