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The right to education of children in Uganda

The fact finding was a project that assessed the right to education of children living in communities around Makerere University, namely; Wandegeya, Katanga, Kikoni and Kikumikikumi. Several schools both public and private were visited. The mission explored the extent to which the right has been promoted and fulfilled and the challenges that have been faced in the fulfillment of this right.
The main findings were that:
• There is a lot of ignorance of the children’s right to education.
• A number of government schools do exist in these communities to provide both primary and secondary education.
• There are very few teachers in these public schools.
• These public schools charge the children certain fees.
• The classrooms are overcrowded with children.
• The children do not receive quality education.
• The children do not have scholastic materials.
• Most of the children that attend these schools come from poor families.
• Most of parents of these children pay little or no attention to the education of the children.
The fact finding mission was a research project. It was not just a collection of hard facts but rather a basis for further investigation of the right to education of children living around Makerere University. The mission generated facts which can form the basis of a PIL case to help children in these communities enjoy the right to education.
 

3.0   INTRODUCTION
Katanga, Kikoni, Kikumikikumi and Wandegeya are some of the communities around Makerere University located in Kawempe Division, Kampala district in Uganda. There are very many people living in these communities. There are also many school going school in these communities.
The right to education is one of the fundamental rights of a human being. The right is recognized under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is also recognized under various international and regional instruments to which Uganda is a party. The International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights was adopted in 1966 and it addresses, among other concerns, the right to education. It was ratified by Uganda in 1987. Likewise the Convention on the Rights of the Child (which Uganda ratified in 1990) deals with children’s rights including the right to education. In 1979 the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women was adopted and it was ratified by Uganda in 1985. The Convention recognizes women’s rights including the right to education. Other instruments include the UNESCO Convention Against Discrimination in Education and the UNESCO Convention on Technical and Vocational Education which were ratified by Uganda in 1968.

At the regional level, there are a number of instruments which have been ratified by Uganda that guarantee the right to education. These include; The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ratified in 1986), African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ratified in 1994).

At the domestic level, there are various provisions in the 1995 Constitution that guarantee the right to education. Article 30 provides that all persons (including children) have a right to education. Under Article 34(2), a child is entitled to basic education which shall be the responsibility of the State and the parents of the child. Objective XVIII provides that the state shall promote free and compulsory basic education and that it shall take appropriate measures to afford every citizen equal opportunity to attain the highest educational standard possible.

There are a number of statutes that govern education in Uganda. These include: the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act and the Education (Pre- Primary, Primary and Post- Primary) Act of 2008 which under section 4(2) provides that basic education shall be enjoyed as a right by all persons. The Children’s Act incorporates the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

The government’s policy framework on education is contained in the 1992 Government White Paper on Education. The policy framework draws its inspiration from the report of the Education Policy Review Commission which was chaired by Professor Ssenteza Kajubi. The government policy on education places emphasis on eradicating illiteracy and providing equal access to quality and affordable education. It seeks to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
 

3.1    STATE OF EDUCATION IN UGANDA
Education in Uganda is run by both the government and the private sector. Uganda liberalized the education sector in 1993 to allow private actors to supplement government efforts in providing education. However some private schools are financed by government in which case they are called government grant-aided education institutions. Private schools are at 27% at primary level and 66% at secondary level.

Uganda has four levels of education. These are; pre-primary education, primary education, post primary education and training and tertiary and university education. Pre-primary education is run by private schools and the financing of this type of education is the responsibility of parents or guardians. Primary education is universal and compulsory for children aged six years and above and it lasts for seven years. This type of education is free in schools implementing Universal Primary Education. UPE was introduced in 1997. Post-primary education and training is for four years and two years for ordinary secondary schooling and advanced secondary schooling respectively. This is also free in schools implementing the Universal Post Primary Education and Training programme. The government started USE in 2006. Tertiary and University education is governed by the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act.
 

4.0        The methodology used during the mission
Interviews were used as the main method of data collection. Quite a number of people were interviewed and these included parents (both fathers and mothers), guardians both male and female, children and teachers. Data was collected using interview guides and observation. Secondary information which was mainly of a quantitative nature was identified from Education Abstracts from the MOES.
 

4.1         Challenges encountered during the fact finding mission
Quite a number of challenges were faced. Obtaining information from public schools was not easy. Most of the teachers were hesitant to be interviewed. In some cases, it was not possible to speak to either a teacher or student. The case in point is Makerere College School (government-owned school) where the only person that could be interviewed was the deputy academics teacher and who was never around. In other cases the teachers in public schools who were willing to be interviewed opted for anonymity for fear of losing their jobs.

In cases where children were the interviewees, it was hard to extract information from them as they could hardly speak English. Those who could speak Luganda were too shy to answer the questions that were posed to them.
 

5.0           THE FINDINGS OF THE MISSION
Generally, there is ignorance of the right to education of children living in these communities. People do not understand what the right entails. Two parents in Katanga were interviewed and they confessed that they did not know that such a right exists. When the same question was posed to Annet Namukasa, the mother of a child who attends Wandegeya Muslim Primary School, she said that,

                “Those things of human rights do not work. You only talk and talk but they do not work. It is you to educate your child.”

In an interview with a teacher at Makerere University Primary School, this is what she said of the right to education:

               “It should be the role of parents to educate children. Failure to pay school fees does not mean that it is not the role of the parent.”

The people in these communities do not think that this is a right which the state must fulfill. In fact they are not aware that it is guaranteed under the Constitution, let alone international instruments.
Whereas there are quite a number of schools in these communities, the buildings of these schools are in a poor condition. During a visit to MUPS, the holes in the roofs would be seen. The iron sheets were very old. The windows of the classrooms were broken. It was the same case with Wandegeya Muslim Primary School.

However the case is different with secondary schools. While the buildings are not the best, they are far better than those of primary schools. To cite out examples, Makerere College School and Old Kampala Senior Secondary School have better classrooms.
Related to the above, there is overcrowding in the classrooms. The space in the classrooms especially in primary schools is not enough. In an interview with a teacher at Wandegeya Muslim Primary School, she said that primary four has 38 pupils. The size of the classroom when observed cannot practically accommodate 38 pupils. The case is the same for the pupils in MUPS where the primary four classroom accommodates 56 pupils.

Availability of scholastic materials is pertinent to education of a child. However, children from these communities do not have these materials. Joseph Lwanga, a twelve year old child who lives in Kikumikikumi said that he does not go to school because he was chased for not having books. When asked why his parents do not provide him with books he said,

            “I have no parents and my aunt refused to buy for me books. I do not have anyone to buy them for me and at school they told me that I should not go back if I do not have books.”

A teacher at Wandegeya Muslim Primary School said that some pupils come to class without books and they chase them back home because they cannot sit in class without writing. She added that government does not provide books and pens to the children.
There are also inadequate text-books in these schools. In some subjects there are no text-books. A teacher said that while she is teaching English and there is a big story, she just skips because there are no text-books.

Universal Primary Education is free and compulsory. This is however different in these communities. The schools with a UPE programme charge school fees. In MUPS, children in P.1 and P.2 pay 37,900 shillings while those from P.3 to P.7 pay 42,900 shillings. Children accessing nursery education pay 6,500 shillings.  When asked why the school charges school fees and yet it is government-owned, a teacher said that it is the school policy.

The right to education is linked to the right to food. Children need food if they are to learn. In the schools that were visited, food was available only if a child paid for it.  In Wandegeya Muslim Primary School, a child had to pay 30,000 shillings for him/her to eat food at school. Even after paying for food, a child could only eat posho and beans.

Availability of teachers in schools is central in education. MUPS has approximately 400 pupils. However there are only 12 teachers in the school. There is no particular teacher for a particular class. The teachers teach almost all the classes. The situation is worse in Wandegeya Muslim Primary School because the school has around 480 pupils with only 8 teachers. The teachers in these schools were not comfortable with questions relating to their qualifications. Nevertheless an interaction with them revealed that they were not competent. When asked simple questions in English, a P.6 child from the school could hardly answer.
The sanitation in the schools in these communities is not good. The school toilets are not good for the health of the children.
 

5.1                  RECOMMENDATIONS
• The salaries of teachers should be increased to boast morale.
• The government should provide schools with scholastic materials like books, pens and pencils. It should also provide text-books to the schools to be accessed by children.
• More teachers should be recruited and those in the schools should be trained further to ensure provision of quality education to the children in these communities.
• The government should monitor the schools in the communities to ensure that there is no charge on UPE and USE.
• The children attending school in these communities should be given breakfast and lunch at no cost. This should be funded by the government.
• The building of schools in these communities especially primary schools should be renovated and more buildings set up to reduce on overcrowding classrooms.
• The teachers in these schools should be encouraged by government to incorporate sex education to reduce on school drop-outs due to childhood pregnancies.       

  CONCLUSION

The right to education particularly the right to free and compulsory primary education is recognized in various international and regional instruments to which Uganda is a party. The Constitution and a number of statutes guarantee the right of children to education, more so basic education. The policy framework also seeks to progressively realize the right to education in Uganda. However there is a disconnect between the legal and policy framework and the reality as revealed in this fact finding mission to the communities around Makerere University.
Although the government has tried to promote and fulfill the right to education of the children in these communities, it is crystal clear that a lot needs to be done. The introduction of UPE and USE was a positive step and more steps need to be taken if children in the communities around Makerere University are to enjoy the right to education.