The First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports Mrs. Janet Museveni has met Russia's ambassador to Uganda, Vladlen Semivolos, and discussed further co-operation in the education and sports sector.

The meeting took place at State House Nakasero on October 11, 2023, and was also attended by among others the state minister for sports Peter Ogwang.

The First Lady appreciated the friendship and co-operation between Uganda and Russia and was grateful for the support Russia gives Uganda, especially the scholarships through the education ministry. She, however, regretted the failure to fully utilise the scholarships sometimes owing to the financial constraints of the students who are required to partly fund their fare, studies and stay in Russia.

In recent years, the number of Russian state-funded scholarships allocated to Uganda has been steadily increasing and it now stands at 50 partial scholarships at bachelor's, specialist, master and PhD levels in the Russian Federation universities in the 2023/2024 academic year.

Mrs Museveni spoke about the lack of trainers of trainers that still faces the technical institutes in Uganda and called for possible co-operation in this field so that the Ugandans could benefit from the expertise of the Russian people, who she said have had a long tradition of training in all kinds of skills.

She welcomed the plans that are underway by the Russian Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Russian Orthodox Church to establish a vocational training facility in Kampala in the near future, which will be run by Russian experts to train Ugandans.

“This will be a major support to the Government of Uganda and to education in particular because this will take away the problem that we have now of Technical Institutes which do not have people with the technical know-how to train our people”.

She also lauded the good news of a vocational training project that has 218 fully funded scholarship slots for Ugandan females starting next year, while the males will be accommodated in the subsequent year. She said, “This is good news because vocational training is what we need right now”.

The relationship is of special importance

Semivolos said Russia attaches special importance to the two countries’ relationship in the field of education.

“Russia has always been a true friend of Uganda, a reliable partner in the education sphere. As of today, more than 4,000 Ugandans received their higher education in our country. We have always attached great importance to this component of bilateral interaction. A bright example of this is the establishment with our economic support of the technical college that later became one of Uganda’s leading universities – Busitema University,” he said.

He added that because they consider educational collaboration as one of the top priorities in the development of bilateral ties, President Vladimir Putin and his counterpart, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, held extensive discussions on expanding the co-operation in education during the recent Second Russia-Africa Summit in St Petersburg.

Semivolos said since the number of students studying in Russia has risen substantially, it is important that the existing legal framework is expanded by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Uganda and Russia on mutual recognition of education and qualifications. He added that this will widen the window of scholarships from Russia to Uganda.

He also said efforts have been focused on organising and promoting Russian language courses in Kampala under the auspices of Makerere University in order to help Ugandan applicants be better prepared for their studies before they travel to my country since it is the medium of instruction at the Russian universities and vocational schools.

Ogwang pointed out the challenge of the lack of sports doctors and their training in the country. He reported that during his recent visit to Russia, the sports minister of Russia promised to help Uganda in this area.

The meeting was also attended by senior technical officers from the education ministry including permanent secretary Ketty Lamaro, undersecretary finance and administration Dr Jane Egau, commissioner for university education and training Timothy Sejjoba and Mercy Mugoowa, plus the National Council of Sports general secretary Dr Patrick Ogwel.