Integrating human rights education in primary and post-primary institutions in Uganda

Abstract

This is a report on the UNESCO funded “Participation Programme” project titled “Support to the Integration of Human Rights Education into Uganda’s Education System” implemented by the Uganda National Commission for UNESCO. This project was undertaken in pursuit of Uganda’s commitment towards the implementation of the 1st Phase of the World Programme for Human Rights Education (WPHRE), proclaimed by UN member states in 2004. The report represents the findings of the study which was conducted to establish the status of human rights and life skills education in Uganda by looking at existing education policies and their implementation, learning environments, teaching and learning of human rights as well as education and professional development of teachers and other educational personnel. A National Stakeholders Workshop was held to bring relevant players together to discuss the presented findings and recommendations of the study and to identify priority areas which informed the basis of a Draft National Implementation Strategy for HRE in Uganda. The parti cipants also identified possible members for a National Steering Committee who will be tasked with overseeing and implementing the National Implementation Strategy and ensuring cooperati on and coordination between relevant stakeholders. The findings show that there is no comprehensive policy on human rights education in Uganda and the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) has not yet fully incorporated human rights education into the school curriculum. Diff erent organizations are involved in promoting some aspects of human rights education in schools, institutions and also in the informal education sector. However, these eff orts are not well co ordinated. Human rights abuses such as corporal punishment, defi lement, child labor, child traffi cking to mention still occur in the school setting and at homes, besides some tribes and communities are still practicing Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). These are attributed to low levels of human rights awareness. There are a few schools that have benefited from the human rights training specifi cally on raising awareness on the rights of children. However, many institutions and schools need to be educated on human rights education. There are inadequate learning materials on human rights in schools. Human rights is incorporated into peace clubs, patriotism clubs and crime preventi on clubs in schools but in most schools visited there were no direct human rights club. Several actors tried to influence the inclusion of HRE into the curriculum but faced challenges and several organizations that are implementing HRE in schools have complained of resource constraints hence a small coverage in activities on HRE. The communities were not being educated about human rights and so while human rights are promoted at school, they are still being abused at home