Uganda’s tertiary education should be revitalised

Nov 02, 2010

HIGHER and tertiary education has been emphasised as a major development milestone.

Denis Tushabomwe, development advocate

HIGHER and tertiary education has been emphasised as a major development milestone.

This emphasis was pronounced in the World Bank’s 2000 warning; “Without more and better higher education, developing countries will find it increasingly difficult to benefit from the global knowledge-based economy.”

A number of African countries: South Africa, Madagascar, Ethiopia and Nigeria, have taken the warning seriously.

They have engaged efforts at ensuring quality in institutions of higher learning by apportioning a reasonable amount of the budget to the sector.

Taking the example of the South African economy as an example, education usually gets a big slice of the budget, usually around 20% of the total government expenditure.

Information on Uganda shows a different trend. The country has over 62 tertiary institutions with enrollments ranging between 74,000 and 85,000.

Of these, about 39% are female and 61% are male. Much as the education sector was apportioned the second biggest share of the 2009/2010 budget, with expenditure for the first time exceeding sh1 trillion. Accordingly, the country has registered a high number of institutions, and enrollment levels though still below the global average.

National policy makers need to adhere to increasing the level of funding to tertiary institutions to enable them expand operation scope and access science equipment, and recruit and pay competent staff to support scientific research.

There is also need to strengthen the National Council for Higher Education to enable it monitor private institutions in terms of curricula, programme structures, teaching methods and staff qualifications, to ensure relevance with the current level of global innovation and market demand, lest the current economic challenges-poverty, unemployment, hunger and disease will continue to suffice as the country is eaten up by underdevelopment.

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