Fix gaps in education to achieve SDG goal

As countries move to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Uganda has been chosen to spearhead SDG number four (on education) in eastern Africa, specifically focusing on early childhood development and gender equality.

The specific objective of SDG number four – to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’ – is premised largely on the progressive development in attaining universal education.

It is no doubt that since the introduction of Universal Primary Education (UPE) in 1997, enrolment figures have gone up, and this not unique to Uganda. According to UNDP, since 2000 the total enrolment rate in developing regions reached 91 per cent in 2015, and the worldwide number of children out of school has dropped by almost half.

While the enrolment figures have been impressive, the challenge – particularly in Uganda’s case – has been the quality of education and high drop-out rate due to a myriad of challenges. According to a 2014 UNESCO report, Uganda has a very low primary survival rate of just 33 per cent, Kenya at 84 per cent, Tanzania 78 per cent and Rwanda 81 per cent.

This again is not unique to Uganda as the UNDP report notes: “While sub-Saharan Africa made the greatest progress in primary school enrolment among all developing regions – from 52 per cent in 1990, up to 78 per cent in 2012 – large disparities still remain…”

These disparities are what Uganda needs to pay close attention to as we spearhead the implementation of SDG number four. Without addressing the core challenges currently facing our education sector, this initiative will be difficult to pull off. The government, for instance, recently released a damning report which gives a grim picture of our universal education programme.
The report, done by the Office of the Prime Minister, shows that proficiency for Primary Six pupils, especially those in UPE schools, have not improved for the last 10 years and the situation is getting worse with only 50 per cent of children in Primary Six achieving the basic proficiency levels.

The report attributes this to rampant teacher absenteeism, lack of or partial supervision of the schools, poor competence of teachers, etc. This report confirms previous findings by various organisations that there are huge gaps in the quality of education provided by UPE schools and private schools.

For a successful implementation of the SDG education initiative, we must ensure quality forms a fundamental part of the learning process beginning from early childhood development. This will, however, only be possible if the government takes bold steps to address the challenges facing our UPE schools.