My earlier comments on this piece
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 16:49:34 -0700 (PDT)
Actually, there is surprisingly little to explain, other than Museveni's monumental incompetence in this area. Here is why.
The answer is that there is an incredibly high drop-out rate. We have a pyramid with a humongous base.
Recall the UPE white-elephant. This pachyderm drops dead in its tracks after primary 3 since the majority of these pupils cannot afford to pay for education. They are joined by others in the same category each year thereafter. This continues until the numbers are whittled down to less than 0.5 million pupils registered to sit for PLE.
Lately, the PLE pass rate is in the PLE pass rate has been in the neighborhood of 80%. However not all these go no to get a secondary education.
Again there are further dropouts annually, such that only about 75,000 or so sit for O-Levels.Of these about 75% pass, but only about 25,000 (i.e. ca. 30% of those sat for O-Levels) make it to A-Level exams.
Of those who sit for A-Levels, fewer than 10, 000 pass to qualify for university. This is just a trickle of the millions who started in primary one.
Museveni's incompetence stems from his inability to grasp this picture and spend money where it would have the biggest return. IMHO, the millions squandered on UPE would garner a much higher return it they were put into vocational training for A-Level & O-Level leavers. This appears to be "elitist" at first glance, esp to those who think that Uganda's problem is a shortage of P3 (or even P7) leavers.
Museveni's other problem is that he has mismanaged the economy into stagnation, even as the population balloons.
No change?
Anne Mugisha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: MPs question UPE statistics By Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda July 29, 2003 Parliament wants to know the correct number of pupils enrolled under the Universal Primary Education programme. The government announced that 2,400,000 pupils registered at the start of the programme in 1997, but only 460,000 pupils from the first group are registered to sit Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) this year. The MPs want the government to explain what happened to the 1,680,000 pupils who should have sat for their PLE this year. Under the UPE programme no pupil repeats a class. Government puts the total primary school enrolment at 7,500,000. The MPs raised their concerns yesterday during a meeting of the Budget Committee. The committee includes chairpersons of all the parliamentary committees. Ms Dorothy Hyuha, the chairwoman of the Social Services committee, told the meeting that only 460,000 pupils would sit for PLE this year. "Government has to answer," charged Mr James Mwandha, the vice-chairman of the Budget Committee. Mr Kasirivu Atwooki (Bugangaizi) asked whether, apart from reported increased enrolment, the government has any other variables to measure the success of UPE. The Ministry of Education officials are appearing before the Social Services Committee again today to answer questions on UPE and other issues. They were sent away last week because of the absence of the senior minister, Dr Khiddu Makubuya and his permanent secretary. © 2003 The Monitor PublicationsSTOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*
