O’Neill Praises Uganda’s UPE

By Felix Osike and AgenciesUS Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill said on Wednesday that he had noted progress in the Universal Primary Education (UPE) in Uganda.O’Neill had just returned home in Washington from a tour of Africa in which he was accompanied by Irish rock legend Bono. He said in some schools he visited in Uganda, the number of children sharing a textbook had dropped from 16 to six. O’Neill visited Kisimbiri Church of Uganda primary school in Wakiso.“That is good but it is not good enough,” he said. “We must set our expectations higher. Surely we can get every student his or her own book,” AFP quoted O’Neill as saying. He said there were still 125 million children in developing countries who never see the inside of a classroom.Statistics show that the enrolment rates for primary school children in Uganda rose from 2.5 million in 1997 to about 7 million this year. UPE was one of the promises in President Yoweri Museveni’s 1996 and 2001 election manifestos.Meanwhile, the global relief agency, Oxfam, on Wednesday urged O’Neill, who was due to deliver a speech to the Group of Seven Industrialised nations (G7) meeting in Canada, to lead the seven powers to commit themselves to raise $4b for education. “O’Neill should set the pace by committing the United States to give one billion dollars of the total,” it said. Oxfam also asked for $750m from Japan, $500m each from Germany, Britain, France and Italy, and $250m from Canada to achieve primary education for all children by 2015. The spread of HIV-AIDS was the most urgent and heartbreaking concern in Africa, O’Neill said. He said the continent’s development needs were not being met but offered no immediate answers. “In Africa, I saw signs of progress everywhere.Programmes are working, aid is helping and standards of living are improving,” O’Neill told the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. “But there is a long way to go. The progress I saw deserves praise but it just is not enough.” He highlighted three key development needs: safe water, primary education, and combating HIV-AIDS.Ends