Govt to spend UGX 26BN on Education sector assessment

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Government has embarked on a nation-wide data collection exercise across all education institutions in the country to facilitate planning. The exercise is spearheaded by Uganda Bureau of Statistics –UBOS in conjunction with the Education and Sports Ministry.

It will be supported by the Department for International Development –DFID through the Strengthening Education Systems for Improved Learning –SESIL project.  The main objective of the exercise is to ascertain the actual number of Education Institutions in the country, develop a sampling frame of education institutions and document the process of the Master list development.

Speaking at the launch of the Master Education Institutions in Uganda (MEIU), the Education Ministry Permanent Secretary, Alex Kakooza, said the exercise will cover schools at all levels from Pre-primary to Tertiary level.

He contends that data obtained from the exercise will help facilitate proper planning for education services, monitoring and evaluation of different education initiatives as well as establish the state of existing schools and institutions.

This exercise includes understanding enrollment of pupils/students and teachers, non-teaching staff, number of classrooms and their status whether permanent or temporary. It is also help establish the ownership of the educational institutions, registration status, school type and whether boarding or day school.

The exercise is scheduled to take place from March 11, 2019 to April 30, 2019 within the current school term. 62 teams comprising of five members each have been dispatched across the country to collect the data.

This is the first comprehensive Master Education Institutions in Uganda survey to be undertaken.  UBOS conducted a comprehensive mapping of education institutions in 2009 through 2012 in preparation for the 2014 National Population and Housing Census. In addition, the education ministry has been conducting the Annual School Census –ASC.

Over the years, the exercise of updating the list of education institutions has not been done due funding gaps. But John Chrysostom Muyingo, the Higher Education State Minister, says they plan to conduct this project annually subject to availability of resources. He appealed to all stakeholders to embrace the activity.

In her speech read for her by Muyingo, the Education and Minister, Janet Museveni, said more than Shillings 26 billion will be utilized for the project.

A pilot study was undertaken in 12 districts comprising Kaberamaido, Tororo, Manafwa, Lwengo, Kanungu, Otuke, Kotido, Maracha, Mukono, Wakiso, Lamwo, and Rubirizi.

This was aimed at establishing the average time required to get data on proposed indicators, test the possibility of getting the required information from various schools and institutions by level and in respect to the unique characteristics.

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URN