Author: Cooper F. Odaet

Publisher: Washington, D.C. : World Bank

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 46

ISBN-13:

At the time of independence from Britain in 1962, education in Uganda was more advanced than in neighboring countries, although still unsatisfactory. This paper reviews the recommendations of commissions, educational reviews, and five-year plans for the development of educational policies since independence. There have been two main long-term government objectives -- primary school expansion toward the goal of universal primary education, and the provision of sufficient manpower of the quality needed to meet the skill requirements of the economy. The implementation of these goals was severely hampered by the events of the 1970s, which were a decade of "total national calamity" that affected all sectors of the economy, including the education system. The Recovery Program of 1982/84 was adopted to reconstruct and rehabilitate the educational infrastructure. The report reviews the present-day status of education in Uganda with regard to internal and external efficiency, equity, and non-quantitative criteria such as national policy and Ugandanization. It finds four remaining major problem areas : a) continued illiteracy; b) high dropout rates at almost all levels; c) unqualified teachers along with a shortage of qualified ones; and d) a widening gap between educational preparation and actual employment opportunities.