LEGISLATION FAILS EDUCATION
Legislation, is the process of making laws. Laws are a system of rules which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and penalties are always a form of punishment to those who break the laws. With this definition the picturesque of legislation is now vivid .
For all societies there must not be legislation but rather, proper legislation. Leaving vital sectors like education to be run monopolistically by whoever owns money has rendered this sector vulnerable.
Besides physical challenges like poor infrastructure in some areas especially in UPE and USE schools , lack of adequate personnel and staff etc.
It’s the learned and educated that change society. education is a necessary tool of society that redefines humanity, its hierarchy and system of administration.
In the 1995 Uganda constitution article 18 (i) The state shall promote free and compulsory basic education and (ii) The state shall take appropriate measures to afford every citizen equal opportunity to attain the highest education possible. Thanks to the constituent Assembly (CA) members that considered this article important at the fundamental time of drafting our current grand know .
The government took it upon its self to start up UPE in 1997 -1998 to increase access to basic education and later the USE in 2008 . This was progress towards achieving the goal of eradication of illiteracy amongst Ugandans. The government continued to put up a fund to keep the traditional schools and institutions of learning aided which was a plus for the government.
As the years have unfolded the population of Uganda has grown to about 50 million and about 18.5 million are in school according to the UBOS statistics in 2020 before the hit by COVID-19 pandemic.
this means the Education sector is a worth industry due to demand and it seems a perfect competition market where there’s free entry and exit . That’s why we see schools opening and others closing in the same interval.
The existing laws don’t meet the present conditions in line with regulation to investment , students requirements and fees/tuition. The education sector has been taken over with close to 75% of learning institutions controlled by the private sector ranging from kindergarten to tertiary institutions and now the government seems a distant stake holder in this business. yet it holds the green light that permits all these institutions to operate, the assessments here and academic rewards are proved and verified by its bodies like Ministry of Education , UNEB, UBTEB, Education service Commission, National council for Higher Education.
In the private sector, where education seems to be controlled. Institutions hike fees at any time they wish and also request for abnormal functional fees and requirements.
This is for the proprietors to accumulate abnormal profit margins, and sometimes to pay off their credit .All these at the expense of the common person in disguise of providing classic education services .
legislators seem not bothered this education tragedy, proprietors are using the lacuna in the law to take advantage and this left very many Ugandans unable to access quality education.
One could opt to join UPE and USE but since there’s no minimum wage bill , teachers here are regular absentees and they are not Paid in time at times and other times they are on strike demanding wage increment. However all this out dated legislation crumbling the sector, that mentors all other sectors can be done away. with enacting a researched and consulted education law/Act that can harness the future bearer of all sectors in this country and follow it to execution for the benefit of all stake holders.
Article by,
KATONGOLE ARNOLD
