The State of Youth and Adolescents Education in Uganda: Is Education still with us?

Undeniably, Uganda is one of the countries that has been transformed the most by the pandemic. This is especially true with regard to education. Schools were first closed by President Yoweri Museveni in March 2020 in order to safeguard student and teacher safety. And as 2021 progressed, plans to reopen were postponed as a measure against recurrent waves of rising cases. Due to this closure, 15 million learners missed education for nearly 2 years, a move that has resulted into serious consequences.

Today, the country’s pupils are in class again. Government reopened schools on 10th January 2022, and demanded immediate commencement of all learning activities. Current plans detail a 12-month period consisting of three terms, the last of which will conclude on December 9th.

Though this is welcoming news, it also highlights Uganda as the only country in Africa — and one of only three countries in the world — to have kept schools closed for a full two years.

How has the face of youth and adolescents education changed in that time, and how are public and private entities helping ease pupils back to normal? We dive into these vital questions below.

Ugandan Youth and Adolescents and Education in 2021

Uganda is one of the ‘youngest’ nation in the world, with 78 and 52% of her population below 30 and 15 years respectively (UBOS, 2016). With more than half of Uganda’s now 46 million people youth and adolescents, education is one of the few major strategies (others being entrepreneurship, health & family planning, and governance) through which a big number of young & energetic adults could be tuned into resourceful leaders of socioeconomic transformation as envisioned in Uganda Vision 2040, Africa’s agenda of 2063, and Global agenda of 2030. Sadly, concerning youth and adolescents’ education, a lot has been happening.

In the nearly 90 weeks between March 2020 and December 2021, young students have had to find non-traditional ways to complete their studies. In particular, private tutoring and online classes have been go-to options for those who can afford them. The Ministry of Education and Sports has been broadcasting educational materials through radio and TV, as well.

However, access and use of these resources has been difficult for pupils in rural, and those with disabilities, including the poor. In such challenging cases, life has been made more challenging by both school closures and restricted economic activity.

As a result, many young Ugandans have turned to working alongside their parents or other adults in their communities. The jobs they take range from farming and selling goods to working at mining sites. These students will likely never return to classes. Even for those who have returned to school, their experience with money will affect their studies or at least their relationship with teachers.

Meanwhile, many young girls are starting families; New African Magazine reports that teenage pregnancies skyrocketed between March and September 2020. Lots of girls are also getting married. It is reported that teenage pregnancy spiked by about 22.5%, resulting in thousands of them. And as a result of both of these trends, many are choosing to provide for their children instead of raising the funds to pay for school fees.

On the whole, according to National Planning Authority (NPA), nearly a third of Uganda’s 15 million learners are not motivated to return to schools due to early marriage, teen pregnancy, and child labor.

Even for those that manage to return, a lot of troubles await them. For example, while Uganda’s revised policy on early pregnancy and school says that girls should be chased out at 3 months pregnancy and be allowed in again at 6 months post-delivery (Ministry of Education & Sports, 2020), many schools do the contrary.

Already, the church doesn’t agree with government on this mission of educating pregnant and breast-feeding girls. The church insists that pregnant and breast-feeding girls inspire immorality to others, and that institutions are not equipped to handle them. On the other hand, the government says it’s possible! Who wins? Note that the church owns about 40% of schools, and most government schools are in shambles!

Because of this, only 8% of the whole 22.3% school drop outs due to early pregnancy among 14–18 year girls get second chance at education (MoES, 2020). This is terrible, and is against the basics of African agenda of 2063 and Global agenda of 2030 that instruct us to ‘LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND’.

Primary schools will be the most impacted by this phenomenon, with the National Planning Authority expecting 3,507 of them to close permanently. Secondary schools follow, with 832 slated for likely closure. About school closing, as we will shortly see, there is more to few learners returning to class.

Concerning teachers, a lot of them haven’t come back. According to The Guardian and Arab News, many teachers, especially those in private schools, found life in alternative work after their lives were almost cut short by unemployment. These aren’t coming back. Even if they did come back, they have two lives now, one for teaching, and the other for business at home.

Apparently, the private sector is a big sector in Uganda’s education, comprising of 40% of Uganda’s primary schools and 60% of secondary schools. Due to COVID-19 closure, most of these schools lost business, changed business model, some to restaurants, chicken farms, and or sold out due to bank loans. Employees lost jobs, and life completely changed.

The State of Youth and Adolescents Education: Government’s Efforts

Government says it’s trying to respond to these developments and concerns, but there is more that’s missing. As mentioned previously, government tried supplementing lower-income families with radio and TV lessons. However, I have found no evidence regarding the real success of this program. While a number of financial and material donations were made towards the program, and some insisted that it could work, Uganda’s parliament declined Ministry of Education’s request for the program funds. And there is no official report or accountability regarding the program’s progress.

Government had also promised to support private schools with finances, and other initiatives. However, this never came through (read here, here, and here). As a result, many schools have paused on education services and ventured into other businesses. Many have found dubious means to survive, including, increasing fees and adding other requirements, making it nearly impossible for the ‘common’ man’s child to go back to school. Many of them sold out. In June 2021, New Vision reported that more than 1000 private schools were on verge of collapse or auctioning due to bank loans.

You would think the government got touched, right? Well, no! Instead, in response, Uganda’s Minister at the Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development, Matia Kasaija, told private school owners to just sell out and pay debts. To the minister or government, it looked like private education sector meant nothing to the overall mission of youth education in Uganda. If it’s true, it’s sad! According to the Chairperson of National Private Educational Institutions Association (NPEIA), Mr Hasadu Kirabira, private schools take in about 6 million learners, employ more than 800,000 teachers and non-teaching staff, and contribute about 200 billion shillings in taxes per year. Is the government aware of these contributions? If yes, why would it risk losing them?

Later, some third-party organizations promised to extend hand to struggling teachers. However, the challenges of accessing such help remain real for most teachers in villages.

There existed other relief initiatives, for example, the Nabbanja cash relief project. However, one can’t tell their connection to teachers and youth education. Besides, while a lot is available regarding their promises and plan of delivery, for example, this report, less is available regarding results or beneficiaries. So, really, no one can tell for sure that a program X was implemented and Y numbers of people benefited.

Thirdly, the national curriculum has been revised and simplified from 43 subjects down to 21. Following Kenya’s adoption of Competency-Based Curriculum, Uganda introduced the same into the education system in February 2020. Based on this new design, lessons focus more on each individual student and facilitate more holistic learning.

While this new curriculum is expected to be a relief, focusing learners’ energy towards 21st century related skills and experiences, many educationists aren’t prepared for it. Like most government plans and promises we have reviewed, the new curriculum came in abruptly with no clear implementation plan.

One time in 2020, the Uganda’s parliament demanded for pausing the roll-out of new curriculum, a demand the government slapped in the face! Government went ahead with the program, securing its first 10 billion funding as early as January 2020. Of course, the program was rolled out at the same time school lockdowns were happening. In reality, the program hasn’t happened anywhere! Oh no! It has happened here! But surely that’s not the impact. Now that schools have opened up, we hope to see it roll!

Concerning the issue of government schools in shambles, the government commissioned an investigation into the state of these schools before re-opening. Through the Education Minister, Janet, a promise to renovate these schools was made. Parliamentarians, especially the opposition, requested government to authorize the diversion of school funds meant for other programs to structural renovations. Government listened, and about 62 billion shillings (capitation grant) was diverted to classroom renovations. Many schools, for example, Kabarole schools whose bad story had appeared in media, benefited quickly from these efforts.

In all its failures and successes, the government seems to be trying to catch up. While efforts have been haphazard, wasteful, and uncoordinated, there is trying. Various relief funds have been launched though with less efficiency, new curriculum introduced, schools renovated, and, yeah, pregnant and breast-feeding mothers have government’s support. So, maybe, there is hope. But what has the private sector contributed?

The Private Sector’s Contribution to Youth and Adolescents Education in Uganda

Private entities are stepping in to help, as well. The Bridge Uganda School, which is part of a network spanning Africa and India, is making online learning accessible to a wider number of pupils. Its @Home program provides parent-friendly learning guides to help participating children navigate modules, activity packs, and even digital storybooks. The initiative also lets pupils answer assessments easily via WhatsApp. Online education programs have surely erupted, but only in towns, and for the rich.

The poor, those in rural, and all those suffering various forms of disabilities aren’t benefiting at all.

Organizations, for example, World Vision, worked with government to facilitate home-based learning by facilitating teachers in communities, and providing study materials. However, these efforts are still limited.

Amidst these efforts from private schools and organizations, there are challenges. First, most schools are just businesses. In other words, they simply provide educational services in exchange for money, hiked fees. Wait, a recent report reveals that even government-aided schools are expensive, charging millions of fees for various additional and, sometimes, ‘weird’ requirements and services.

This has resulted into expensive private school education. Even if government has issued warnings against fees hiking, no one is listening! Earlier, in 2021, government had thought of harmonizing school fees structure across all schools, a move that failed in its infancy.

Private schools widen the gap between the haves and have-nots. By availing education only to certain groups of people, private education falls short of the global mission, ‘leave no one behind’. Whether it’s Bridge Uganda Schools that employed technology to reach learners or government that provided for radio and TV aided home education, most vulnerable groups, especially those in rural and or with various disabilities were left out.

In relation to the above insight, an earlier study report had insisted that private schools offer nothing better, except they are handling ‘advantaged’ kids from the rich communities whose home learning environments are already conducive. According to the study, if adjusted for home income and parents’ education, there is no difference in studying from private or public facility. In other words, instead of facilitating privatization of schools, efforts should be spent on improving homestead livelihoods.

In short, private schools have their own problems too!

Miklah & Youth and Adolescents Education: Our Contribution

#Education is one of the major pillars of #DemographicDividend. At Miklah, education is one of our focus areas, the others being health & family planning, entrepreneurship, and governance. Since our inception, we have advocated for quality education through our writings, and have gone ahead to design initiatives that directly impact education.

For example, our life and health program provides comprehensive sexuality education, which includes curbing all forms of violence, gender inequalities, early pregnancies, and HIV/AIDS, the major hindrances of youth and adolescents education.

Through our program, Sacred Entrepreneurship, we have embarked on providing youth and adolescents with relevant digital skills, enriching their education, and positioning school graduates for employment.

Recently, we have launched Research Ward, a research initiative that is helping students with doing great research, understanding research, and publishing research. This initiative helps in two major ways, developing students’ ability for research, and also influencing policy and the future of education through research.

Through partnerships, we are inspiring policy change for inclusive education. For example, recently, Miklah partnered with Source of the Nile Union of People with Albinism (SNUPA) to facilitate education and skilling of special groups of people, especially those with albinism. And this is just the beginning.

In the near future, Miklah is working on a plan to build a unique academy, the Miklah Academy & Resource Center, and this will embark on delivering 21st century tailored digital skills and technologies to youth and adolescents, both in urban and rural.

Summary & Conclusion

Ultimately, these initiatives are designed to help Uganda meet one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals: quality education. Quality and affordable education is also a focus of Uganda Vision 2040, and the African agenda of 2063, the Africa We Want. Bringing about quality yet affordable education for all through the help of the government and its partners will help the state of youth and adolescents education in Uganda to adjust and even flourish in the post-pandemic world. The government, with all its faults, is trying. The private sector is contributing. And Miklah is surely on the ground (see https://miklahlife.com/academy). What are you doing to contribute to inclusive and quality education of youth and adolescents in your community? Share with us.