By Steven Shalita

In the recent past, there have been articles in the press regarding the role of the World Bank in influencing Government textbook policy and its impact on the publishing industry.

The latest article by James Tumusiime “Is the World Bank scare back in Uganda” (The New Vision, February 18) alleges falsely that the World Bank has broken its own rules on text book procurement.

Contrary to this evidently deliberate misinformation, World Bank procurement guidelines for textbooks were specifically designed to promote competition in textbook publishing, a goal which has largely been achieved in the case of Uganda.

The proposed World Bank support to the Universal Post Primary Education and Training (UPPET) project does not violate the Bank’s procurement and textbook policies. The project was prepared after broad consultations to assist the Government of Uganda in meeting the challenges of Universal Secondary Education (USE).

In preparation of the UPPET project, lack of textbooks was identified as a key obstacle. Textbooks are the single most important determinant of learning and their absence can block USE reforms. However, government resources are inadequate to purchase sufficient textbooks. Given the rising enrollments, additional donor support will ensure that each student has reasonable access to textbooks.

Because textbooks are one of the most expensive items in primary and secondary education, cost-effective procurement is essential to ensure books for all.

The Government’s public procurement policy, as outlined in the PPDA Act, is designed to ensure that procurement is not carried out in a discretionary manner. In the case of textbooks, the policy would ensure that quality books, that meet specified standards, are procured from the best source.

In the case of textbooks, the Government has assisted the development of the Ugandan publishing industry by leaving it to the private sector. Government procurement of textbooks is as follows:

lThe Government sets up an evaluation team composed of experienced educators and teachers to determine which books meet educational teaching requirements;

lPublishers of books that meet the teaching requirements are invited to bid;

lFor each textbook category, the Government establishes a list of up to five lowest-priced books from which teachers may purchase. The listed books usually vary in price.

lSchools are allocated a fixed budget and given the liberty to buy any combination of books from the list. The procedure agreed with the Government for procurement of textbooks to be financed by the World Bank is that they would purchase from the lowest priced supplier for each subject and grade.

The above procedure does away with the “winner take all” allegation of Tumusiime’s article. Given the Government’s plans to buy textbooks for each class, from S1 to S4 in the seven core subject areas, the procurement will involve 28 categories of books with 28 contracts awarded to publishers/suppliers. Therefore, a supplier that loses under English for S2, could potentially win under science for S4.

All suppliers of selected textbooks have an equal opportunity to bid, which encourages competition in publishing and eliminates risks of compromise at the school level.

The UPPET project is designed to support the Government’s objective of ensuring that textbooks of uniform quality are made quickly and widely available, through economical, efficient and transparent procurement.

The writer is the Senior Communications Specialist at the World Bank-Uganda

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