Decentralized Primary Education: Potential of Community Contributions

Abstract

People in Uganda consider education to be critical to overcome pervasive poverty, which has persisted over generations. They cite lack of education as one of the major reasons for poverty. The poor often say that people with education have a better life. This is why communities continued to assist local schools during the period of social turmoil and the virtual collapse of public services in the 1970s and the early 1980s. The NRM has also been making education one of its priorities for development. In 1996, during the presidential election, incumbent President Yoweri Museveni promised the Universal Primary Education (UPE) as a new policy for poverty reduction. The UPE was formally launched in December 1996, and its implementation started the following year. It is essentially a subsidy to cover the cost of tuition for four children per family.¹

UPE has brought some good changes. For instance, children who could not go to school before can now go to school. But it has also brought the deterioration of the education standard. There are too many pupils per teacher. Teachers are making many demands, which was not the case before. If parents cannot pay the cost of school items, the school sends children back home.

A woman made a statement during a focus group discussion, Mukono, 19 August 1999

The amount is Ush 5,000 (about US$ 3) for each pupil from the first to third grade and Ush 8,100 (about US$ 5.4) per student from fourth to seventh grade per year (Uganda, MoES, 1998c). This standard is applied nationally.