UPC wants 20% of budget for education

By Moses Mulondo  

Opposition Party Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) president Dr. Olara Otunnu has proposed that if Uganda is to have equitable quality education which will boost the country’s development, 20% of the national budget should be allocated to the education sector.

The former UN diplomat cited Singapore which has had economic development arising from providing equitable quality education to all the citizens.

“When you assess our PLE results of this year, over 50% of the schools did not get a single first grade. Only 7.1% of the UPE schools got first grades. Performance in Eastern and Northern Uganda has continued to decline. Even where there are upcountry districts with first grades, the first grades are in urban areas. This segregation is unacceptable,” Otunnu asserted.

Addressing journalists in Kampala on Wednesday, the former presidential candidate expressed dismay that the schools that performed well with many first grades are those with high school fees which the ordinary citizens cannot afford.

Faulting the current automatic promotions in UPE schools and limited resources allocated to UPE, Otunnu said, “We are facing an absolute catastrophe in our education. Education offered in UPE is not worth the name. We either need to scrap UPE or reorganize it.”

The UPC leader also regretted the fact that Uganda has the highest rate of school dropout in the East African.