Gender Sensitive Educational Policy and Practice

Abstract

Uganda’s formal education terrain today has undergone several modifications since the 1880s when education was first introduced by the Christian Missionaries. Until the early 1990s the education policy was fraught with gender disparities in enrolment, dropout, performance and general attainment. Until then the education system had glaring disparities arising from historical and cultural factors that regarded the male sex being more important than the female. Several reforms have been made to ensure that both sexes benefit from education. The foundation for equality in education, a goal being pursued today, was laid in 1963 by the Castle Commission. which specifically highlighted the need to expand girl’s education in the country. A Government Education Plan (1971/2 –1975/6) performed dismally due to a manpower vacuum created by the expulsion of Asians. The period after the 1979 change of power was characterised by general recovery and rehabilitation of educational facilities and manpower to restore functional capacity. The achievements we have today are based on the 1991/92 Government White Paper which acted as a roadmap to achieving certain goals. The White Paper has led to a scale up in the number of primary school, secondary school, University and tertiary institutions in the country. This has been matched by an increasing students and pupil population across all levels. Some of the major measures taken to increase female student and pupil population that the Government, with the help of Development partners has introduced are; 1) The Universal Primary Education [UPE] program, which was launched in 1997.A major requirement here was that each family take 4[four] of their school children to school, two of which had to be girls. 2) Beginning with the 1990/91 academic year, all female applicants to public Universities were awarded 1.5 bonus points, a measure that has increased female University population at Makerere University, the biggest University in the country to 41% in 2002 [compared to 23% in 1989 before the scheme was introduced]. 3) A master plan to foster gender parity in education called the National Strategy for Girls Education (NSGE) was launched. This strategy is followed by all stakeholders in various levels in the planing and implementation of various programs. 4) The Promotion of Girl’s Education (PGE) scheme has been launched in 15 districts, and is expected to roll out to the entire country to facilitate girl child retention and performance at the primary level of education. 5) The Equity in The Classroom (EIC) program is also being implemented. It aims at facilitating equal participation of girls and boys in the classroom. 6) The Complementary Opportunity for Primary Education (COPE) and the Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja (ABEK) programs are being implemented to cater for marginalised communities.