Chair Details
NAME: Rubenstein Juliette
ORGANISATION: EU
EMAIL: Juliette.RUBENSTEIN@eeas.europa.eu
Co Chair Details
NAME:
ORGANISATION:
EMAIL:
Key DPG messages/Priorities
- Recovering from Covid-19: The effects of one year of closure of schools (for most of the classes) are already more than tangible, in terms of learning losses and child protection (increased pregnancies among girls, child labor as coping mechanisms, etc.). To mitigate further negative effects, the Government of Uganda needs to look at a safe way to keep schools open while respecting the SOPs (which includes teachers’ vaccination, shifts, increased spaces, trained teachers), ensure a wide return to school of learners and teachers leaving no one behind (for vulnerable groups in particular, including refugees, girls and children with disabilities), address the learning loss through catch-up programmes, and provide sufficient psychosocial support at school level for both teachers and learners.
- Education Sector financing: Public expenditure for education in Uganda has declined from 15% in 2012/2013 to 10% in 2020/2021 and is considerably lower than the average public expenditure of 16% in the Sub-Saharan Africa region (World Bank, 2019) and Uganda’s international commitments of 20%, that remain a key component to access funding through the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). Despite a regular nominal increase in the budget, the estimated spending per capita in education is insufficient to achieve the required goals of providing universal equitable access and improve learning outcomes, with a rapidly expanding school-aged population.
- Low and declining learning outcomes: The percentage of P3 – P7 children who could read and comprehend a basic story at P2 level has declined from 39% in 2015 to 33% in 2018 (Uwezo, 2019). This highlights decreasing levels of learning outcomes reported in other studies, that will most likely be exacerbated by the year-long closure of schools due to Covid-19.
- Low completion rates and transition to secondary and tertiary: While Uganda has made remarkable progress with improving access to primary education during the implementation of the Universal Primary Education Policy, low levels of completion has remained a major challenge for all children with only 33.5 percent of pupils who enroll in P1 able to complete P7 (National Planning Authority, 2019). Enrolment rates in lower secondary education are stagnating at around 30% over the last decade ; and 15% for refugees. Transition rate from P7 to S1 lags at 65%, though it improved from 50% with the introduction of Universal Secondary Education.
- Prevalence of gender-based violence: Gender-based violence has remained a major issue in Ugandan schools and communities, which has been amplified with the Covid-19 pandemic and the related decision to close schools. Teenage pregnancies remain a major challenge and cause of school drop-out, and are also on the rise in the aftermath of the closure of schools. A study (Raising Voices, 2017) identified that 93% of boys and 94% of girls, aged 11-14, experienced physical violence in schools. Sexual violence is also high, but it tends to be underreported due to the stigma and fear associated with these experiences. Teachers tend to be among the main perpetrators of these forms of violence. Psychological and social support as well as safe reporting mechanisms are keys to tackle these violence. The authorities must take punitive actions against the perpetrators to deter other potential culprits.
- Enter the digital age: The Covid-19 crisis has proven worldwide the importance of connectivity and digitalization to make education more resilient, ensure continuity of learning, including in low resource and low connectivity contexts such as refugee settlements. Digital solutions adapted to the education sector will create new opportunities for the learners and the teachers, expand the access to knowledge and learning materials, and is a way to master the 21st century skills that will be required on the job market. It comes however with the challenge of inclusiveness , to ensure we are leaving no one behind. Teachers will require more retooling and support to adapt accordingly and the curriculum needs the be revised to take these innovations into consideration.
- Comprehensive quality data: A functioning Education Management Information System (EMIS) is a must for evidence based planning, budgeting and monitoring of the progress, including in terms of learning outcomes. The EMIS has not been functional since 2017. The Ministry of Education and Sports needs to expedite the approval of the EMIS policy and decide on the adoption of an appropriate EMIS software. The Uganda Bureau of Statistic (UBOS) should complete the collection of baseline data without delay.
Objectives
Purpose and Objective(s)
- Provide a forum to discuss the performance and challenges of education in Uganda amongst development partners;
- Provide a platform for more effective and better streamlined dialogue amongst Education Developments Partners themselves, and with the Ministry of Education and Sports and other stakeholders whose roles and responsibilities have a bearing on national education development.
- Enable the partners to coordinate and collate joint responses & positions on sector related issues (policy documents, implementation and service delivery issues, education financing, monitoring and evaluation, key studies and other documents …). These positions will be reflected wherever needed in thematic EDP technical notes and joint responses;
- Enable EDPs to liaise with other relevant coordination mechanisms, to ensure a wider understanding of the issues in the education sector and wider participation in policy and other debates;
- Discuss issues in preparation or follow-up of ESCC meetings with MoES; and make recommendations on new themes and issues to be included in the education dialogue. EDP representatives will meet on a regular basis with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education & Sports to discuss the ESCC agenda and address critical issues as identified by EDP;
- Enable EDPs to contribute more effectively to joint review and monitoring of the education sector (Education Sector Review, Joint Monitoring Exercise and PAF monitoring missions, …) by coordinating input from the EDPs to its the preparation, and appropriate follow-up of actions, undertakings and recommendations in the appropriate education dialogue fora;