The State Minister of Finance (general duties) Henry Musasizi has accused members of the Forum for Democratic Change – FDC party for sabotaging the Universal Primary Education-UPE Program.
He says that when the FDC was still the main opposition party in Uganda, their political campaign strategies involved sabotaging NRM Government’s social economic transformation initiatives including UPE, and it is one of the reasons why some people developed a negative mindset about the program.
Musasizi who is also the Rubanda East Mp made the statements while addressing locals at Kakariisa Catholic Church in Nangara Parish, Nyamweru Subcounty, Rubanda District.
“Politics of sabotage by the FDC made people think that children who go to the UPE schools cannot succeed in life, but that is not true,” Musaisizi said.
He gave an example of his own career pointing out that he started primary education at a Church School at his home village in Rubanda District where pupils sat on old mats during classes and the school lacked trained teachers.
“We sat on old mats during lessons, and our school didn’t have trained teachers, yet here we are. But the UPE Schools are far better because Government has equipped them with required learning facilities, and trained teachers” he said.
The Minister also expressed concern that some parents were misled into selling land to pay school fees for their children in private schools, yet Government has provided access to free education at both primary and secondary School level. He asked religious leaders and other opinion leaders to market the UPE and USE schools in order to change the negative mindset about the free education program.
“Tell our parents that all they need is to buy uniforms and pack some food (lunch) for their children. The rest Government has paid” Musasizi said.
While addressing Greater Kabale District leaders recently, the RDC Secretariat Commissioner for Karamoja sub-region, Fred Bamwiine expressed concern that despite Government introducing the UPE program about 27 years ago, there was still a large number of Ugandans aged 20-25, unable to read or write.
Bamwiine gave an example of recent Local Defense Unit –LDU recruitment in which they were forced to remove academic qualifications after Government could not find enough qualified people in some sub counties.
Universal Primary Education was introduced in January 1997, following a political commitment by President Yoweri Museveni that the Government would meet the cost of primary education for all children from economically vulnerable families. In follow-up to UPE 10 years later, the Government introduced Universal Secondary Education (USE) policy in order to increase access to secondary education for the needy children.
Over the years a number of challenges have been reported in the free education program. The challenges which have largely affected performance of the Schools running both programs have resulted in inferior academic performance compared to the private schools.
However, Government insists that the primary objective for UPE is improving literacy levels, rather than quality academic performance.
“If all adult Ugandans could be able to read and write, that would be a mission accomplished for the UPE program,” Deputy Director General of the Internal Security Organization – ISO, Col. Emmy Katabazi said in one of the media engagements early this year.
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