By Arthur Baguma

THE education sector has again taken a lion’s share of the national budget. The sector’s funding has increased from sh633.43b in the 2005/2006 budget to sh720.26b next financial year, representing about 17.6% of the total budget share, up from 16% last year.

Education was followed by economic functions and social services sh704b, public service administration/management sh567.82b, roads and works sh436.7b, health sh381.5b and security sh377b, interest payments due 258.90b, justice law and order sh195.58b, agriculture 146.58b, accountability sh197.43b, water and environment sh116.02b.

Primary school teachers have a cause to smile. Their salaries have been raised from the current sh150,000 to sh200,000.

The budget, however, does not address crucial issues in the tertiary education sub-sector. As usual emphasis is on primary and secondary education.
Traditionally the primary sub-sector takes at least 65% of the education sector budget while the secondary sub-sector takes about 20%. However, experts warn that concentrating on the primary sub-sector at the expense of higher education is not healthy for national integration and human capital development.

All the four public universities will take sh77.19b of the total allocation to the education sector, with Makerere University taking sh48.3b, Kyambogo sh13b, Mbarara University sh7.1b, Makerere University Business School (MUBS) sh4.69b, and Gulu University sh4.1b.

Secondary education will take sh120b, tertiary institutions will get sh25.3b while primary education including the Schools Facilities Grant (SFG) has been allocated sh440b.

Augustus Nuwagaba, a senior lecturer at Makerere University says, concentrating on primary education was likely to derail the human capital development process in the country.

“In this budget, the tertiary sector seems to be completely forgotten and yet human capital development is a function of the tertiary sector. We in the tertiary sector are not happy about the budget because we have been ignored. Tertiary education is the basis of human capital development not primary education,” Nuwagaba said.

A World Bank Report, 2002 echoes his words. The report says, tertiary education is more than the capstone of traditional education. It is a critical pillar of human development worldwide.

“In today’s life long-learning framework, tertiary education provides not only the high-level skills necessary for every labour market, but also the training essential for teachers, doctors, nurses, civil servants, engineers, humanists, entrepreneurs, scientists and myriad personnel,” a report on Higher Education delivery and Institutions, states in part.

However, government maintains its policy is to give education opportunities to the entire country. Education minister Namirembe Bitamazire says the Government plan, which is already succeeding, is to give education opportunities to all Ugandans.

“In the next five or 10 years, we shall have less illiterate people. Those criticising the budget allocation to tertiary education should also remember that government has expanded public universities to four and number of government-sponsored students has increased from 2,000 to 4,000 today. These are good promotional policies for tertiary institutions,” Bitamazire said.

Nuwagaba says in the past it was funding of tertiary education by government, which bridged the gap between the poor and the rich. “Many of us wouldn’t have made it because we were from a poor background. Today households privately sponsor 90% of students in tertiary institutions, yet the majority don’t have the means to do so,” he said.

But Bitamazire says in the past, very few people ever saw the black board. “People should know that we have to move on as a population not individuals. If you have one graduate in the village and the rest are illiterate, he wont be helpful,” she said.

“I think the budget fairly addresses the educational needs of an ordinary person, but government should think of increasing funding at the tertiary level.

More and more pupils will be completing secondary education and few of these will have the capacity to afford university education without the help of the state,” says Jimmy Mwijusya, a parent.