Envoy decries high UPE dropout
Oct 27, 2004
The Irish ambassador, Mairtin O’Fainin, has decried the high drop out rate of 20% in schools in the Rwenzori area.
By Josephine Maseruka
The Irish ambassador, Mairtin O’Fainin, has decried the high drop out rate of 20% in schools in the Rwenzori area.
O’Fainin also expressed concern over the poor performance in national assessments, particularly the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) in the area.
He was on Tuesday signing a memorandum of understanding between the Irish government and the five districts in the Rwenzori region for a sh6.7b grant to improve the education sector.
The ceremony took place at the embassy on Yusuf Lule Road in Kampala.
The districts are Kasese, Kamwenge, Kabarole, Kyenjojo and Bundibugyo, which have since the inception of the UPE programme in 1997 benefited from Irish assistance through the Development Cooperation Ireland (DCI) support to the primary education reform programme.
LC5 chairpersons Joseph Rwabukuuku (Kabarole) Yokasi Bihande (Kasese), Sylivano Babungi (Bundibugyo) and Florence Beyunga (Kamwenge) signed the memorandum.
The grant will be used to support district plans, teacher education and information communic-ation technology (ICT) over the next three years.
“For each shilling spent, regardless of what activity it is spent on, we will want to know what difference it has made to improve the chances of the children in the Rwenzori area,†the envoy said.
He said since 2000, DCI had helped the five districts construct 323 classrooms, 81 pit latrines and 29 coordinating centres, provided resources for training and textbooks.
Ends
The Irish ambassador, Mairtin O’Fainin, has decried the high drop out rate of 20% in schools in the Rwenzori area.
O’Fainin also expressed concern over the poor performance in national assessments, particularly the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) in the area.
He was on Tuesday signing a memorandum of understanding between the Irish government and the five districts in the Rwenzori region for a sh6.7b grant to improve the education sector.
The ceremony took place at the embassy on Yusuf Lule Road in Kampala.
The districts are Kasese, Kamwenge, Kabarole, Kyenjojo and Bundibugyo, which have since the inception of the UPE programme in 1997 benefited from Irish assistance through the Development Cooperation Ireland (DCI) support to the primary education reform programme.
LC5 chairpersons Joseph Rwabukuuku (Kabarole) Yokasi Bihande (Kasese), Sylivano Babungi (Bundibugyo) and Florence Beyunga (Kamwenge) signed the memorandum.
The grant will be used to support district plans, teacher education and information communic-ation technology (ICT) over the next three years.
“For each shilling spent, regardless of what activity it is spent on, we will want to know what difference it has made to improve the chances of the children in the Rwenzori area,†the envoy said.
He said since 2000, DCI had helped the five districts construct 323 classrooms, 81 pit latrines and 29 coordinating centres, provided resources for training and textbooks.
Ends