A total of 8,300 new secondary school teachers were recruited in FY2018/19 and FY2019/20, Minister for Education and Sports and First Lady Janet Museveni has said.
Mrs. Museveni while presenting the process by her ministry, she said there is also another ongoing recruitment of 2,000 teachers already advertised by the Education Service Commission in FY2019/20.
“We promoted 1,200 teachers who had upgraded from Diploma to Graduate qualifications,” she said.
She said Conditional Inspection for Local Governments was raised from UGX 2.5 billion to UGX 5.5 billion since FY18/19.
“All post-primary institutions including Secondary Schools, BTVET Institutions, and Teacher training institutions have been inspected at least twice in the period under review by the Directorate of Education Standards,” she said.
She added that they have introduced two electronic inspection systems to improve the turnaround time for inspection reports from the Local Governments to the Centre.
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“A Monitoring Grant of UGX 2.3 billion is in place to facilitate Local Governments with the implementation of recommendations that come from the inspection of Pre-Primary and Primary Schools,”
Mrs. Museveni reported that to-date, 103 districts are implementing the Early Grade Reading Methodology.
“More than 14,790 P.1 to P.4 teachers and 1,150 Pre-service tutors have been trained in Early Grade Reading methodologies,” she said.
“145 primary schools with less than 03 permanent classrooms have been expanded to provide an additional 929 classrooms. 23 Community Primary Schools were grant-aided in FY2019/20,” she said.
She however revealed that 1,112 Parishes and Wards remain without a public primary school.
The Minister for Education Museveni further revealed that since July 2016, over 5,000 members of School Management Committees (SMCs) were trained about their roles and responsibilities in providing leadership in the Schools.
Commenting on secondary education, Mrs. Museveni noted that 182 Community Secondary Schools have been grant-aided since FY2016/17 to-date.
“15 Seed Secondary Schools were completed in the last four years. 117 Seed Secondary Schools are under construction starting Fy2018/19,” she said.
However, 26 sub-counties, Town Councils, and Divisions without public secondary schools.
She said an additional 115 new Seed Secondary Schools shall be constructed starting in FY2020/2021 under Inter-Governmental Fiscal Transfers Program (UgIFT) and 100 under the Uganda Secondary Education Expansion Project (USEEP).
The MoES procured 5,250 textbooks for S.1 and S.2 Chemistry, Physics, and Biology subjects in the 20 Secondary Schools grant-aided in FY2016/17 Ms. Museveni noted. Adding that “A total of 17,167 Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology textbooks for 242 A-Level schools in FY2018/19 and FY 2019/20”
According to Ms. Museveni, a revised O-Level Curriculum was rolled out in February 2020.
The subject menu has been reduced from 44 to 21 subjects.
“Continuous Assessment scores will account for 20 percent of the learner’s score while summative work will account for 80 percent of the final score at the end of the cycle (O-Level national examinations),” she said.
Education Minister Museveni revealed that 75% of the 4,000 government-sponsored students annually is towards Science-based courses.
“We have 8,700 Graduates in 2,800 Health and Medical Personnel,2,000 Science Teachers, 900 Agricultural Experts, and, 3,000 Engineers through the Higher Education Loans Scheme,” she said.
Commenting on the sports sector, the minister said this FY 2019/20, the Government provided to National Council of Sports (NCS) UGX 25.6 bn to support National Sports Federations and national teams’ activities.
“Uganda Participated in the 21st Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia (2018) where Uganda won six medals (3 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze. Emerged Africa Netball Champions (2017 & 2018) and World University Netball Champions (2018). She Cranes also participated in the World Netball Cup in Liverpool 2019 and took the seventh position,” she explained.
She added that she cranes is now 6th in the World Netball ranking.
“Both Women (Gazelles) and Men (Silver Bucks) Basketball National Teams qualified, for the first time, for the Africa Basketball Championships in 2016. Gold medals were won by David Emong in the men’s 1500m T46 World Para- Olympics in London (2019); and, by Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei at the 2019 World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, where he clocked 31min 40sec around the 10.2km,” she noted.
Ms. Museveni further revealed that Nakivubo Stadium is undergoing re-construction under a Public-Private Partnership arrangement estimated USD 50m.
In line with President’s pledge to construct Akii Bua Olympic Stadium in Lira and Buhinga Stadium in Kabarole district, Mrs. Museveni said Government has secured the commitment of the People’s Republic of China to finance.
“Under grant the construction of the two sports stadia. Government is in the process of procuring consultancies to undertake the necessary detailed feasibility studies, and environmental and social impact assessment studies,” she said.
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