UGX 30 bn spent on the New Curriculum text books

By; Our reporter

19^th Feb. 2020

An estimated Shillings 30 billion has been spent by 20 publishing houses to develop textbooks for the new lower secondary curriculum, according to Uganda Publisher’s Association.

The money was reportedly spent to develop draft copies of text books that will be sent to the Education and Sports Ministry for evaluation and selection through an open bidding system.

Each publisher is required to present two copies of the teacher’s guide and student copy of a selected subject.

The publishers are reportedly spending approximately Shillings 74 million (USD 20,000) on printing and publishing the two copies of the same book, depending on how many books a publisher decides to bid for.

Samuel Majwega Musoke, the Chairperson of Uganda Publishers Association and Executive Director MK Publishers Limited, says publishing two copies of a text book for every subject is an expensive affair.

The money, according to Musoke was spent on training authors and editors on how to write and present content for the lower secondary curriculum, and facilitate the writing process.

Part of the money will also cover illustrations and binding of the books once they are completed. It will also facilitate distribution of the completed book to customers. The publishers are expected to print books for both compulsory and elective subjects.

Some of the companies involved in the exercise include MK publishers, Fountain, Longhorn, Oxford, Pearson Publishers, Mulholland Books in the UK and Vivid publishing headquartered in Australia. Others include Roots publishing based in Kenya and Elim publishing that mainly deals in Christian literature.