World Bank policies are skewed
Dec 21, 2008
<b>Letter of the day</b><br><br>EDITOR—I wish to respond to an article entitled, “Is the new aid approach a blessing or a curse to Uganda?†published on December 15. The World Bank was reported to have given stringent funding to Uganda’s education which did not allow the recruitment of mor
Letter of the day
EDITOR—I wish to respond to an article entitled, “Is the new aid approach a blessing or a curse to Uganda?†published on December 15. The World Bank was reported to have given stringent funding to Uganda’s education which did not allow the recruitment of more teachers!
This leaves one wondering whether the donors really care about resolving our problems sustainably! One would expect them to recommend strategies that are in line with self-reliance. “Give a man fish he you will feed him for a day, teach him how to fish he will feed himself for lifeâ€.
The developed world, together with our leaders, unanimously agreed on a Millennium Development Goal. Achieving Universal Primary Education was not marched with emphasis on the quality of education to be offered.
It is numbers which mattered and our African leaders are now bragging of success in implementing UPE, even if over 70% of the products cannot read and write in English, according to a study conducted by the Uganda National Examinations Board, five years after the commencement of the UPE programme in 2002.
Out of 361,500 pupils who completed primary school, only 46,995 (13%) pupils could read and understand English. It is absurd that we have to inevitably live like this. One of the biggest problems Uganda’s education system is facing especially in the rural areas is shortage of teachers followed by shortage of reading materials.
I quote Jane Adepo, a teacher of English who said, in an article of December 17, that in spite of the privileges her school has, being under the Ministry of Education and Sports and that of Defence, there is shortage of text books and she has to divide students in groups of seven such that they can all share the few available books. This is a scenario in a well to do school supported by two ministries.
Imagine the situation in impoverished rural schools of Sironko which don’t even have a few books to share!
Opposing recruitment of new teachers in a country where the teacher- student ratio is between 1:100 and 1:200 is an inexcusable mistake.
This is a sign that the World Bank does not understand our problems, but they feel obligated to do something regardless of whether the problem will be solved or not.
It is ridiculous to dictate on how local problems should be solved while one is seated in a developed country enjoying full comfort.
Donors who have the best interest of the poor in Africa should allow a symbiotic alliance between foreign and local strategies for a sustainable and lasting resolution to African problems because we understand our problems better.
But as I grill the World Bank, I think fellow Africans working with the World Bank and other donor agencies are letting us down.
They should concentrate on thinking creatively to find the most suitable solutions to our people’s problems.
Let them not be blindfolded by the comfort and satisfaction because poor people in our country are calling out to them for lasting solutions.
They should for instance advise the World Bank to
instruct governments to allocate funds for establishment of rural libraries in addition to funding public libraries.
They should use the funds available to motivate the few teachers in rural areas so that they can teach without distraction from pressing basic needs. Conditional aid should have limits otherwise, poor African countries will continue to suffer because conventional western approaches are not always applicable in solving African problems.
Isaac Wanansolo
Kampala
EDITOR—I wish to respond to an article entitled, “Is the new aid approach a blessing or a curse to Uganda?†published on December 15. The World Bank was reported to have given stringent funding to Uganda’s education which did not allow the recruitment of more teachers!
This leaves one wondering whether the donors really care about resolving our problems sustainably! One would expect them to recommend strategies that are in line with self-reliance. “Give a man fish he you will feed him for a day, teach him how to fish he will feed himself for lifeâ€.
The developed world, together with our leaders, unanimously agreed on a Millennium Development Goal. Achieving Universal Primary Education was not marched with emphasis on the quality of education to be offered.
It is numbers which mattered and our African leaders are now bragging of success in implementing UPE, even if over 70% of the products cannot read and write in English, according to a study conducted by the Uganda National Examinations Board, five years after the commencement of the UPE programme in 2002.
Out of 361,500 pupils who completed primary school, only 46,995 (13%) pupils could read and understand English. It is absurd that we have to inevitably live like this. One of the biggest problems Uganda’s education system is facing especially in the rural areas is shortage of teachers followed by shortage of reading materials.
I quote Jane Adepo, a teacher of English who said, in an article of December 17, that in spite of the privileges her school has, being under the Ministry of Education and Sports and that of Defence, there is shortage of text books and she has to divide students in groups of seven such that they can all share the few available books. This is a scenario in a well to do school supported by two ministries.
Imagine the situation in impoverished rural schools of Sironko which don’t even have a few books to share!
Opposing recruitment of new teachers in a country where the teacher- student ratio is between 1:100 and 1:200 is an inexcusable mistake.
This is a sign that the World Bank does not understand our problems, but they feel obligated to do something regardless of whether the problem will be solved or not.
It is ridiculous to dictate on how local problems should be solved while one is seated in a developed country enjoying full comfort.
Donors who have the best interest of the poor in Africa should allow a symbiotic alliance between foreign and local strategies for a sustainable and lasting resolution to African problems because we understand our problems better.
But as I grill the World Bank, I think fellow Africans working with the World Bank and other donor agencies are letting us down.
They should concentrate on thinking creatively to find the most suitable solutions to our people’s problems.
Let them not be blindfolded by the comfort and satisfaction because poor people in our country are calling out to them for lasting solutions.
They should for instance advise the World Bank to
instruct governments to allocate funds for establishment of rural libraries in addition to funding public libraries.
They should use the funds available to motivate the few teachers in rural areas so that they can teach without distraction from pressing basic needs. Conditional aid should have limits otherwise, poor African countries will continue to suffer because conventional western approaches are not always applicable in solving African problems.
Isaac Wanansolo
Kampala