UPE dropouts worry planners
By Peter Nyanzi
Monitor, May 23 - 29, 2005
When Shamim, then a pupil of St.Anthony Primary School in Sembabule town topped her Primary Six class in 2002, she thought her dream of joining secondary school was only a year away. She was terribly mistaken.
During the Christmas holiday, her father sat her down and told her that he would not afford the financial requirements of another Primary Seven candidate.
He told her how he had almost failed to pay examination fees for her elder brother who had just sat his PLE in the same school.
He called her mother over and both told her that they had found a nice young man who was willing to marry her.
But if she was not willing to get married yet, then she should be prepared to stay at home and tend the animals and care for her young siblings.
DROPPED OUT: Turibamwe Felix, 14, dropped out of school to work as a herd’s boy at Mujuni's farm in Kakiika, Kashari, Mbarara district. Many UPE pupils leave school for domestic chores and the girls are married off (Photo by Peter Nyanzi).
Shamim's shock got the better of her and she cried bitterly for several weeks. Two months later, an older man accompanied by a group of men came for her.
Today, Shamim at 15, is six months pregnant but also has a one and a half year-old daughter. The sight of her balancing a jerrycan on her head and her baby on her back makes one think that she is a woman in her late 20s.
Shamim is only one of thousands of girls who drop out of primary school every year to be married off. Indeed, the 2004 National Service Delivery Survey (NSDS) conducted by Uganda Bureau Of Statistics last year found out that the majority of girls drop out of school because of marriage or pregnancy.
Transferring to another school was the reason why most boys left school followed by search for jobs and lack of interest.
According to the survey, the most common reason given by schools for girls dropping out of school was marriage at about 27 percent up from about 25 percent a year ago and pregnancy at 15 percent, up from about 13 percent a year ago.
"Despite government effort to improve UPE, retaining pupils in school is still a problem," the report reads in part.
The survey covered all the 56 districts of Uganda.
It notes that the UPE policy is yet to address the issue of pupil retention until completion of Primary Seven.
According to the survey, 35 in a hundred pupils who had left school were in Primary Six.
The survey indicates that fewer females than males had left school, but more pupils of both sexes were quitting school in the urban areas than in the rural areas.
Felix Turibamwe, 15, is one of the pupils who left school to work.
He herds about 30 heads of cattle belonging to one Mr Mujuni in Rwampara, Mbarara, because his father could not afford to pay about Shs4, 500 (US $3.00) per year for his education in Primary Five.
He works for a salary of Shs20, 000 ($10) per month, but he has not been paid for the last four months.
Mbarara district, District Education officer, Mr Dan Tumwesigire, says dropouts are not unique to his district alone but it is a national problem.
However, he said more girls in Mbarara district are entering Primary Seven than before probably because more parents are realising that educating the girl child in the long run is more beneficial to them than educating the boys.
Interestingly, there were significant differences between the reasons given by service providers and household respondents for the dropouts. Whereas the service providers gave social/cultural reasons for children leaving school, household respondents indicated economic reasons.
Household respondents reported high cost as the main reason for children leaving school, the fact that UPE is free not withstanding.
Lack of a conducive environment due to poor facilities in schools have also been known to play a part in contributing to school dropouts. A UBOS official said if the children have no water, toilets and other facilities they could find school too stressful, lose interest and hence drop out.
The District Inspector of Schools for Pallisa, Mr Emmanuel Kereba, says dropouts in the district mostly happen in the second term when the children remain at home to work in the rice fields by scaring away birds.
He said the dropouts from Primary Seven are high because of the many financial needs and scholastic requirements that candidates have. Kereba says the problem of transferring could be solved when the system of personal identification numbers (PIN) for pupils is introduced to help keep track of each child.
Indeed, the findings revealed that most schools had all their facilities reported as inadequate.
The survey found that one in four schools covered by the survey still depended on unsafe sources of water such as ponds, lake, river or streams for drinking while nearly 2 percent had no water sources at all.
The poor quality of teachers was also mentioned. Indeed only half the number of respondents rated the quality of primary school teachers as good.
UBOS officials said this could partly explain the transfer of pupils from one school to another. They said it could also explain why children and parents lose interest in school especially if they see that performance is not improving.
Educationalists have suggested that given the huge numbers of children dropping out, there should be measures to ensure that those who drop out do not lose out completely.
The idea of Complementary Opportunities for Primary Education (COPE), designed for children who have either never attended school or dropped out should be expanded.
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In the off chance that you, somehow, have not yet heard, Uganda has no shortage of money:
1. U Shs 5 MILLION for each of our 300 MPs in addition to salaries, allowances, etc. This one is a "political facilitation allowance". Naturally, our fearless leader, in his infinite wisdom, has proposed that these poor MPs need more money for "development" projects in their consitituenceis ...
2. US $700,000 + to H&K consultants to make Museveni look good internationally
3. US $40 MILLION for a Gulf Stream to ferry his brood to and from Germany, etc ... and, oh yer, now it needs a US $5 MILLION tuneup
4. US $150 MILLION slated to build a NEW State House, after it was discovered that the old one could not be refurbished for US 70 MILLION
5. US $1MILLION plus for a Mercedes Benze with a fax, internet, etc
6. US $400,000 for a Range Rover
7. just last month or so a US $300,000 plus Hummer
8. A presidential helicopter in the works
9. 3(?) Mig used fighters, each of which had to vbe overhauled at US $5MILLION apop in Israel. Oh yer, one of them is at the bottom of L. Vic, as we speak, providing much needed breeding nusery for e Mpuuta.
and so on, so forth, ad nuseum.
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