UPE boosts EA's targets in education

Nov 26, 2013

The five EAC member states have achieved the global target of gross enrollment in primary school, but the community still falls far short of the secondary education goal.

trueThe EAC Heads of State summit is taking place in Kampala this week. The EAC Heads of State will be expected to, among others, approve and sign the Protocol for the Establishment of the East African Monetary Union, the third Pillar of the EAC integration and development process.

By Vision Reporter


The five EAC member states have achieved the global target of gross enrollment in primary school, but the community still falls far short of the secondary education goal, according to the State of East Africa report, 2013.

The report launched last week notes that Secondary School enrolment is low, standing at 28% in Uganda, 49% in Kenya as most children do not make the transition to secondary school.

Uganda and Rwanda have the highest Primary School Leaving Exam pass rates while Tanzanian and Kenyan students produced the worst results in East Africa.

A far lower proportion (less than 30% in 2012) of Kenyan and Tanzanian Secondary School students pass their respective national exams compared to their peers in Rwanda and Uganda where more than 88% passed.

The report examines progress made towards inclusiveness and equity for regional integration to benefit citizens. It examines regional economic participation and how fruits of economic growth are shared amongst nationals.

It looks into the participation of citizens in the economy, the quality of regional institutions, economic and social drivers of inequality, the future of inequality in the region and agenda for policy engagement.

The report concludes that the EAC requires policies that will enable the poor people to participate in economic growth and have a share of income and wealth if the region is to transform. It notes that although there are well-articulated policies, there is no political will, which is impaired by weak capacity to implement policies.

There is need to improve the welfare of the poor and address challenges of food security for children and the quality of education. It calls for increase in the productive capacity of the region to promote product diversification, trade promotion and facilitation.

It also proposes regional Governments to invest in vocational training, skills development, technology transfer, supporting enterprise start-ups, scale-up including business incubation and incentives, market development and trade facilitation.

The report says that there is need to manage citizens’ growing expectations for better services delivered by Government amidst declining aid in Rwanda and Uganda.

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Population composition and structure

The report says that the EAC population increased to an estimated 144 million people in 2012, up from 139 million people in 2010, with a young population, mainly in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda.

However, there are poor records of birth registrations in the region, with figures of the poorest households not being captured.

The economy

The report enumerates that the regional economy grew at an average of 6% growth in 2011 and a GDP of $83 billion in that year. However, there are inter-country differences in per capita incomes.

Total trade expanded to $45.8 billion in 2011 from $37.5 billion in 2010. Imports dominated regional trade, accounting for 79% of the region’s total trade expansion and for 72% of total trade.

Although exports increased by $1.76 billion, they accounted for just 21% of trade growth and only 28% of the region’s total trade in 2011. The region attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows of $3.9 billion in 2012, a $1.8 billion increase from $2.6 billion in 2011.

With a combined total inflow of $3.4 billion, the two main energy rich countries of Uganda and Tanzania received 90% of the investment inflows into the region.

The report points out that the gap between the rich and poor is more marked in Burundi followed by Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. This is attributed to a rapid change in the structure of the regional economy that is largely agro-based and smaller industrial and services sectors.

East Africa’s industrial sector employed about 560,000 workers in 2012. With an estimated labour force of about 77 million in 2010, industrial employment accounted for less than 1 per cent of the region’s total labour force.

The report proposes that in order to reach the goal of 2.3 million people working in manufacturing, the region’s industrial sector jobs will have to expand five times in the next 20 years.

Corruption

The police account for 50% of the most corrupt sectors in the region followed by the judiciary at 30%. The police departments in all five member states appear in the top 10 most corrupt institutions.

The report says that this points to the harsh reality experienced by citizens in dealing with law enforcement institutions in the region.

“When confronted with corrupt practices, few citizens in the region bother to make official complaints,” the report reads in part.

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