Govt approves sh1 trillion funding for schools

Bujubiri Secondary School is the only secondary school at Kyaka II Refugee settlement in Kyegegwa district.

With just one permanent block and another temporary one, each with three classrooms, the school has a population of 1,085 students, both refugees and children from the host communities.

Despite these numbers, the school neither has a science laboratory nor a library.

Some of the laboratory apparatus at the school are kept in the headteacher's office for safe custody.

Bujubiri is not alone, there are over 400 other secondary schools in the country without science laboratories, according the education ministry.

However, these are to benefit from the second phase of the Uganda Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer Programme (UgIFT 2).

Approved funding

On Monday, Cabinet approved $390m (about sh1.4 trillion) for both UgIFT 2 and the Uganda Secondary School Education Expansion Project (USEEP).

Of the total approved fund, $240m (about sh889b) will be for UgIFT 2 whereas the $150m (about sh555.7b) will go into USEEP. The fund is a loan from the World Bank.

A total of 258 secondary schools will be constructed under both projects. This will include 142 secondary schools under UGIFT 2 and 116 others under USEEP.

The development was confirmed by Rosemary Nansubuga Seninde, the minister of state for primary education.

In an interview with the New Vision, Seninde noted that the secondary schools will be constructed in sub-counties without government secondary schools.

"With the creation of new districts and constituencies, the number of sub-counties without government secondary schools has increased. The Government has done its best to ensure that every child is catered for and that is why the two projects were approved," she said.

With the two projects, she said, government will increase access to education, reduce the number of school drop-outs and early marriages caused by limited number of schools in the country.

Each new school, she said, will have fully furnished laboratories, libraries and staff quarters.

"As government, we are to make sure that we improve education in our country. As a ministry, we appeal to parents to ensure that children go to school and that they are fed. School feeding is very important for our children to concentrate in class," she said.

UGIFT project

The UGIFT programme targets to construct 259 seed secondary schools, out of which 117 are under construction and expected to be concluded next month.

Construction of balance of 142 schools is expected to start the next financial year 2021/2022 although the contracts will be awarded this financial year (2020/2021).

The UgIFT 2 will also cater for the strengthening of the inspection system, through rolling out of the Teacher Effectiveness and Learner Achievement (TELA) system.

It will also cover the completion of on-going civil works in decentralised tertiary business technical and vocational training (BTVET) institutions, plus construction of science laboratories in already existing government aided secondary schools.

An estimated 21 technical institutions will benefit.

According to the latest project report obtained from the education ministry, there were delays in a few districts of Ntungamo, Mbarara, Gulu, Nwoya, Amuru and Omoro.

However, the report says, the education ministry is actively following up the issues on a case by case basis, to ensure that all sites are ready for handover next month. In addition, the report says, sh41.16b has been budgeted to operationalise the 117 seed schools, which will be ready for use next year.

The funds, the report says, have been budgeted across the beneficiary local governments in the current financial year and that it will cater for staff wages, ICT equipment, chemical reagents and science kits.

"The ministry is currently validating the seed schools to inform the recruitment exercise for staff," the report says.

USEEP

Of the $150m (about sh555.7b) for USEEP, $90m (sh332b) is a loan and $60m (sh221b) grant.

In addition to the 116 secondary schools to be constructed under the project, 61 other secondary schools in refugee-host governments will be expanded.

Edward Ssebukyu, the USEEP project co-ordinator, said selection of sub-counties to benefit from the project is still ongoing, and that the final list will be communicated by the education ministry top management at an appropriate time.

Through the project, it is envisaged that an estimated 2.5 million children will have access and complete secondary education.

In addition, the USEEP project which will run for five years has been designed to enhance access to lower secondary education by establishing a public lower secondary school in selected local governments without a single public secondary school.

According to the project brief, the USEEP will consist of four major components.

This expansion of lower secondary school education, which will support the actual construction of secondary schools, facilities such as laboratories and ensuring safety of children in schools.

Under the project, there is a component to support special needs education and provision of capitation grants for lower public secondary schools among refugees and host communities, and accelerated education programme (AEP).

The project also includes equating certificates of refugees to our standards, especially students who completed primary school outside Uganda.

The other components include improving teachers' support and project monitoring and evaluation.