Lukwago wants UPE programme abolished in Kampala

By Olivia Nabaggala

31^st Jan 2023

The Kampala Capital City Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago has demanded for the scrapping of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme in Kampala public schools.

While addressing the journalists at City Hall in Kampala, Lukwago said his demand is due to the government’s failure to increase funds budgeted for the directorate of education at the authority which has contributed to the declining standards of primary public schools in Kampala.

He cited the poor performance of 79 public schools in the recently released Primary Leaving Examination-PLE results saying of the 38105 candidates, none scored aggregate 4 with about 5000 pupils categorized as having failed, deeming their hope of progressing with education.

Lukwago says that this poor performance is mainly due to Covid-19 and underfunding by the government where a child is allocated with a very small amount of money, amounting to Shs9300 or 2.5USD per year in comparison to other countries like Kenya at 15USD, Egypt at 350USD and Britain at $1500 among others.

The Lord Mayor further blamed the UPE programme for the collapse of quality education in various schools in Kampala such as Kitante Primary school, Bat Valley Primary School, Nakasero Primary School among others that were known for good performance.

However, Lukwago called upon the government to fully fund the Kampala Education Master Plan as a critical intervention which requires Shs100 Billion per year against the Shs 48 Billion currently being released for the same, most of which is statutory expenditures.

The plan will also involve the recruitment of more teachers to fill up the staffing gaps, reverse the trend of privatization of education in the city and scrapping the government automatic promotion policy among others.