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Cont/...
The school year starts at the
end of January, although many children drift in much later if their parents haven't raised enough to pay their initial school fees. There are three terms with the main break running during
December and January. Some children attend nursery
school from the age of three, however most children in Uganda start
their education at the age of five or six in primary education which
lasts for for seven years from Primary 1 to Primary 7. Many children
start late, drop out or fail their end of year exams preventing
progression ~ only 56% of children complete their primary education
in Uganda. As such, many primary school classrooms, which can cater
for an average of 49.93 pupils, will normally have children of
variable ages in them. Many rural schools don't have access to
electricity and classrooms have no glass windows and are built with
tin roofs meaning that during the heavy daily rain that lasts
for an hour or so, pupils are likely to get wet and teachers
struggle to be heard as the rain pummels against the echoing roof and, if you haven't actually experienced that, when Ugandan rain falls, it falls hard, very hard!
At the end of Primary 7,
children will take their PLE exams (Primary Leaving Exams) which
informs their future educational path. The boy referred to above who
was often too sore to hold a pencil recently undertook these exams
scoring a 6 aggregate (English-D1; mathematics-D1; science-D2 and
social studies-D2) just short of the best possible achievable mark
of Aggregate 4 and well above the worst result of Aggregate 36. And
this from a 13yr old teenager who was an orphan, shared a bed with
his 20yr old cousin and lived in a home with no electric or water
with a family income of just 10UK a month for five of them after
bills. Quite an achievement or, as he emailed on getting his results
"Nice day".
Many of those who could progress to secondary
school, having passed their PLEs, do not do so as they have
competing demands to work within the family with many additionally
seeing further education futile as there are no jobs in any event.
In fact a lowly 12% progress from primary into senior education
(128th place out of 135 countries where data is available.) Senior education in Uganda is
split into two stages; lower secondary of four years at the end of
which students sit their Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE)
exams, better known locally as O-level examinations, and Upper
Secondary of two further years ending with Uganda Advanced
Certificate of Education (UACE) in three subjects, again, commonly
called A-Levels. (Some of a less education inclinated will attend
technical colleges instead of lower secondary.)
Tertiary education is
available for those who pass their A-levels and normally means
university or other institutions that offer certificates and awards.
Only around 3% of students progress to tertiary education, not least
because of its costs and the fact that in the country itself there
are only about 25,000 places available for 65,000 qualified
children ~ leaving wealthier families
with the only option of sending their children abroad. The primary curriculum which
was initially established by the British in the early 20th Century
was geared towards equipping students with the theoretical knowledge
to help run the colony but has recently been revamped to concentrate
on seven major 'themes': social studies, science, languages, maths,
creative arts, technology and enterprise and lastly life education.
The latter being introduced to equip Uganda's children with the
necessary life skills to survive in a world where for many if not
most theoretical concepts are meaningless when you have to grow your
own food and be a valued member of your village community to
survive.
One of the problems with
Uganda education is what exactly do you do with it. Older students
leave university and can't find jobs so children in local areas can
do very little with their education. As one 12yr old, who went for a
meal at a 'resort' with a member of staff at
the African Volunteer Network commented as he looked at the items on the table ranging from
ketchup to plates ~ they were all made in Kenya or China ~ "we make
nothing here, there are no jobs." Indeed Uganda has one of the
highest youth unemployment rates in the world running at 80%. This issue is further explored in the video below.
Schools in Uganda: Volunteer in Uganda
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Schools in Uganda: African Education News
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Schools in Uganda: Sponsor a Child in Uganda
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Schools in Uganda: Uganda Country Profile
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