THIS WEEK: 50% of Ugandans would spend more to pay teachers better, global survey

THIS WEEK: 50% of Ugandans would spend more to pay teachers better, global survey

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Global Parents Survey 2018 released last week shows that more than any other country polled across the world, if there were additional funds to spend on their children, 56% of parents in Uganda would like to see it spent on better pay for teachers. The country with the second highest demand for better pay for teachers was the US (47%). By contrast, only 14% of Indonesian parents listed better pay for teachers as among their top choices for allocating hypothetical additional funds, the lowest of any country surveyed.

Most comprehensive global study ever of parents’ attitudes towards their children’s education conducted across 29 countries by global education charity the Varkey Foundation also shows that Ugandan parents are the least concerned of any country surveyed about their children’s happiness at school with only 20% citing this as among the three things that cause them the most anxiety about their child at school.

The parents surveyed also rated free to attend schools under programmes – Universal Primary and Secondary Education are very poor even though many noted that cost is the most significant factor that many of them consider while picking their children’s schools.

However, 29% of the parents reported they did not get their first choice of school for their child, more than any other country surveyed apart from Singapore at 31%. Other countries surveyed in the online poll that involved 27,000 parents include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, Uganda, the UK, and Vietnam.