| dc.description.abstract | Governments' position on educationally disadvantaged children is well highlighted by the Government White Paper (GWP 1992)¹. This is consistent with Article 30 of the (1995)2 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, which provides that ".... All person have a right to education ... that a child is entitled to basic education... that the state shall take action in favour of groups which are marginalized on the basis c gender, age, disability or for any other historical or traditional reason...." This means that, it is the responsibility of the state to provide education for all it citizens.
Arising from this Constitutional right, on January 1, 1997, the Government c Uganda introduced the policy of Universal Primary Education. A principal feature c that policy was the elimination of tuition and PTA fees for four children per family The resultant action was a massive increase in enrolment in the Primary Schools moving the country much closer to realising its goal for UPE The initial optimist forecasted the attainment of UPE by 2003. This is in line with EFA goals and the strategies laid down in the ESIP, which are geared towards achieving Equity an Access for all children.
Government in collaboration with NGO's put in place strategies for providing complementary non-formal basic education to those children who cannot get access to formal schools for a variety of reasons. These include interventions such a Complementary Opportunities for Primary Education (COPE), Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja (ABEK), Child - based Alternative Non-formal (CHANCE) MUBENDE Non-Formal Education (MNFE), Basic Education for Urban Poor Area (BEUPA), and Empowering Life-Long Skills Education (ELSE). However, there ha not been a policy framework to provide the much needed guidance for the implementation of Basic Education for the educationally disadvantaged children.
A framework for such an effort has been set out by a Task Force to develop costed policy for basic education for educationally disadvantaged children with broad definition of a child who is educationally disadvantaged. The framework also forms a key part of Uganda's commitment to the international Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in education, which are to: -
a) Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course in primary schooling; and
b) Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and at all levels of education not later than 2015.
For purposes of this policy, educationally disadvantaged children are all such children "who are experiencing barriers to learning, and are directly or indirectly excluded from or denied the chance to optimally participate in the learning activities which take place in a formal or non-formal setting". The children are educationally disadvantaged by the social, cultural, regional, political and economic environments in which they live. The age limit discussed starts from 6years to 18 years.
Among the educationally disadvantaged children are the following:
a) The girl child due to attitudes of peers, attitudes of teachers, attitudes of older and younger males.
b) Children of nomadic communities who have to move from place to place in search for pasture and water.
c) Children who have never enrolled in school, due to economic, social, cultural, attitudinal and other factors;
d) The primary school dropouts due to lack of school fees, interest in education, early pregnancy and marriage, discipline, oppressive school practices, teachers' negative attitudes;
e) Orphans, including those who, having lost one or both parents, have taken on the roles of heads of families;
f) g) Children who are infected with or are otherwise affected by HIV/AIDS; Children living in areas of conflict (refugees, displaced, abducted, those who shift with their schools in case of attacks on nearby villages);
h) Children living in geographically isolated areas, who often have to walk long distances to school
i) Street children who have left home due to social and economic conditions at home;
j) Children in both rural and urban areas who, because they must work to supplement family incomes, miss school;
k) Children with one or multiple disabilities including those who have difficulties in seeing, hearing, moving or overall difficulties in learning, or specific difficulties in language, whose parents do not perceive the value of taking them to school or whose physical and learning needs are not met at school.
l) Children abused by parents/relatives including not being given the chance to attend schooling;
m) Children who though enrolled in formal schooling are denied the chance for optimal participation in learning activities due to inadequate provisions of physical, material and human resource (quantity and quality);
The definition of educationally disadvantaged children as given in the foregor paragraph, has a number of implications:
a. It emphasises the establishment of a policy for educational disadvantaged children as a key ingredient of Universal Prima Education (UPE) because it recognizes the serious challenges faced t the vast majority of children.
b.
c. This definition considers improving educational quality as an integral part of improving access and it reinforces UPE as a priority Government concerns. | en_US |
