Quality crucial for UPE programme to excel
Jan 09, 2005
A study by the Uganda National Examinations Board has painted a gloom picture of the competence level of children graduating from our primary schools.<br>
A study by the Uganda National Examinations Board has painted a gloom picture of the competence level of children graduating from our primary schools.
Education minister, Khiddu Makubuya, was right to describe as “disturbing†the findings that up to 64% of the P.3 pupils in our education system had not achieved the desired literacy and numeracy levels while as high as 80% of those in P.6 were also below par in competency level. (See Education Vision of today).
The above scenario requires urgent attention if the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme is not to be undermined. With UPE raising access to 90%, government should now shift more attention to quality and retention.
Since UPE inception in 1997, the focus has mainly been on increasing access at the expense of quality. Yet quality determines how much and how well children learn and the extent to which their education translates into a range of personal, social and developmental benefits.
Goal Six of the 2000 Dakar Framework of Action emphasises the need to improve all aspects of the quality of education. Yet, as the National Assessment of Progress in Education report highlights, too many pupils are leaving school without mastering the minimum set of cognitive and non-cognitive skills.
Critics are likely to blame UPE for the low proficiency level. But their blame would be baseless because the Ugandan situation is what obtains in the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries, according to the Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2005.
In El Salvador, the grade six proficiency level was at 40% while in Honduras, performance of 90% of the pupils in the same grade was considered unsatisfactory. But that should not justify our situation.
The Government should at once institute intervention measures to rectify the situation. Policies like automatic promotion should be reviewed and stakeholders sensitised on their roles to ensure UPE success.
Education minister, Khiddu Makubuya, was right to describe as “disturbing†the findings that up to 64% of the P.3 pupils in our education system had not achieved the desired literacy and numeracy levels while as high as 80% of those in P.6 were also below par in competency level. (See Education Vision of today).
The above scenario requires urgent attention if the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme is not to be undermined. With UPE raising access to 90%, government should now shift more attention to quality and retention.
Since UPE inception in 1997, the focus has mainly been on increasing access at the expense of quality. Yet quality determines how much and how well children learn and the extent to which their education translates into a range of personal, social and developmental benefits.
Goal Six of the 2000 Dakar Framework of Action emphasises the need to improve all aspects of the quality of education. Yet, as the National Assessment of Progress in Education report highlights, too many pupils are leaving school without mastering the minimum set of cognitive and non-cognitive skills.
Critics are likely to blame UPE for the low proficiency level. But their blame would be baseless because the Ugandan situation is what obtains in the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries, according to the Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2005.
In El Salvador, the grade six proficiency level was at 40% while in Honduras, performance of 90% of the pupils in the same grade was considered unsatisfactory. But that should not justify our situation.
The Government should at once institute intervention measures to rectify the situation. Policies like automatic promotion should be reviewed and stakeholders sensitised on their roles to ensure UPE success.