Primary textbook deal turns sour

Jun 15, 2003

THE first ever regional conference on Secondary Education in Africa (SEIA) was held in Uganda with an aim of providing a forum Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries to share and discuss best practices in secondary education reform as the world’s attention shifts from primary to post-primary education

What a Week
By Joan Mugenzi

THE first ever regional conference on Secondary Education in Africa (SEIA) was held in Uganda with an aim of providing a forum Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries to share and discuss best practices in secondary education reform as the world’s attention shifts from primary to post-primary education.

The workshop that drew education experts across SSA and representatives of the donor community, was jointly organised by the World Bank’s human development department, the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and the Academy for Education Development (AED).

The Mbale Resident District Commissioner, Abbas Seguya, is not happy with the way the school management committees in the district are running. In fact, he has slotted the idea that about 90% of these committees should be replaced, arguing that most of them are involved in the embezzlement of UPE funds. You wonder about these people who have no heart for the little ones.

Proprietors of private secondary schools have cause to smile. Having contributed a great deal to this country’s education system, government has now seen the need to back them up. The Commissioner for Secondary Education, Yusuf Nsubuga, told delegates at the first secondary education workshop in Africa that government is to support these schools as a way of increasing the transition rate to post primary education and training. At the moment, private secondary schools outnumber government ones.

Your sins will always catch up with you. If in doubt, ask the publishers who failed to go by agreed agreements. Remember the tender for cycle eight? This multi-billion-shilling primary textbooks tender went sour after the Ministry of Education and Sports rejected over 500,000 copies, which they dubbed substandard. Two of the firms-Longhorn Limited and The Monitor Publications had to reprint the rejected copies at their own cost, while MK publishers was penalised US$13,443 (sh27m) as liquidated damages and another US$8,037 (sh16m) for breach of specifications. Any body thinking in manipulating the system, think twice. Hooray to the ministry for getting hold of these publishers.

For those who have been keen advocates of vocational training, the secondary education conference brought the World Bank (a key donor of the education sector), clearly stating that they are not interested. The bank’s lead education specialist, Jacob Bregman, said that education alone could not create jobs without appropriate labour policies. He said that vocational education is often mistaken for vocational training and stressed the need for defining the content of vocational education.

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