| dc.description.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. | en_US |
