Governance in Uganda

The Ministry of Education and Sports is the body responsible for education policy, development and provision in Uganda. The Business, Technical, Vocational Education and Training (BTVET) Department under the ministry is responsible for coordinating training providers to administer courses that create qualified persons equipped to respond to the business needs of the country. The Department of Teacher Education is responsible for all teacher development programmes, and for ensuring the provision of well-trained teachers and tutors for all levels of education.

Ministry of Education and Sports
Kampala
Tel: +256 4123 4451
Minister: Jessica Alupo
Email: jesalu@parliament.go.ug

Minister for primary education: Kamanda Bataringaya

Permanent secretary: Dr Rose Nassali Lukwago

Minister for Higher Education: Dr Muyingo John Chrysestom
National Council for Higher Education
Kampala
Tel: +256 312 262140
Chair: Professor B K Kasozi

Public spending on education was 3.3 per cent of GDP in 2012.

The National Vision Framework expresses the long-term aspirations of the Ugandan people for independence, growth and continuous improvement towards becoming a middle-income country by the middle of this century. The National Development Plan 2010/11-2014/15 was launched in April 2010; it is the first of six five-year development plans covering the period of the Vision Framework. It comprises the medium-term strategic direction, developmental priorities and implementation strategies.

The government works in partnership with the NGO umbrella body, the Forum for Education NGOs in Uganda (founded in 2001), to enhance access, equity, quality, relevance and efficiency in the education sector, and has thus been able to receive contributions and feedback from organisations at grassroots level, and especially with respect to disadvantaged children.

Uganda qualified for the World Bank’s Fast Track Initiative – known since September 2011 as the Global Partnership for Education – which is aimed at meeting the education Millennium Development Goals and the Education for All goal that by 2015 all children complete a full cycle of primary education. Under the initiative, developing countries have committed to designing and implementing sound education plans since 2002, while development partners commit to aligning and harmonising additional support around these plans.

Pan-Commonwealth

In January 2009, the Presidential Initiative on AIDS was selected as a finalist in the 2009 Commonwealth Education Good Practice Awards. This is aimed at preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS among students and has, since 2003, inspired a variety of initiatives reaching millions of children in primary schools throughout Uganda.

In March 2012, two Ugandan projects were selected as finalists in the 2012 Commonwealth Education Good Practice Awards. Plan Uganda’s Community-Led Actions for Children mobilises and supports parents, guardians and teachers to ensure that all children under nine, including those from poor, marginalised households, are ready to enrol and succeed at school.
While the Ministry of Education and Sports’s Recovery for Acholi Youth Project 2010-13 targets children and youth, who are not in school, in the Acholi sub-region of northern Uganda where, prior to the peace agreement of June 2007, there had been 20 years of insurgency. It aims to: increase access to basic education for those aged 9-14; provide training in vocational skills (14-24); and build teachers’ houses and build/improve school buildings.