In the next five years, NRM’s policy will be to continue improving the quality of education and strengthening UPE, USE, Technical/Vocational and Tertiary Education through the following:
i) Universal Primary Education
Recruitment of more teachers to bring down the teacher: pupil ratio from the current 1:57 to 1:45. In this respect:
Each class shall get a class teacher as a minimum; for example, a primary seven school will be allocated seven teachers, and that the allocation will be in line with the number of streams in a class. Furthermore, NRM will introduce refresher courses for teachers;
Head teachers shall not be part of the teachers’ ceiling but rather shall be over and above the ceiling.
NRM reforms will include improvement in the management of the pay roll;
In order to implement (a) above, an additional 20,000 teachers will be recruited to add to the 130,000 teachers already in service, thus increasing the number of teachers in primary education to 150,000. NRM has now provided funds to the District Service Commissions to effect the recruitment of the 8,000 teachers on top of the 20,000 who should have been recruited under the 2009/2010 budget. . The recruitment will be completed within the 2010/2011 financial year.
NRM will progressively increase teachers’ salaries in the next five years, starting with financial year 2010/11 during which the starting salary was increased by 30% from 200,000/= to 260,000/= for teachers generally, while those in the hard- to- reach areas had theirs increased to 338,000/=. In order to motivate teachers further, Government introduced a promotion scheme within the teaching service like it is in the rest of the public service. For instance, a teacher can now be promoted to Senior and later to Principal level. At every promotion level there is an increase on the salary.
Construction of additional classrooms in all primary schools to bring down the pupil:classroom ratio of 65:1 to 54:1 by 2015
Construction of teachers’ houses starting with the hard-to-reach areas and then extending the programme to the rest of the country;
NRM Government will strictly observe the Education Act 2008, that outlaws payments of any kind of fees in UPE, USE and BTVET schools. NRM will not tolerate any charges imposed by head teachers or parents associations;
In respect to Karamoja region, NRM will continue with the policy of providing both UPE and USE through boarding schools. This policy will be extended to Islands as well;
Provision of teaching materials to achieve a pupil book ratio of 2:1. To achieve this, NRM Government shall commit about 6-8% of the Education Sector Budget to the procurement and distribution of instructional materials in primary schools;
In order to ensure quality in the education system, the NRM Government will compel the administrative structures in the districts play their role in monitoring and supervising service providers in both public and private schools. Government will strengthen the capacity of District Inspectors of Schools. It is planned to have an Inspector for every County. The inspectors will also be provided with motorcycles. This however, will not take away the overall national responsibility of the Directorate of Education Standards Agency to inspect, monitor and supervise schools to ensure quality education.
The above measures will improve the quality of education and performance in government schools. As pointed out above, NRM Government will improve on the inspection system by the inspectors and sensitise the parents, elected leaders and administrative leaders like Chiefs to play their role in supervision of schools. The NRM Goverment will ensure that the teachers do not absent themselves and that they attend to the pupils. Efforts will be made to address the weak links in public schools, which include: the weak Boards of Governors (BoG) and School Management Committees (SMC), the weak/absentee Head teachers and the weak/ineffective inspectorate.
ii) Universal Secondary Education/Technical and Vocational Education
In order to consolidate the achievements in USE/BTVET, we will implement the following measures in the next five years:
NRM target is to have a government seed secondary school in every sub county. A total of 83 seed secondary schools have been constructed in the last five years. This financial year, 2010/11, 17 seed schools will be constructed. Subsequently, 20 seed schools will be constructed annually, thus bringing the total number of schools to 100 to be constructed in the next five years;
Extension of the Universal Secondary Education to higher education, i.e. Senior 5 and 6, BTVET and Technical Education;
Rehabilitation of the old secondary schools and establishment of centres of excellence in some of the schools;
Construction of laboratories and libraries: In the next five years Government will construct and equip 475 laboratories and 639 libraries. This will aim at filling the gap in achievements so far attained and and enhance the teaching of science;.
NRM will continue giving incentives to investors in private schools including the current policy of not taxing private schools;
NRM will progressively improve the curricullum to meet the job market requirements;
Construction and rehabilitation of Technical and Vocational Schools. Our target is to have a technical/vocational institute in every district. Currently only 49 districts have technical/vocational school or institute. In order to achieve the above target NRM will carry out the following:
21 Technical Institutes will be built in the financial year 2010/2011. Namely:. Amuria, Hoima, Kamuli, Masaka, Ntungamo, Mukono, Nakasongola, Namutumba, Pader, Yumbe, Kiboga, Bukedea, Kyenjojo, Lyantonde, Adjumani, Kitangwenda, Nakaseke, Lt. Col Nasur Amin Memorial Institute, Bumbeire, Kyeizoba, Kyabugimbi;
Another 2 institutes will be constructed in 2012/13. They are Kisomoro Technical in Kabarole and Maanji Memorial Institute in Mbarara;
Subsequently, (after 2012/13) fifteen technical schools will be constructed every year.
iii) Special Needs Education,
Pupils with special learning needs shall be allocated teachers at a pupil: teacher ratio of 10:1;
Special Needs Education teachers with diplomas who were being paid a salary of grade III teachers shall be paid a Grade V Teacher’s salary in order to attract and retain them.
iv) Public Universities
The policy of NRM is to increase access to quality university education. To consolidate this goal, the following will be carried out:
Government has been admitting 4,000 government sponsored students annually in public universities for the last ten years. As we expand public universities, the NRM government will review this figure upwards. This will be looked at alongside the current studies on the implementation of a student loan scheme.
The NRM Government will also increase funding to universities including private universities to carry out research. In addition, Public Universities will be assisted to rehabilitate and develop their infrastructure.
The following expansions of public universities will be carried out.
Arapai Campus under Busitema University will start this financial year offering applied sciences starting with a Bachelor of Animal Production and Management;
Namasagali Campus under Busitema has started offering a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Economics;
Lira Constituent College of Gulu University will become operational in 2012/13. It will be offering degree courses in Nursing, Public Health and Engineering;
A public University will become operational in West Nile region in 2012/13. Funds have been earmarked in this year’s budget to enable a task force plan for the said university;
Makerere University Business School will be elevated to university status in 2012/13;
NRM Government will also start a constituent college in Karamoja;
Kigumba Petroleum Institute will be developed into a public university;
The plan for establishment of Mbale campus of Busitema university is under way;
The measures NRM are proposing above will enable Ugandans attain quality education under the National Resistance Movement Government.