THE POOR ARE EDGED OUT RIGHT FROM PRIMARY LEVEL
Feb 24, 2009
HIGHER EDUCATION<br><br>As she emerges from the garden with a hoe in one hand and a baby on her back, Joyce Namuli’s life seems to be centred on farming.
HIGHER EDUCATION
By Francis Kagolo
As she emerges from the garden with a hoe in one hand and a baby on her back, Joyce Namuli’s life seems to be centred on farming.
The resident of Kibanyi Village in Luweero district is an S.6 dropout whose dream was to become a doctor. But her father passed away when she was young and her mother, a peasant, could not afford to pay her university tuition.
At Bamunanika High School, where Namuli sat her Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education in 2004, she emerged the third best candidate with Aggregate 9.
Like Namuli, thousands of students from poor families miss out on getting government scholarships every year, yet they cannot afford to pay university fees. The students who get the scholarships usually come from rich families and would have attended the best primary and secondary schools.
Every year, the Government sponsors 4,000 best performing students in its five public universities.
Over 70% of such students come from well-to-do families, according to a recent report released recently by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE).
This contradicts the overall objective of government scholarships, which is to enable children from poor families go to university.
The report titled “Access And Equity To Higher Education In Uganda: Whose Children Attend University And Are Paid For By The State? details findings of two studies conducted by the NCHE executive director Prof. Abdul Kasozi two years ago.
The surveys were conducted in Makerere, Kyambogo, Gulu, Mbarara, Uganda Christian University Mukono, and Uganda Martyrs University. In the studies, social economic indicators instead of cash income were used as proxy for income. A total of 665 government-sponsored students in public universities and 749 private-sponsored ones were interviewed.
Why is it like this?
Experts say the rich can afford to take their children to the best schools, unlike students from poor families.
Besides, a rich child has everything in place for them to revise well. According to the studies, children from homes with electricity comprised 41%, while those from homes that depend on kerosene were 31%. About 33.1% of the students have parents who get salaries compared to 20.8% in the general population. Thus, the ‘rich’ child is assured of constant school fees, unlike the poor one who has to struggle to get even a meal.
Due to the disparities in income, the number of students admitted to the public universities also depends on the region. According to the report, the western region leads with 31%, followed by central with 30.1%.
Students from districts like Katakwi, Iganga, Oyam and Lira are underprivileged. Only 21.9% of university students are from the east.
The north, which is also the poorest region according to this year’s poverty report by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, has only 82,739 of the 486,700 students in the four public universities.
Way forward
Kasozi urges the Government to employ affirmative action to fight regional inequality in accessing higher education.
He also calls for an increment in tuition fees charged by public universities to curb under-funding.
“In order to deliver quality education, universities need to be given more autonomy to collect and spend more, provided they are accountable.â€
Kasozi says the Government should introduce a loan scheme to help students from poor families who cannot afford to pay high fees. The loan scheme has been successful in Kenya and Ghana; it can work in Uganda, too, he says. “You can only protect the poor by putting structures in society that help them send their children to school,†Kasozi stresses.
By Francis Kagolo
As she emerges from the garden with a hoe in one hand and a baby on her back, Joyce Namuli’s life seems to be centred on farming.
The resident of Kibanyi Village in Luweero district is an S.6 dropout whose dream was to become a doctor. But her father passed away when she was young and her mother, a peasant, could not afford to pay her university tuition.
At Bamunanika High School, where Namuli sat her Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education in 2004, she emerged the third best candidate with Aggregate 9.
Like Namuli, thousands of students from poor families miss out on getting government scholarships every year, yet they cannot afford to pay university fees. The students who get the scholarships usually come from rich families and would have attended the best primary and secondary schools.
Every year, the Government sponsors 4,000 best performing students in its five public universities.
Over 70% of such students come from well-to-do families, according to a recent report released recently by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE).
This contradicts the overall objective of government scholarships, which is to enable children from poor families go to university.
The report titled “Access And Equity To Higher Education In Uganda: Whose Children Attend University And Are Paid For By The State? details findings of two studies conducted by the NCHE executive director Prof. Abdul Kasozi two years ago.
The surveys were conducted in Makerere, Kyambogo, Gulu, Mbarara, Uganda Christian University Mukono, and Uganda Martyrs University. In the studies, social economic indicators instead of cash income were used as proxy for income. A total of 665 government-sponsored students in public universities and 749 private-sponsored ones were interviewed.
Why is it like this?
Experts say the rich can afford to take their children to the best schools, unlike students from poor families.
Besides, a rich child has everything in place for them to revise well. According to the studies, children from homes with electricity comprised 41%, while those from homes that depend on kerosene were 31%. About 33.1% of the students have parents who get salaries compared to 20.8% in the general population. Thus, the ‘rich’ child is assured of constant school fees, unlike the poor one who has to struggle to get even a meal.
Due to the disparities in income, the number of students admitted to the public universities also depends on the region. According to the report, the western region leads with 31%, followed by central with 30.1%.
Students from districts like Katakwi, Iganga, Oyam and Lira are underprivileged. Only 21.9% of university students are from the east.
The north, which is also the poorest region according to this year’s poverty report by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, has only 82,739 of the 486,700 students in the four public universities.
Way forward
Kasozi urges the Government to employ affirmative action to fight regional inequality in accessing higher education.
He also calls for an increment in tuition fees charged by public universities to curb under-funding.
“In order to deliver quality education, universities need to be given more autonomy to collect and spend more, provided they are accountable.â€
Kasozi says the Government should introduce a loan scheme to help students from poor families who cannot afford to pay high fees. The loan scheme has been successful in Kenya and Ghana; it can work in Uganda, too, he says. “You can only protect the poor by putting structures in society that help them send their children to school,†Kasozi stresses.