NiE to promote education in Karamoja and Acholi sub-regions

Mar 03, 2020

NiE is a worldwide movement that promotes the innovative use of newspapers in classroom teaching.

Many children in Uganda are still not accessing school, and if they are, they are not learning the skills they should be getting, Brechtje van Lith Save the Children Uganda Country Director has said.

Brechtje van Lith says in children accessing education they face various challenges including lack of finances, absentee teachers, overcrowded classrooms, lack of infrastructure and lack of materials.

On Friday, Save the Children Uganda entered a partnership with Vision Group to supply newspapers to 110 primary schools under the Newspapers in Education (NiE) programme. Save the Children is contributing sh220m towards the project.

Under the 2020 funding cycle, Vision Group will supply 2,505 copies of New Vision and 1,300 copies of the Luo weekly paper Rupiny, to disadvantaged schools supported by Save the Children in Karamoja and Acholi sub-regions.

NiE is a worldwide movement that promotes the innovative use of newspapers in classroom teaching. New Vision is the first media house to pioneer the programme in Uganda in 2003.

"We are happy that increasingly the media is coming on board and playing a part. We also believe that children have the right to get informed we have many laws in Uganda that articulate their rights but children do not always know their rights such as the rights to be protected and not to be subjected to violence, abuse, and corporal punishment," Brechtje Van Lith said.

 Vision Group Deputy Managing Director/Company Secretary Gervase Ndyanabo (right) delivering his remarks as Brechtje Van Lith, Save the Children Country Director looks on before signing a partnership agreement on February 27,2020. PHOTOS: Mpalanyi Ssentongo

The challenge posed by early marriage

Early marriage was highlighted as a major challenge that continues to affect access to education, especially for young girls. But it was noted that whereas the practice is illegal in the country and yet many children do not even know that fact.

 "If they do know they do not always understand how they can speak out against it or how they can report. NIE can help us through all of that. We need to tell children about their rights and inform them if they have any concerns on how they can report such incidents," Brechtje Van Lith said.

She said the UN Convention on the rights of a child clearly articulates the right of a child, and one of the founding pillars is that children have a right to express their views.

Brechtje van Lith said these rights are also laid down in the national policies of Uganda.

However, she said it is not clear that children have these possibilities in school, in the community, let alone in the media.

"NiE is one media that  helps children to realise their rights and that their opinion gets hard and that they speak out about issues that affect them and that they are being taken seriously and that they can also hold government, parents and their communities to account fully for their rights. NIE is helping us to do that.

We all know that it's still a  long pathway to go and we trust the NIE intervention will provide additional resources for learners to develop themselves get all sorts of information," Brechtje Van Lith said.

The Vision Group Deputy Managing Director Gervase Ndyanabo said during the signing ceremony at the company's head office in Kampala that children need to be protected and nurtured to grow up into useful citizens.

He observed that this places a huge responsibility on all stakeholders and Vision Group and Save the Children will play their part through the Newspapers in Education (NiE) project.

Ndyanabo said Uganda has a very high fertility rate which means that the country has a very large young population.

"All of us are responsible for looking after these children. For us we come in our humble way through the Newspapers In Education program," Ndyanabo said.

The New Vision Managing Editor for English language newspapers, Ben Opolot said the NiE project is in line with the company's vision of advancing society.

"At Vision, we seek to advance society and that can mean a lot of things," Opolot said. "But one of them is to see how we create opportunities in whatever way for all Ugandans. NiE is one of the good opportunities because it provides reading materials for children."

Opolot said urban schools in Kampala have well-stocked libraries and NIE plays a critical role in bridging the learning resource gap for rural schools.

Part of the sh220m availed by Save the Children to Vision Group will be used for teacher training on the use of newspapers in classroom teaching; project monitoring and evaluation and for the development of other instructional materials.

Save the Children has been in Uganda for 60 years. Its vision is that all children can learn, survive and be protected.

"We don't want any children to die from preventable causes, we want all children to have access to quality education and to learn and children should be protected against violence against children it should not be tolerated," Brechtje Van Lith said.

She added: "These are our big goals and in Uganda, we have made some good progress towards achieving all these big goals in partnership with all the stakeholders' government, civil society, and the media.

We are happy that increasingly the media is coming on board and playing a part."

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