5 PPET Enrollment and Transition Rates Projections

Public Disclosure Authorized Africa Region Human Development Working Paper Series

Uganda Post-primary Education Public Disclosure Authorized Sector Report

Xiaoyan Liang Public Disclosure Authorized

Africa Region The World Bank Public Disclosure Authorized © September 2002 Human Development Sector Africa Region The World Bank

The views expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the World Bank or any of its affiliated organizations. Foreword

ince the mid 1980s, Uganda has become one education now requires urgent attention as well. of Africa’s success stories. Reform measures The recent rapid enrollment growth in primary edu- S introduced by the current government have cation is causing a sharp increase in the demand for been largely implemented, and the country is on a education beyond the primary level. Furthermore, road toward steady economic recovery. there is a wide international consensus on the criti- Progress is particularly prominent in the educa- cal role played by good quality secondary education sector, and especially in primary education. The tion in enabling countries to train the manpower president’s decision in 1996 to eliminate primary required to benefit from the ICT and knowledge school fees for up to four children per family re- revolution, and to compete successfully in the new moved what had been an important economic im- globalized, knowledge-based economy. Secondary pediment for families to enroll and maintain their education also yields considerable private returns, children at school. This decision also sent a strong and provides opportunities to acquire attitudes, signal that basic education is a high priority. By 2001, skills, and competencies that enhance the ability of the gross enrollment ratio for primary education young people to participate fully in society, take stood at more than 120 percent. control of their lives, and continue learning at the Post-primary education, on the other hand, has re- post-secondary level. ceived less attention. This is particularly the case However, similar to other Sub-Saharan African for the different types of secondary education, which countries, Uganda faces enormous challenges in is the focus of this report. At about 19 percent in maintaining the drive towards good quality univer- 2000, the gross enrollment ratio for the full six-grade sal primary education while, at the same time, re- cycle of general secondary education is well below sponding to the increasing social and economic de- the Sub-Saharan average of almost 30 percent. In mand for rapid expansion of secondary education addition to low coverage, access rates differ consid- as well. In considering their options for expanding erably by gender, parental income, and area of resi- access to secondary education, governments have dence. Moreover, internal efficiency and student to decide on difficult trade-offs between the role of achievement is low. The quality and coverage of public financing in supporting different levels vocational and technical education and training is also (lower and upper secondary education), and types low, comparatively costly, and ill adapted to labor of secondary education (general, technical, voca- market needs. tional), as well as in ensuring equity in provision While Uganda is right in giving top priority to between different population groups (e.g., boys and achieving universal primary education, secondary girls, urban/rural, poor and more well-off groups). iv AFRICA REGION HUMAN DEVELOPMENT WORKING PAPER SERIES

This study is designed to help the government This study was developed in consultation with clarify these trade-offs. The study represents a com- the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports. It prehensive review of Uganda’s secondary educa- also represents a collaborative effort between the tion sector. It is based on new data gathered specifi- World Bank and other development partners in the cally to examine the cost, quality, and demand for Education Funding Agency Group in Uganda. The such education. The analysis also draws on a wealth Norwegian Education Trust Fund supported it fi- of existing data and studies. Findings from all pre- nancially. We hope the study will contribute to the vious studies of post-primary education are synthe- national consultative process that is currently un- sized to produce a comprehensive picture. For each derway and serve as a platform on which to build a aspect of access, equity, quality, management and sustainable Post-primary Education Strategic Plan for financing, the study discusses the achievements to Uganda. date, the challenges ahead, and broad options for reform. Birger Fredriksen Senior Education Advisor Africa Region. The World Bank

This report was prepared by Xiaoyan Liang, task team leader, under the supervision of Paud Murphy, lead education specialist, AFTH1, and Dzingai B. Mutubmuka, sector manager, AFTH1. Teams members Harriet Nannyonjo and Debbie Peterson, AFTH1, provided support, and background papers were supplied by Paul Bennell, Charles Byaruhanga, Jack Keating,Victor Levine, Keith Lewin,Tony Read, the Uganda National Education Bureau, International Development Consultants Ltd., and Impact Associates in association with Monarch Consulting Company. In Uganda, the author worked in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Sports, Uganda, the Department of Secondary Education, the Department of Business, Technical, and Vocational Edu- cation and Training. Peer reviewers Jacob Bregman, David Court, Toby Linden, Peter Moock, and Adriaan M. Verspoor offered valuable comments and feedback. Additional written comments were received from Amit Dar, Bruce N. Jones, Soren Nellemann, and Michael Ward (DFID Uganda). Final editing and formatting of the report were done by Lawrence Mastri. Contents

Foreword ...... iii Acronyms ...... xiii Executive Summary...... ix 1. Introduction ...... 1 1.1The importance of post-primary education ...... 1 1.2 Purposes of the study ...... 2 1.3 Sector report development process ...... 3 1.4 Data sources ...... 5 1.5 Definition of post-primary education ...... 5 1.6 Organization of the sector report ...... 6

2. Demographic, Social and Economic Context...... 7

3. Education Sector Overview ...... 9 3.1 Structure of the education system ...... 9 3.2 Size of the education sector ...... 9 3.3 Selected basic indicators of the education system in Uganda ...... 10 3.4 Government expenditure on education ...... 11

4. Uganda Post-Primary Education ...... 14 4.1 Policy, objectives, structure, admission, and size ...... 14 4.2 System performance ...... 18 4.3 System inputs...... 35 4.4 Cost and financing of post-primary education and training ...... 44 4.5 Business, technical and vocational education ...... 51 4.6. Private provision of post-primary education and training ...... 56 4.7. Cost effectiveness of various PPET institutions ...... 60

5. PPET Enrollment and Transition Rates Projections ...... 63

6. Conclusions...... 66

7. Policy Options ...... 68 A. Short-term focus on increasing efficiency of the current system: Expanding and improving quality B. Medium-term focus on more equitable distribution of public financing to improve coverage, equity, and quality of PPET (within 5–10 years) ...... 69 C. Long-term focus on structure, curriculum, and teacher reform to improve the quality and relevance of PPET education ...... 71

References ...... 74 vi AFRICA REGION HUMAN DEVELOPMENT WORKING PAPER SERIES

Annex 1. Determinants of Secondary Enrollment Using Multiple Regression Method ...... 75 Annex 2. Analyzing Private Direct and Opportunity Costs of PPET ...... 77 Annex 3. Projected Cost of Adopting Short-term Efficiency Measures...... 83

Tables

Table 1 World Bank lending to Uganda ...... 5 Table 2 Poverty and social indicators ...... 9 Table 3 Population projections from 2000 (estimated) to 2025, Uganda...... 9 Table 4 Schools, enrollments, and teachers by type ...... 11 Table 5 Enrollment (and number of schools) by ownership ...... 11 Table 6 Total education expenditure as a % of GNP and as a % of total expenditure ...... 13 Table 7 Recurrent budget allocation in billions of Uganda Shilling, 1998–2004 (estimated)...... 13 Table 8 Structure of education system by world region ...... 17 Table 9 Overview of the general secondary education system (2000)...... 19 Table 10 Age-specific enrollment ratio for secondary school in 1999/2000 ...... 19 Table 11 Secondary gross enrollment ratio ...... 19 Table 12 Secondary gross and net enrollment ratios by gender ...... 21 Table 13 Secondary enrollment rates by quintile, 1992, 1997, and 2000 ...... 21 Table 14 Transition rates from P7 to S1 (in %) ...... 25 Table 15 Primary to secondary transition rates (in %) ...... 25 Table 16 Transition rates from S4 to S5 for selected years ...... 25 Table 17 Dropout rates by type of school and location, 2001 ...... 27 Table 18a UCE candidates and pass rates by subject (2000) for main subjects ...... 29 Table 18b UCE candidates and fail rates for Math and English...... 29 Table 19 UACE candidates and pass rates by subject (2000) ...... 29 Table 20 Quality Study Failure Rates I ...... 29 Table 21 Quality Study Failure Rates II ...... 31 Table 22 The Ugandan labor force...... 31 Table 23 Probability of being in paid employment by educational attainment (Individuals age 15-69, not in school)...... 31 Table 24 Wage premiums ...... 31 Table 25 Growth of outputs 1990–99 ...... 35 Table 26 Teacher education by gender and degree ...... 39 Table 27 Current ‘O’-level curriculum based on the 1982 subject guidelines ...... 43 Table 28 Buildings at secondary schools, 2000 ...... 43 Table 29 The Information Age ...... 45 Table 30 Secondary education expenditure as a % of all levels ...... 47 Table 31 2001/02 Planned budget for secondary recurrent expenditure...... 47 Table 32 Expenditure per secondary student as a percent of per capita GNI ...... 47 Table 33 Public expenditure per pupil by district (including both government and private enrollment) .. 49 Table 34 Cumulative percent of public subsidy by population cohorts...... 49 Table 35 Opportunity cost of PPET...... 51 Table 36 Institutional profile of BTVET and enrollment capacity...... 51 Table 37 Average expenditure per student per year ...... 53 Table 38 Technical and O-level secondary failure rates ...... 53 Table 39 The proposed comprehensive and vocational secondary school curriculum ...... 55 POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION IN UGANDA vii

Table 40 Percent of private enrollment in general secondary schools ...... 57 Table 41 Percent enrollment in private secondary schools by district, 2000 ...... 57 Table 42 Correlation of private provision and NER ...... 59 Table 43 Unit costs per pupil in public and private PPET ...... 59 Table 44 Math and English failure rates in government and private schools...... 59 Table 45 Breakdown of use-attributable cost per pupil...... 61 Table 46 Failure rates by school type ...... 61 Table 47 Regression results: Predicting the probability of secondary enrollment among 13-25 year-olds completing primary school ...... 77 Table 48 Education Expenditure UNHS 1999/2000 ...... 79 Table 49 Regression analysis of household education expenditure—UNHS ...... 79 Table 50 Summary of household expenditure on education by category...... 79 Table 51 Average earnings of P7 completers by age ...... 79 Table 52 Household enterprise production function ...... 81 Table 53 Estimated “shadow wage” of P7 completers...... 81 Table 54 Opportunity cost of PPET...... 81 Table 55 Consolidated reforms and activities in the baseline model with incremental reforms ...... 84 Table 56 Activities for baseline model ...... 85

Figures

Figure 1 GNP per capita and secondary gross enrollment ratio ...... 3 Figure2 Uganda education structure ...... 9 Figure 3 Percentage completing primary and three years of secondary education from 1953 to 1993 ...... 11 Figure 4 Enrollment by age (from HH survey, all ages) ...... 13 Figure 5 Number of Secondary Schools, 1970–2000 ...... 17 Figure 6 Secondary Enrollment Trends, 1970–2000 ...... 17 Figure 7 Age-specific enrollment ratio...... 19 Figure 8 Comparison of secondary enrollment for males and females by age ...... 21 Figure 9 Comparison, by quintile, of secondary enrollment by age ...... 21 Figure 10 Reasons for not attending school for children of secondary age group...... 23 Figure 11 Reasons for dropping out of school ...... 23 Figure 12 Comparison, among quintiles, of percentage of children working ...... 23 Figure 13 Dropouts by grade and gender ...... 25 Figure 14 Repeaters by grade and gender ...... 27 Figure 15 Yearly return to education ...... 33 Figure 16 Pupil-teacher ratio by region ...... 37 Figure 17 Accumulated subsidy by population cohorts ...... 49 Figure 18 Costs of PPET ...... 51 Figure 19 Distribution of expenditure—public and private ...... 59 Figure 20 Primary enrollment in P7 and PLE passes ...... 65 Figure 21 Total enrollment government and private ...... 65 Figure 22 Nominal transition rates P7–S1 ...... 65 viii AFRICA REGION HUMAN DEVELOPMENT WORKING PAPER SERIES

Acronyms and Abbreviations

BoG Board of Governors BTVET Business, Technical, and Vocational Education and Training CP Community Polytechnic DBVTET Department of BTVET EFAG Education Funding Agency Group EMIS Education Management Information System ESA Education Standards Agency ESIP Education Strategic Investment Plan GER Gross Enrollment Ratio GoU Government of Uganda MOES Ministry of Education and Sports NCDC National Curriculum Development Center NER Net Enrollment Ratio PAF Poverty Action Fund PPET Post-primary Education and Training PTA Parent-Teacher Association PTR Pupil:Teacher Ratio SED Secondary Education Department UACE Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education UCE Uganda Certificate of Education UPE Universal Primary Education Executive Summary

n recent years, Uganda has made impressive primary demand after the implementation of Uni- progress in primary education. The president’s de- versal Primary Education (UPE). In fact, the gov- Icision in 1996 to eliminate fees for up to four chil- ernment is so eager to expand and improve the sys- dren per family removed what had been an impor- tem that President Museveni announced during the tant financial impediment, and also sent a strong 2001 election that he would pursue “Free Secondary signal that education is a high priority. An additional Education.” 2.3 million children (1.1 m girls and 1.2 m boys) re- The Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) has sponded immediately, bringing the total primary since begun to assess the implications of such a enrollment up to 5.7 million in 1997. By 2001, total policy. And with support from the Education Fund- enrollment had reached 6.9 million, and the gross ing Agency Group, the Ministry of Education com- enrollment ratio stood at more than 120 percent. missioned a series of interrelated studies on post- However, the post-primary education and training primary education. It was expected that these stud- sector (PPET),1 has received little attention. ies would fill important knowledge gaps about Uganda’s secondary education (including all grades Ugandan post-primary education. of S1–S6) gross enrollment ratio of 19 percent and This report synthesizes findings from the com- net enrollment ratio of 13 percent in 2000 were low missioned studies and presents a frank picture of compared to international or regional standards, and Ugandan post-primary education—its achieve- well below the average among countries of similar ments to date, the challenges ahead, and broad op- GNP per capita income. Yet, evidence shows that tions for reform. The report also presents two costed secondary education contributes significantly to policy options for the ministry’s immediate consid- economic, social, and cultural development. Even eration, based on the work by Professor Keith Lewin within the education system, secondary education of the University of Sussex. The report and the op- is important for training the teachers and adminis- tions have been discussed with the government trators that staff the primary school system. In fact, during the April 2002 Education Sector Review, and by training mid-level technicians and preparing fu- comments from the review have been incorporated. ture professionals, post-primary education plays a Together, the report and the options will provide similar role in other areas that are key to economic the basis for a wide consultation leading to a development. Uganda Post-primary Education Strategic Frame- The Government of Uganda has become increas- work to be presented at the next Education Sector ingly aware of the importance of post-primary edu- Review. The Government of Uganda is leading this cation, especially with the expected increase in post- process. x AFRICA REGION HUMAN DEVELOPMENT WORKING PAPER SERIES

System diagnosis Unclear policy directions The long-term national education policies come Multifaceted nature mainly from documents and policy statements external to the Ministry of Education and Sports, some The PPET system in Uganda is by no means mono- of the recent important ones include: lithic. The system is a mixture of a small proportion of elite, high-quality government and religiously • Free Secondary Education founded schools, which are well resourced and af- • Creating a National Network of Community Poly- fordable only to the rich, and a majority of poorly technics performing private and community schools estab- • Steady Vocationalization of Secondary Education lished mainly for poorer families. by Creating Comprehensive Schools and Voca- tional Schools • Relaxing Current Controls, Restraints, and Qual- Low priority ity Assurance Checks on Private education in or- The PPET sub-sector of the education system is not der to Encourage the Rapid Growth of Private sec- a high priority area. Over the last few years, the ondary schools. average share of recurrent secondary budget out of total education recurrent has been around 15 per- However, the Ministry of Education and Sports cent, and the share of technical and vocational edu- has not translated these broad policy directions into cation around 3 percent, compared to 65 percent for policies and guidelines. And, these statements gen- primary education. The government has now prom- erally do not take into account the resource impli- ised to provide at least 65 percent of the education cations. This lack of a coherent policy framework, sector budget for primary education and, because the absence of implementation guidelines, and the of education reforms, increase the budget for ter- lack of consideration for resource constraints have tiary education. Given these commitments, the PPET become major obstacles to improving the sector. sector can best hope that the currents levels will be maintained for the medium term. Poor system performance

Multiple objectives • Low coverage and extreme inequity. Coverage at the secondary level is very low: GER for S1–S4 (the main As is the case in most countries, post-primary edu- focus of PPET) is 35 percent; overall GER for S1–S6 cation in Uganda has multiple objectives, including is only 19 percent. Therefore, at least two thirds of the transmission of general knowledge, skills, citi- the age group population is without access to PPET, zenship, and other values. It has perhaps the con- and overall about 80 percent of the population has tradictory task of providing qualified students to no access to secondary education. In addition, ineq- the higher school levels while preparing students uity in the Ugandan secondary system is much more for the job world. It is important to ask how the widespread than at the primary level, with the rich- education system should be organized to meet its est 20 percent of the households occupying 63 per- objectives. This report’s position is that the scarce cent of total secondary spaces. PPET resources (at least the public sector) must fo- • Gender disparity. There is a gender disparity in cus on instilling basic literacy, numeracy, and prob- secondary coverage. Only 41 percent of secondary lem-solving skills. A focus on the basics will ulti- enrollment is females, and female enrollment ratios mately serve all purposes well. fall below those for males, especially after age seventeen. Gender disparity is worst in the Northern Region, perhaps due to social norms. Nationwide, POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION IN UGANDA xi

girls do significantly worse in mathematics than do employers value most. In addition, the increasingly boys, but boys and girls’ performance in English diversified and dynamic formal industry sector was similar. The gender disparity needs to be ad- makes it difficult to predict which practical skills dressed as a priority, given the Millennium Devel- will be in demand. Therefore, schools are better off opment Goals, to which the Uganda Government focusing on basic knowledge and skills so that stu- has committed itself. dents are flexible enough to adapt to various work • Low internal efficiency. The PPET system overall environments. has low repetition but significant dropout rates. • Evolving structure of Uganda’s economy. Though Dropout rates tend to be higher in rural and non- predominantly an agriculture-based economy, there government schools. And a bottleneck occurs at the is every reason to believe that the structure of the transition from primary to secondary (between 40– economy is becoming increasingly industrialized 50 percent, including both public and private) and and service-oriented. Data show that while agri- from Ordinary level to A-level (26 percent). How- culture grew on average 3.7 percent in the 1990s, its ever, given the projected increase in primary gradu- rate of growth fell far behind that of industry, espe- ates, the transition rate will fall if no action is taken cially the manufacturing and service sectors, which to expand and improve the PPET system. grew at average rates of 12.7 percent, 14.2 percent, • Poor student achievement, especially in math, En- and 8.1 percent respectively. Economists expect that glish, and sciences. A recent School Quality Study these sectors will continue to grow at similar rates. found that, nationwide, 40 percent of Form 1 stu- This means that the economy needs or will need dents and half of Form 3 students failed math tests. middle-level skills urgently. A focus on science, tech- Results of the English tests are only slightly better: nology, and engineering will coincide with the gen- one-quarter of students fail English tests. These ex- eral trend of the economy and can bring Uganda ams were designed to test the basic concepts and more in line with successful international examples skills in math and English and can be seen as tests of of PPET. minimum requirements. Such high failure rates indicate that a substantial proportion of secondary Insufficient inputs students are coming away without the skills and The poor system performance is mainly because of competencies they need. poor quality inputs or lack of inputs in the following areas: Labor market analysis • Weak management capacity. Post-primary Educa- • Returns are high. Despite the average poor perfor- tion and Training (PPET) is the primary responsibil- mance, the labor market analysis show that PPET ity of two departments in the MOES: the Secondary students are not only more likely to be employed Education Department (SED) and the Department by the formal wage sector, but once employed, re- of Business, Technical and Vocational Education and turns to secondary education—and especially to Training (DBTVET). DBTVET is in charge of institu- lower secondary—are high. For every additional year tions ranging from secondary technical and farm of lower secondary education, there is an associ- schools to tertiary institutions that are actually gov- ated wage increase of more than 20 percent. And erned by the Higher Education Act. The institutional there is evidence that PPET graduates are more pro- arrangement for PPET must be streamlined. And at ductive, even in the informal sector, than those who the central level inadequate staffing and a lack of have not attended secondary schools. relevant management training are weakening man- • Differential demand for PPET graduates. The Firm agement capacity. The same is true at the school Demand Study shows that, despite the advocacy level. Schools are rarely inspected, headmasters for vocationalization, it is generic skills and knowl- have little training in effective management, and edge, in addition to positive work attitudes, that accountability is low. xii AFRICA REGION HUMAN DEVELOPMENT WORKING PAPER SERIES

• Overloaded curriculum. There are at least fourteen • Textbooks and other inputs. Clearly, the availabil- subjects for S1 and S2, and nine subjects for S3 and ity of textbooks and other learning materials have a S4 being taught. Because of so many subjects, stu- positive impact on student learning. In Uganda, text- dents spend an average of fifty periods (each pe- books and other inputs are mostly financed out of riod is 45–50 minutes) in classes each week, leaving the capitation grants or fees collected from parents, little time for play and extracurricular activities. The so schools tend to spend very little on textbooks tight schedule also severely restricts efficient use of and other inputs. Critical non-wage, non-boarding resources. inputs are lacking, especially in rural schools. Over- • Characteristics of teachers all, the student:book ratio stands at about 6:1 in sec- - Teaching load. Secondary teachers in Uganda are ondary schools, while the student:classroom ratio not being optimally utilized. The overall pupil: is 46:1. There is also a shortage of library, lab facili- teacher ratio in secondary is only 17, well below ties, computers, and Internet access. the African average ratio of 25:1 in secondary schools. The average teaching load is about 22.5 Inefficient and inequitable public financing periods per week, less than half of the 50 pe- • High costs of PPET to the government and households riods provided to students weekly. There is - Government subsidies only target government much variation in teacher use by subject and or grant-aided schools in the form of teacher location, and thus considerable room for im- salaries and capitation grants. Public expendi- proving efficiency. ture per enrolled student is Ush.236,994 - Teacher salary. Compared to the GDP per capita (US$148), which is high compared to per capita of US$320, secondary teachers in Uganda are GDP (US$320) and compared to expenditure per fairly well paid. Average salary cost in 2001 was primary student (about US$22). Since capitation Ush2.86 million (US$1,787), not to mention the grants are fixed on a per student basis (regard- shorter hours of work and summer vacation that less of his or her family background), the major teachers enjoy. In addition, teachers in many source of variation in public expenditure per elite government schools have salary supple- student stems from the pupil:teacher ratio and ments from the school PTA funds. Teachers in the proportion of graduate teachers (more quali- private schools, who are paid entirely out of PTA fied and better paid) on the government payroll. funds, generally receive much less that those - The cost of going to secondary school is pro- fully paid by the government. Furthermore, the hibitive for many families, especially poor ones. pay disparity between a graduate and Grade V This is not only because of the direct costs asso- teachers starting salaries (Ush300,000 vs. ciated with secondary enrollment (estimated to Ush135,000) may be too large to be justified. be Ush.238,000, per child enrolled, in both pub- - But, teacher working conditions are generally poor lic and private schools), but also because the because of a lack of (a) basic teaching and learn- value of the child’s time in the labor force is ing materials, libraries, and labs at the school much higher at the secondary level (estimated level; (b) a coherent incentive and career struc- to be Ush.265,000). Forty-seven percent of Ugan- ture for teachers; and (c) professional develop- dan households have annual incomes at or be- ment. Apart from the qualification upgrading low Ush.620,050, and there is little room for in- of the Grade V teachers, teachers generally re- creases in private contributions to public second- ceive little in-service training. The Teacher Uti- ary education or to private secondary education. lization Study found that the average teacher had attended only 1.8 refresher courses since 1993! POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION IN UGANDA xiii

- Average school expenditure per pupil (pooling grow at 2 percent at most without altering signifi- both public and private expenditures) is high- cantly its current production methods. Neither uni- est in boarding schools, because of the high costs versal secondary education nor the ESIP targets of of boarding facilities and the higher proportion reaching the gross secondary enrollment of 58 per- of graduate teachers employed. Per-pupil expen- cent by 2010, with 68 percent of the enrollment in ditures at the technical schools are also high: private schools, are attainable within this resource almost twice as high as those in O-level sec- envelope. ondary schools. Government schools on aver- Therefore, to improve access, unit costs must fall age have higher costs than private schools. by increasing the efficiency of public financing. Worldwide, countries that achieve a high gross sec- • PPET public expenditure is highly inequitable. There ondary enrollment ratio tend to have a low cost ra- are two sources of inequity in the financing of PPET. tio between secondary and primary (about 2:1). In First, most poor children do not go to secondary Uganda, the ratio is as high as 7:1. So, if access is to schools (only 3.8 percent of the poorest 20 percent be equitable, the equity of public financing must of the population are enrolled in secondary schools); improve. therefore, they do not benefit from government Private provision of PPET is already high. If we define subsidies to secondary schools. Second, most poor private schools as schools not receiving government children opt for cheaper private or community subsidy, the proportion of private enrollment for schools, which do not receive government subsi- PPET was at about 57 percent of total secondary dies. Children from wealthier families, however, enrollment in 2000. This proportion of private en- generally go to schools that are better resourced in rollment is extremely high compared to the same terms of teachers (paid by the government) and statistics from other countries (South America has other inputs. As a result, public expenditure on sec- 26 percent of enrollment in private schools compared ondary education is regressive—that is, the to 22 percent for Africa, 15 percent for Asia, and 12 wealthier population is benefiting disproportion- percent for Europe). There is also evidence that, in ately from public subsidies in secondary education. most countries, the proportion of secondary enroll- The poorest 20 percent of the population are only ment in private schools has decreased since 1990. receiving 13 percent of government subsidy, Hence, there may be little room for increasing the whereas the richest 20 percent of the population are proportion of private provision. Although there are enjoying 34 percent. a few elite private schools established by religious bodies, most private secondary schools in Uganda If PPET coverage is to be improved, unit costs must fall cater mainly to poor families. Expanding the PPET by increasing the efficiency of public financing. The gov- coverage by increasing the proportion of private ernment has a financial commitment to provide at provision (without government support) will have least 65 percent of its education budget to primary a negative impact on equity. And, given the resource education to ensure that the enrollment gains constraints, government will not likely be able to achieved through UPE are maintained and the qual- provide subsidy to private schools in the short term. ity of primary education is improved. Perhaps the Community polytechnics and vocationalization of sec- best scenario is that the share of secondary be main- ondary education through comprehensive and vocational tained at about 15 percent and the share for BTVET schools. The government is seriously considering at 3 percent, which means that in nominal terms adopting community polytechnics as central to its public resources available for PPET will grow at 5 strategy for secondary expansion. The idea is to erect percent (equivalent to projected GDP growth). If new or convert existing structures in every sub- population grows at 3 percent, the PPET can only country that will cater to primary graduates not at- xiv AFRICA REGION HUMAN DEVELOPMENT WORKING PAPER SERIES

tending secondary schools and to secondary school learning in core subjects. Moreover, there does not dropouts. The curriculum will have a heavy dose of seem to be much demand for this kind of training vocational subjects, and the community is expected from parents and employers. Finally, it is estimated to shoulder most, if not all, of the costs of running that 400 firms now have in-house training programs the schools. Although the last medium-term bud- and prefer to do their own training. get framework included development costs for com- We argue that the best vocational education (even munity polytechnics, the government has not yet for those leaving school at the end of secondary established any. education and entering the job world) gives stu- The government is also proposing to dents strong generic skills in basic literacy, vocationalize secondary education through compre- numeracy, and problem-solving skills, and the abil- hensive and vocational schools. The curriculum for ity to work in teams, and that lower secondary edu- the new comprehensive and vocational schools was cation (at least the public sector) should teach stu- proposed during the Fifth Education Sector Review dents how to learn. The recent World Bank study, last April. Both comprehensive and vocational Vocational Skills Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: schools are a movement to steadily vocationalize Phase I Synthesis, emphasized this position, conclud- the secondary curriculum. The proposed compre- ing that basic education is critical for productivity hensive/vocational curriculum increased the num- and economic growth. ber of subjects for S1–S2 from a minimum of fourteen (Table 25) to fifteen; for S3–S4 from a minimum of nine to ten subjects. More importantly, in the new Strategic plan and process of working for PPET comprehensive schools, the number of vocational subjects will increase from at least three to six for The ministry must, through a consultative process, S1–S2, and from at least one to two for S3–S4. In the develop a policy framework and strategies for the new vocational schools, the number of vocational PPET sector, with clear and realistic goals. There must subjects for S3–S4 will be further increased to four also be targets and indicators in coverage, quality, subjects. and efficiency over the next ten years. The strategic This report is concerned about the government plan should also articulate the means for reaching proposal of (a) creating a national network of com- those goals. These proposed options can be evalu- munity polytechnics and (b) steady ated in terms of anticipated cost and incorporated vocationalization of secondary education by creat- into a strategic plan. To the extent possible, the PPET ing comprehensive and vocational schools. The rea- sub-sector should emulate the primary sector and sons are (a) affordability and sustainability—tech- use the medium-term budget framework to priori- nical education is at least twice as expensive as a tize activities and adopt the semi-annual Education regular O-level school; (b) equity—most of the tar- Sector Review as a major monitoring tool. get population, namely the P7 leavers and S1–S4 At the same time, there has to be a quick decision dropouts, will be from the poorest section of the on key issues such as community polytechnics and population and will be unable to fund programs in making the current system more efficient. The gov- their communities; and most importantly (c) desir- ernment is already committing itself to plans it can- ability—there is evidence that technical and voca- not afford—for example, the current budget plan tional students are not mastering the basic compe- included community polytechnics, and there has tencies that employers value most in the formal sec- been pressure to hire more secondary teachers. It is tor (over two-thirds of technical students fail the urgent that these key issues be resolved. math and English tests), and a heavier dose of vocational subjects will further reduce teaching and POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION IN UGANDA xv

Broad policy options A. Short-term focus on making the current system more efficient as a means for expansion and quality improvement (within the next 5 years). This report offers nine broad policy recommendations for the ministry to incorporate into a strategic The short-term measures are ways to improve the plan. The options are not prescriptive, but rather a secondary coverage without significant changes in menu of possible strategies for meeting the chal- resource allocation patterns. However, if imple- lenges discussed. Policy options are clustered into mented successfully, the proposed reform measures three areas: (a) short-term focus on making better may bring gains in efficiency, although it may re- use of current resources as a means for expansion; quire extra funding during the transition period. This (b) medium-term focus on equitable distribution of is where the EFAG may offer assistance, based on public financing, and reducing cost burdens, espe- sound and agreed upon policy decisions. cially on poor and disadvantaged households; and Requiring all secondary teachers to teach at least two (c) long- term focus on structural and curriculum subjects reforms. About 45 percent of secondary teachers teach only These options need to correlate with the contin- one subject area—even though all teachers have ued emphasis on improving the quality of educa- been trained to teach two subjects. Without increas- tion, reducing the age of first enrollment, and ing the number of subjects teacher teach, it will be achieving greater internal efficiency at the primary almost impossible to increase the overall level. However, policy-makers often ignore such pupil:teacher ratio without altering the curriculum. critical linkage between primary and secondary But revising the curriculum is a medium- to long- education. Quality improvement measures at the term undertaking. primary level are central to improving coverage, equity, and quality of secondary education. Increasing pupil:teacher ratio The options also must be linked to improving This is a core strategy for improving the efficiency school-level management. Many of the innovations of the system. For example, increasing the overall in teaching, learning, and managing resources hap- pupil:teacher ratio from the current level of 17 to 30 pen at the school level. The “Study of the Provision will increase the enrollment by more than 150 per- of Instructional Materials” discovered that many cent without incurring additional costs. The increase headmasters are scheduling classes so that every of PTR does not mean drastic measures, such as fir- student has access to a textbook during the class ing teachers; instead, it can be achieved by reducing session. Such energy at the school level should be the hiring rate and restricting hiring to teachers of exploited. However, the capacity of school-level subjects in demand, such as math, English, and sci- management needs to be further strengthened ences. However, the burden of such an increase through capacity building and other motivational should not fall on the crowded schools. And the pro- incentives. cess has to be linked to the rationalization of cur- In discussing the proposed policy options, it is riculum, teacher workloads, and deployment. important to remember that large differences exist between regions, districts, and even within districts. The policy options will have to be tailored to the local context. xvi AFRICA REGION HUMAN DEVELOPMENT WORKING PAPER SERIES

Distinguishing the secondary (O-level) versus post- for non-wage and non-boarding expenditures. The secondary (post-O level) institutions both conceptually current practice uses the capitation grant to subsidize and administratively teacher salaries or to hire additional private teachers. • Create an integrated secondary school system to in- Variations of the formula can be introduced to address clude general O-level and secondary technical and farm the inequity in public financing. For example: schools under a single system of administration, gover- - To improve the equity of public financing, it is nance, finance, and curriculum focus. As discussed ear- possible to formulate the capitation grant to al- lier, technical and vocational education at the O- low higher allocations on a per capita basis for level is expensive, ineffective in transmitting basic schools serving predominantly poor students. competencies as compared to general secondary, and - More radically, the government may stop pay- not generally a preferred option for families. The ing capitation grants to elite boarding schools government should consider converting these serving predominantly wealthy families. schools into regular O-level day secondary schools. - Or, the government could still provide capita- This means that the government will not en- tion grants to the elite boarding schools, but gage in massive construction of community poly- based on the enrollment of poor and day stu- technics. At most, the community polytechnics dents in those schools. should only be piloted in selected districts with a - The government could support the private sec- cheaper design that can later be easily converted tor by approving the same grant for private into regular day O-level secondary schools. schools—and there is no reason why such a • Re-organize post-secondary BTVET institutions into grant should not be provided to private and a single system of further education institutions of viable community schools. Of course, given resource size, and invest in improving quality and efficiency, ei- constraints, the government will not be in a ther through larger multi-faculty colleges or larger single position to provide support immediately. The field of study institutions. A strategic review is needed priority is still to reform public financing to pub- of post-school provision to re-energize, rationalize, lic schools. and increase value for money in this sector. There is room to (a) adopt more demand-led approaches to • Formula-based teacher salary grant. Much of the enrollment planning and institutional development, variation in per student expenditure lies in the pro- (b) provide incentives and flexibility to allow col- portion of graduate teachers in the school. This leges to increase participation using cost recovery, variation is also the major source of inequity of pub- and (c) generate a dynamic, post school, occupation- lic financing because rich students usually attend ally and professionally orientated education and schools that have more of these teachers. To correct training system. this, the ministry might provide a formula-based capitation grant to schools earmarked only for B. Medium-term focus on equitable distribution teacher salaries. The schools will then be able to of public financing as a major strategy for improv- decide how to use this grant and determine the num- ing the coverage, equity, and quality of PPET ber of teachers, proportion of graduate teachers to (within the next 5–10 years) be hired, and salaries of the teachers. The Ministry of Education will determine the value of the grant, Broaden the concept and forms of capitation grants to sufficient to cover a certain number of teachers. This schools option is not as drastic as it sounds, since secondary • Capitation grant for non-wage expenses. To protect schools already have a large degree of freedom in expenditures on essential teaching and learning hiring teachers and in reallocating resources. Such a materials and equipment, the existing capitation grant can eventually be extended to private and grant should be revised so that it can only be used POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION IN UGANDA xvii

community schools. However, teacher unions may scheme should be carefully studied before expand- resist since the strategy implies a change in the ing the bursary scheme. Bursaries could target terms of teacher contracts. Attention also needs to schools that meet certain performance criteria and be paid that the system does not exploit teachers. that charge fees below certain levels (as the rich perhaps will not be opting for such cheap schools). Or bursaries could be used for day students attend- Increase average secondary school size to reap economies ing boarding schools, while special provisions of scale and gradually reduce the number of schools with should be made to include orphans. enrollments less than 250 This can be accomplished through merging small secondary schools. There is a long-standing concern that enrollments are too low at many secondary C. Long-term focus on structure, curriculum, and teacher reform to improve the quality and rel- schools in Uganda to allow economies of scale to evance of PPET education be reaped. This is important because the delivery of secondary curriculum usually requires libraries, Structure and curriculum reform workshops, and other expensive equipment. The In the long term, Uganda needs to examine criti- Unit Cost Study found that, taking into account per cally its structure and curriculum focus for PPET, in student expenditure and manageability, the opti- the context of cultural, social, and economic devel- mal school size is between 500 and 750 students. opment as well as in the context of regional and Seventy percent of private rural schools have less international integration. It needs to ask what core than 250 students. The corresponding figures for competencies and skills are expected of a secondary private peri-urban and urban private schools are 53 graduate and then determine the structure of the percent and 44 percent. About 23 percent of the gov- education system, the teaching method, and curricu- ernment schools in rural areas have enrollments lum that will deliver such outputs. The country also smaller than 250; the corresponding figures for gov- needs to decide whether it will adopt a basic educa- ernment peri-urban and urban schools are 6 percent tion cycle that covers primary and selected years of and 7 percent. Sparsely populated areas deserve spe- lower secondary education—with a curriculum fo- cial attention, where secondary schools have small cus on literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving catchment areas. This is especially important if the skills—and an enriched curriculum for higher sec- Uganda Government decides to provide the O-level ondary education, with more focus on science and education or at least two to three years of O-level technology. education for free as part of the basic education movement—in which case, basic education becomes Reform teacher education and teacher incentive a right. Both pre-service and in-service of teachers need to be reviewed. Very little is known about what hap- Expand the existing scholarship scheme to cover needy students, including AIDS-orphans pens at the teacher training colleges; however, there The PPET system faces the challenges of efficiency, is evidence that teacher education would benefit access, quality and equity. But equity cannot be ex- from improved efficiency and relevance at the col- pected to improve without government interven- leges. Teaching and learning at the colleges tend to tion. Bursary schemes remain an effective strategy. be content-driven—with little attention to devel- An important policy implication of the analysis is oping professional skills and attitudes—and heavily that the bursaries should target the poor and other teacher-centered. Reduce salary differentials be- disadvantaged students. However, it is not clear to tween graduates and non-graduates doing the same what extent the current bursary scheme is benefit- jobs, and link bonuses to workloads to improve pro- ing students with real needs; therefore, the current ductivity and performance. xviii AFRICA REGION HUMAN DEVELOPMENT WORKING PAPER SERIES

Reform the secondary examination and assessment The projected cost of adopting short-term system efficiency measures Secondary teaching and learning in Uganda are heavily influenced by two examinations—the The proposed policy options center on the increase Uganda Certificate of Education at the end of O- of pupil:teacher ratio by creating core subject clus- level, and the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Edu- ters and by having teachers teach at least two sub- cation at the end of A-level. Both examinations are jects. The cost projections assume that the initial designed mainly to select students for the next level, costs of curriculum adaptation are minimum or can and, inevitably, teachers and students will teach and be shouldered by the EFAG, and that the ministry is learn to the examinations if spaces in PPET are lim- only concerned with development costs (for pilot- ited. With the gradual expansion in coverage, it may ing community polytechnics and building regular be possible to introduce other forms of assessment, day secondary schools) and the recurrent costs of such as continuous assessment or national assess- wages and capitation grants. ment of student aptitudes. These will provide more Two scenarios have been costed. Both scenarios valuable insights into the teaching and learning pro- center on increasing system efficiency by increas- cess in the classrooms and help inform the curriculum ing the pupil:teacher ratio, although at a different review. rate. The baseline model includes a modest agenda Increase the resource allocation for PPET of reform that anticipates a gentle rise in the pupil • Intra-sectoral shifts. At present, 65 percent of the teacher ratio. It would allow about 200 new schools education budget is earmarked for primary educa- to be built by 2006 and 470 by 2011. The latter is tion. In fact, the government is committed to guar- sufficient to ensure all sub-counties have a second- anteeing 65 percent of its education budget to pri- ary school by 2011. It would also allow the second- mary education over the next few years. It is pos- ary GER to climb towards 50 percent, the level at sible that after a few years, when the primary situa- which gender parity is likely to become real. And tion is more stabilized and most of the overage stu- finally, it only requires about 20–22 percent of over- dents will have been absorbed into the system, pri- all MOE budget to be devoted to secondary and mary budget may not need to consume 65 percent. BTVET. The report regards the baseline model to be In addition, while reforms in higher education may more politically feasible as compared to the radical bring higher public finance in the short term, if model, which will require a much faster increase of implemented well, they may result in autonomous PTR. Therefore, the report recommends that the higher education institutions and hence will not re- baseline model be adopted for implementation. A quire a large share of the ministry’s long-term bud- process of further national and regional consulta- get. This will be a national decision. tion on these options was agreed to during the April 2002 Education Sector Review. And the final action • Inter-sectoral shifts. If PPET were to become a high plan will be presented to the October 2002 Review priority area, there may be a further commitment of and incorporated into the medium-term budget funds from some other sectors to the education sec- framework. tor. This decision must be made at the national level, with consultation and concurrence by the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet. The share of Uganda’s budget now going to education is already extremely 1 We define post-primary education as lower secondary education (grades S1, S2, S3, and S4), upper secondary (grades S5 high by international standards. and S6), which immediately follows the seven years of primary education, and a parallel technical and vocational education system that consists of technical and farm schools immediately following the primary cycle. Emphasis is given to grades S1–S4, the O-level segment of secondary education as opposed to grades S5–S6, the A-level. POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION IN UGANDA xix

Broad policy options for improving the efficiency, coverage and equity, and quality and relevance of post-primary education

Short term Medium term Long term (within the next 2–3 years) (within the next 3–5 years) (beyond the next 5 years)

Efficiency Require all secondary teachers to (Focus on curriculum and teach at least two subjects. Forty- teacher rationalization) five percent of teachers now teach only one subject.

Increase the pupil:teacher ratio Continue to increase PTR so that it Maintain the average national gradually from 20 to 30 reaches a sustainable national average PTR taking into consideration desired by the country reasonable deviations due to certain geographic and demographic conditions Increase the average secondary school Maintain a sustainable size to reap economies of scale where average school size, feasible recognizing the special needs of certain remote areas Coverage and equity Revise the current capitation grant Continue, revise, and Focus on financing reform scheme so that only the non-wage implement the capitation and targeted assistance to expenses are covered; in addition, grants to maximize equity and needy students introduce variations of the formula to quality address the inequity in public financing: - A higher capitation grant to schools serving predominantly poor or other disadvantaged children - Stop capitation grant to elite boarding schools, or only pay capitation grant based on the number of poor students enrolled in those schools - Consider providing such grant to private schools

Pilot formula-based salary grant in order Implement formula-based that schools can decide the number and salary grants qualifications of teachers hired

Expand and revise the existing bursary Institutionalize the bursary scheme so that more poor and other scheme disadvantaged children can benefit from the bursaries

Quality and relevance Review the structure and Focus on structure, curriculum focus according to curriculum, teaching reform national needs and international benchmarks; establish a basic education cycle with a core curriculum focusing on basic literacy, numeracy, and problem- solving skills Reform teacher education and teacher incentive structure

Reform secondary examination and assessment

Increase the share of budget allocated to secondary (subject to national debate) Management and Create an integrated secondary Capacity building at district and school Continue strengthening governance school system: convert the existing levels school-level management secondary-level technical schools to regular O level day secondary;

Re-organize and re-energize the post secondary BTVET*

* It is not clear administratively which department is responsible for the management of the post-secondary BTVET institutions as these institutions currently cut across both secondary and tertiary education. 1 Introduction

1.1 The importance of post-primary education A great deal of literature testifying to the importance of secondary education already exists; therefore, this paper will focus on the contribution of ost-primary education—the transitional edu- secondary education within the context of Uganda’s cation sub-sector between the primary and P tertiary education sub-sectors—is less well economic, social, and cultural development. We will also argue that, even within the education system, studied and understood than the primary education higher levels of education are important for train- sub-sector, particularly in developing countries. Tra- ditionally in the developing world, higher rates of ing the teachers and administrators that staff the primary school system. In fact, by training mid-level return to primary than to higher levels of education technicians and preparing future professionals, post- have justified expanding and improving primary education. The emphasis on primary education was primary education plays a similar role in other areas that are key to economic development. In short, post- simply because literacy is fundamental to a mini- primary education is the fundamental link between mally educated labor force and an informed elector- ate. Meanwhile, equity-based arguments justified primary and higher education, as well as a determi- nant of the future path of tertiary students, and thus broader primary rather than post-primary and ter- of much of the potential for economic development tiary coverage. in a country. But the past two decades have shown that, de- Finally, because children of this age are generally spite the justifications for the primacy of primary sexually active, secondary education can be an ef- education in development strategies, secondary and tertiary education cannot be ignored. Recent em- fective vehicle for intensive school-based HIV/AIDS education and prevention programs. pirical work has demonstrated that post-primary enrollment has a positive relationship with real per capita GDP and a negative relationship with fertil- Millennium Development Goals ity (Brist & Caplan, 2000). Figure 1 illustrates cross- PPET’s importance is further underlined by the Mil- sectional data from the 2000 World Education Re- lennium Development Goals, to which the Uganda port that show a positive trend line between GNP government has signed on. Specifically, the MDG per capita and gross secondary enrollment (GER) goals for Uganda education are (a) ensure that, by ratio among African countries, indicating that GNP 2015, all children will be able to complete a full per capita increases in the GER. course of primary schooling; and (b) eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education,

1 2 INTRODUCTION

Figure 1 come level. Although policy- GNP per capita and secondary gross enrollment ratio making should not be based on such crude comparative statis-

100 tics, we can still say that, given 90 current economic conditions, 80 Uganda should theoretically

70 expect the overall secondary

60 GER to reach a minimum of 22 Trend Line percent of the secondary age 50 group and adjust this expecta- 40

GER Secondary tion upwards as the economy 30 continues to grow. 20 In Uganda, the introduction 10 Uganda of the Universal Primary Edu- 0 cation (UPE) in 1996 has had a 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 huge impact on primary educa- GNP Per Capita 1997 tion. At the beginning of the 1990s, the gross primary enroll- preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no ment ratio was only 87 percent, later than 2015. The goal of eliminating gender dis- basic inputs were lacking, and households were parity is especially relevant to secondary education. paying too much for primary education. The president’s decision in 1996 to remove fees for four children per family sent a signal to people that edu- 1.2 Purposes of the study cation is important. An additional 2.2 million children (1.1 m girls and 1.1 m boys) responded imme- This study focuses on post-primary education in diately, bringing the total primary enrollment to 5.3 million in 1997. By 2001, total enrollment had Uganda, discussing issues of access, equity, effi- reached 6.9 million. The increased primary enroll- ciency, management and financing, and makes broad recommendations for moving ahead. As of ment will inevitably have an effect on PPET. In fact, the first cohort of UPE students is entering the PPET 1997 the Ugandan overall secondary gross enroll- next year. In anticipation of the increase in post- ment ratio of 12 percent was well below the average (22 percent) among countries of similar GNP primary enrollment that should result in the after- math of Universal Primary Education (UPE), the per capita income (as indicated by the trend line in Government of Uganda is becoming more aware of Figure 1) even at that time. Many countries that have a per capita income similar or lower than that of post-primary education’s importance, and is considering expanding and improving the system. In Uganda have a much higher secondary GER. For fact, President Museveni announced during the last example, Nigeria in 1997 had a GER of more than 30 percent, whereas its income per capita was only election in 2001 that he intends to pursue “Free Sec- ondary Education.” US$280. Egypt, on the other hand, achieved a secondary GER of 70 percent with a per capita income While this intention is a step in the right direc- of US$1200. tion, the final implications of this policy have not yet been considered. Still, the ministry felt moti- The system is not operating at the optimal level— vated by the government’s political will and, with that is, it could achieve higher GER based on its in- UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 3

support from donors, started a process of policy- cation—and, therefore, disagreement about the making for the PPET sector. form it should take. Should post-primary education However, critical information on coverage, equity, be a general preparatory stepping-stone to the aca- efficiency, management, and financing of the cur- demic rigors of tertiary education? Or should it fo- rent system is needed to help the policy-making cus more on practical vocational skills that are di- process. Despite recent reforms, especially in pri- rectly applicable in the workplace upon graduation? mary education, little is known about post-primary These, and other issues—such as resources use, cur- education in Uganda, and this shortage of informa- riculum design, teacher training, physical infrastruc- tion has, in turn, affected the amount and quality of ture, as well as who should finance secondary edu- research available. Apart from the ministry’s annual cation—are primary points of contention and, as such, school survey, there is very little data on post-pri- have made developing the post-primary education sys- mary education in Uganda, and even the ministry’s tem in Uganda a difficult but important task. data cannot be relied upon because of the variation in the response rate from year to year. In addition, Uganda’s post-primary education needs to be ex- 1.3 Sector report development process amined in a larger international context to determine where it now stands and what might be viable Despite a lack of any explicit policy framework for options for improving the efficiency and sustainably PPET, the MOES policy to cope with the projected expanding the system. enrollment growth, as reflected in forward budgets Adding to these challenges, the post-primary and described by senior policy makers, seems to be subsector differs from the primary subsector in a the following: number of ways that are significant for policy de- • Creating a national network of community poly- sign. First, whereas in primary schools parents are technics the sole decision-makers, children of post-primary • Steady vocationalization of secondary education school age participate in the decision-making about by creating comprehensive schools school attendance. Second, because of the interface • Creating “seed” secondary schools in districts and with the labor market, the opportunity cost of post- locations where there are no or few secondary primary education, and that of upper secondary edu- schools cation in particular, is significantly higher than in • Relaxing current controls, restraints, and quality primary education. In developing countries, most assurance checks on private education in order to children qualifying to attend post-primary school encourage the rapid growth of private secondary are also able to obtain remunerated employment schools. outside the home. In addition, older daughters become valuable substitutes for maternal chores, and teenaged boys can be entrusted with the family herd These policy proposals from the ministry, though as experienced and productive agricultural work- not explicit, have prompted a dialogue between the ers. From the parental point of view, the immedi- Education Funding Agency Group (EFAG) and the ately visible returns from child labor in the family ministry on PPET. EFAG members were concerned may outweigh the potential future benefits of post- that the proposed options are not coherent, may be primary schooling. financially unsustainable, and may not serve the long-term purposes of PPET. This dialogue impelled In addition, there is a great deal of controversy the ministry to begin carrying out these studies, about the purpose of post-primary education—as with technical and financial support from EFAG. opposed to the purpose of primary or tertiary edu- 4 INTRODUCTION

In order to clarify many of the issues linked to framework and strategies over a ten-year horizon. reforming the post-primary education subsector, the In particular, the studies examine the financial, ministry initiated policy dialogues with the EFAG sustainability, and equity implications of the policy in late 2000. They agreed then that the ministry promises, including the establishment of commu- would not immediately implement the polices and nity polytechnics and the vocationalization of the instead that the EFAG would help the ministry pre- secondary curriculum. pare a PPET policy framework and strategies, followed by an implementation plan for approximately The role of the World Bank in education and PPET the next ten years. They also agreed that the ministry would prepare terms of reference (with support The World Bank has supported the education sector from EFAG members) for a series of inter-related in Uganda since the 1960s. Table 1 indicates that the studies on the PPET to diagnose the current state of amount of financial support in education peaked PPET provision. In addition, EFAG members would during the period 1990–1999, when the World Bank provide financial and technical support to the studies. provided US$133 million for the education sector. During recent years, the Bank’s support for educa- At the same time, a consultation process was tention has taken a different approach, mainly through tatively agreed upon that included having a con- a Poverty Reduction Strategy Credit, which involves sultant prepare the final policy framework and strat- all sectors including education; however the educa- egies for the PPET sector, consulting with key stake- tion sector is the major beneficiary. holders, and presenting the policy framework and strategies during one of the Education Sector Re- The World Bank also provides support to policy view meetings. In fact, while this report was being development in various sectors. The need for this prepared, the ministry had also begun preparation support is made more acute by the sector-wide in- of the policy framework and the consultation pro- vestment approach that Uganda has adopted. In the cess, with support from EFAG. PPET area, of the eight studies mentioned, the World Bank provided financial support to six: With support from the Education Funding Agency Group, including the World Bank, DFID, and the • Teacher Utilization European Union, the following studies were con- • Coverage, Equity, and Efficiency ducted between September 2000 and February 2002: • Firm Demand Analysis • Teacher Utilization • PPET Quality Study • Coverage, Equity, and Efficiency • PPET Unit Cost Study • Management and Internal Efficiency • Financing Options for PPET. • Firm Demand Analysis • PPET Quality Study In addition, the World Bank gave technical sup- • PPET Unit Cost Study port to all eight studies at every stage, including • Financing Options for PPET developing TORs, selecting consultants, offering comments on each draft and final report, and par- • Study on Instructional Materials. ticipating in the overall dialogue on PPET related issues. The World Bank’s financial support came It was expected that these studies would fill in from a variety of sources, namely, the Norwegian knowledge gaps about the post-primary education Trust Fund, the PHRD Grant, and the Bank Budget. subsector in Uganda and that, together, they would This sector report combines all commissioned be the basis for a consultative process that would PPET studies, including those financed by other lead to a Ugandan post-primary education policy donors, and aims to be a background paper to the UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 5

Table 1 World Bank lending to Uganda

Uganda Total IBRD/IDA 1963–69 1970–79 1980-89 1990–99 (millions of current)

All sectors 22 23 832 1,838 Human development 10 7 97 290 Education 10 7 54 133

Number of operations All sectors 4 3 27 36 Human development 1 1 3 6 Education 1 1 2 2

Education sector share (percent) Of total lending amount 46.3 31.2 6.5 7.2 Of total number of projects 25 33.3 7.4 5.6 Of lending amount for human development 100 100 56 45.8 Of number of human development projects 100 100 66.7 33.3

consultative process now going on. It strives to syn- lows the seven years of primary education, and a thesize the studies and present a comprehensive pic- parallel technical and vocational education system ture of Ugandan post-primary education, its that consists of technical and farm schools immedi- achievements to date, the challenges ahead, and ately following the primary cycle. Technical insti- broad options for reform. tutes that follow the completion of secondary education are considered tertiary and are therefore not part of the study. More emphasis is given to the 1.4 Data sources grades S1–S4, O-level segment of the sector as compared to grades S5–S6, the A-level of general sec- The study used data from both primary and second- ondary education. Information is limited on techni- ary sources. Primary data sources include readily cal and vocational education; however, whenever available information from the Ministry of Educa- data permit, we include the analysis of technical and tion and Sports, the Ministry of Finance, and the farm schools at the post-primary level. Uganda Bureau of Statistics, and data collected in the areas of unit cost, teacher utilization, and stu- 1.6 Organization of the sector report dent achievement. Secondary data refer to data and analysis contained in the consultant reports and any other research done on Ugandan education.1 Chapter 2 summarizes the major demographic and socioeconomic indicators to place the subsequent analysis of Ugandan post-primary education into 1.5 Definition of post-primary education context. Chapter 3 gives an overview of the Ugan- dan education sector, emphasizing its overall struc- We define post-primary education as lower second- ture, size, and basic education indicators. Chapter 4, ary education (grades S1, S2, S3, and S4), upper sec- the main section of the report, discusses the context ondary (grades S5 and S6), which immediately fol- of PPET, its performance, inputs, cost, and financ- 6 INTRODUCTION

ing. Wherever possible, the Ugandan experience is measured against international experiences. Chap- 1 There has been controversy on the accuracy of the ter 4 also discusses technical and vocational educa- ministry’s annual school census because of possible issues related to under-reporting, definition, and analysis. A few tion and the private provision of PPET. Chapter 5 is consultants had tried to use their own analysis to derive en- the PPET enrollment projection from 2001 to 2012. rollment and other estimates. This study primarily relies on the ministry’s data since they are the only officially pub- Chapter 6 presents conclusions, and Chapter 7 sug- lished data owned by the ministry. At the time of preparing gests directions for policy design. this report, the 2001 data had not become officially available; hence, most of the data pertains to the year 2000. 2 Demographic, Social and Economic Context

ganda is a member of the Commonwealth of Table 2 indicates that, by 2000, Uganda had a GNP Nations. It is bounded to the North by Sudan, per capita of US$320, which was still low compared Uto the East by Kenya, to the South by Tanza- to the average of US$500 for Sub-Saharan Africa and nia and Rwanda, and to the West by Zaire. The coun- US$410 for low-income countries. Uganda is pre- try comprises an area of more than 230,000 square dominantly a rural country—only 13 percent of the kilometers. Its territory includes Lakes George and population lives in urban areas. Life expectancy at Kyoga and part of Lakes Victoria, Edward and birth is forty-two years old, which is low compared Albert; and the River Nile from its source at Lake to the Sub-Saharan average of fifty. Twenty-six per- Victoria to Nimule on the Sudanese border. cent of children under five are malnourished, and In 2000, Uganda had a total estimated population access to improved water sources is only about 41 of 22 million. The population growth rate is now percent, which is low when compared with 43 per- stable at about 2.7 percent. It has substantial natu- cent for Sub-Saharan Africa and 64 percent for all ral resources, including fertile soils, regular rainfall, low-income countries. and sizable mineral deposits of copper and cobalt. Table 3 presents Uganda’s projected populations However, during the turbulent years of Idi Amin’s up to 2025. In 2000, about 7.6 million (35 percent) of regime Uganda became one of the poorest coun- the total population were of primary and secondary tries in the world. In 1987, the new government, led school age (ages 6–12 for primary and ages 13–18 by President Museveni, embarked on an economic for secondary). This proportion is projected to in- recovery program aimed at reducing poverty by re- crease to slightly less than 39 percent by 2025, when storing fiscal discipline and monetary stability and the projected school-age population will reach rehabilitating infrastructure (economic, social, and about 12.2 million. institutional). The recovery program further encom- Finally, the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to af- passed civil service reform, revised investment and fect Uganda. Despite the fact that HIV/AIDS preva- incentive structures, and made a rapid move to a lence rate has dropped from more than 20 percent in market-determined exchange rate. the early 1990s to only 8 percent in 1999, many of The impact of the combination of government- those who were affected started to die, resulting in led reform and development assistance has been high attrition of the labor force and a large number impressive, as reflected by sustained real GDP of orphans. The low life expectancy can be partially growth and a 21 percent drop in poverty (headcount attributed to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It is estimated index) to 44 percent in the five-year period since that on average one out of every nine primary 1992 (World Bank).

7 8 DEMOGRAPHIC, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC CONTEXT

schools in SSA can expect to have an AIDS-related demic is therefore particularly serious for the edu- death each year. In addition, according to a recent cation sector in terms of its teaching force, the edu- study (Bennell et al., 2002), 20 percent of the popu- cation and care of the orphans, and the school-based lation below age fifteen are orphans, one-third of HIV/AIDS prevention programs. which are AIDS-orphans. The implication of the epi-

Table 2 Poverty and social indicators

2000 Uganda Sub-Saharan Low-income Africa countries

Population 22.1 642 2,417 GNP per capita 320 500 410 Population growth rate 2.7 2.6 1.9 Labor force growth rate 2.7 2.6 2.3 Urban population 14 34 31 Life expectancy at birth 42 50 60 Infant mortality (per 1000 live births) 83 92 77 Child malnutrition (percent of children under 5) 26 32 43 Access to improved water source (percent of population) 50 43 64 Source: World Bank Development Indicators, 2001.

Table 3 Population projections from 2000 (estimated) to 2025, Uganda

2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025

All ages 22063 23687 25401 27312 29370 31303

Ages 6-12 4630 5381 5717 6070 6543 6963

Ages13-18 3061 3600 4274 4673 4939 5346

Source : Edstats, World Bank. 3 Education Sector Overview

3.1 Structure of the education system Figure2 Uganda education structure

he Ugandan education system follows a 7-4- University Technical 2-4 pattern: seven years of primary education, Tfollowed by four years of lower secondary or Upper secondary “Ordinary” level, two years of upper secondary or education “Advanced” level, and four more years of tertiary education. There is a parallel technical and voca- Technical and farm Lower secondary schools tional track. This includes three-year technical and education farm programs that follow immediately after primary education, and three- or four-year post-sec- Primary education (official ages 6-12) ondary technical programs. Figure 2 illustrates this structure. Selection and certification occur at the end of the primary educa- There is no legally imposed age of entry for post- tion level, at the Ordinary level of secondary, and at primary education. The official, or “target,” age of the Advanced level of secondary by means of na- entry is age thirteen. However, since most children tional examinations. These include the Primary enter primary school late, the de facto post-primary School Leaving Exam, the Uganda Certificate of starting age is much higher than thirteen, starting Education, and the Uganda Advanced Certificate of at about age fifteen. Education. Alternative technical certificates also exist for students choosing the technical track, including the Uganda Junior Technical Certificate, 3.2 Size of the education sector which is taken at the end of three-year post-primary technical and farm programs, and the Uganda Advanced Technical Certificate, which is taken at By African standards, the Uganda education sys- the end of post-secondary technical programs. tem is large. According to the officially published The official age of entry is six for primary educa- Education Statistical Abstract, the system comprises tion. However, as in many countries, most children more than 6.5 million primary students, about 0.6 enter at a later age—around nine years. million secondary and technical vocational students, and about 55,000 tertiary students. The teaching

9 10 EDUCATION SECTOR OVERVIEW

Table 4 Schools, enrollments, and teachers by type

Primary Secondary Technical and farm Tertiary *

Number of schools 11,578 1,892 29 40 Enrollment 656,559,013 518,931 7,019 55,000 Number of teachers 110,336 30,384 2600 * Statistics for tertiary are rough estimates only, including twelve major universities, ten National Teacher Training Colleges, Colleges of Commerce and Technology, and other tertiary institutions. Source: Education Statistical Abstract 2000, MOES. force is also large, with almost 150,000 teachers tend to be better resourced and provide better qual- teaching at all levels of the formal education sys- ity education. tem. There are about 14,000 formal educational institutions at all levels. At both the primary and secondary levels, schools 3.3 Selected basic indicators of the education can be classified by ownership into government, system in Uganda community, or private schools. The government pays teachers and provides capitation grants to govern- Like the rest of the Ugandan economy, the educa- ment schools only. Neither community nor other tion system suffered under Idi Amin’s regime. Pri- private schools receive government subsidies. mary and secondary coverage remained stagnant However, the distinction between community throughout the 1970s, and the educational quality school and private school is not always clear. Com- deteriorated substantially. munity schools are mostly located in rural areas, However, since the establishment of the new gov- and usually hope to be converted into government ernment, there have been significant improvements. schools. The most notable achievement has been the Uni- versal Primary Education policy initiated in 1994, Table 5 which, in effect, abolished primary school fees for Enrollment (and number of schools) up to four children per family. By 1999/2000, total by ownership primary enrollment was 6 million, more than double Primary Secondary what it had been in 1994. Gross primary enrollment reached 124 percent, and net primary enrollment Government 5,351,099 216,292 reached 93 percent (1999/2000 Household Survey). (8,074) (490) Community 839,008 178,510 The quality of education aside, this level of primary (2,169) (811) coverage (near universal) almost compares to the Private 309,200 120,885 more developed regions of North America, Asia, and (1,228) (579) Europe. Education stock indicators have also shown sig- Except for a few private schools established by nificant improvement. As of 1999, UNESCO reports religious bodies, which offer high quality educa- that 38 percent of Ugandans age fifteen and above tion, most private and community schools are not are illiterate. This is consistent with household sur- well resourced and provide relatively low quality vey estimates, which indicate that 32 percent of the education. Government schools, on the other hand, population age fifteen and above cannot read and UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 11

Figure 3 Percentage completing primary and three years of secondary education from 1953 to 1993

45 % COMPLETED 40 PRIMARY 35 % ATTAINED 3 YRS 30 SECONDARY 25 20 Percentage 15 10 5 0 1948 1953 1958 1963 1968 1973 1978 1983 1988 1993 Year

write. Compared to the UNESCO estimate of 42 tion completing three years of secondary education percent adult illiteracy for Sub-Saharan Africa in 1997 increased from less than 5 percent in 1953 to about (World Education Report 2000), Uganda seems to 15 percent in 1993. be performing better. However, because of low in- Figure 4 provides a snapshot of the current edu- come and life expectancy, UNDP’s Human Devel- cation system. The proportion of children enrolled opment Index—combining indicators of life expect- (total enrollment, primary enrollment, and second- ancy, educational attainment and income—still ary enrollment) is plotted against age. We can see ranked Uganda 158th out of 174 countries. The HDI that most children (more than 90 percent) are en- of 0.40 is low compared to the Sub-Saharan average rolled in primary school between the ages of nine of 0.46 in 1998. and twelve years old. Secondary coverage is sub- Further insights can be drawn from cross-sec- stantially lower. The peak secondary enrollment tional data that can simulate changes in educational occurs at age seventeen when 22 percent of chil- attainment over time. By looking at the educational dren are enrolled in secondary schools. attainment of the 1999/2000 sample by the five-year age cohort, it is possible to extrapolate average at- 3.4 Government expenditure on education tainment from 1953 up to 1993 in five-year inter- vals.1 Figure 3 shows that primary school completion increased dramatically over the last forty years Government education expenditure as a whole of the twentieth century. The percentage of the plummeted from 4.1 percent of GDP in the 1970s to population completing primary school climbed from only 1.2 percent in 1980s. The 1980s and 1990s have less than 10 percent in 1953 to more than 40 percent seen a slow but steady recovery. By 1996, total gov- by the mid 1990s. Improvement in attainment at ernment expenditure had reached 2.6 percent of the secondary level has been more modest than at GDP. By 1999/2000, the education budget as a share the primary level, but the percentage of the popula- of GNP was about 4 percent (323 Ush billion includ- 12 EDUCATION SECTOR OVERVIEW

Figure 4 Enrollment by age (from HH survey, all ages)

Age-specific enrollment ratio

100 Total 90 Primary 80 Secondary 70 60 50

% Enrolled 40 30 20 10 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Age ing development budget). This level of investment A more telling indicator of the Government of is high compared to other low- and even middle- Uganda’s (GoU) commitment to education is the income countries (Table 6). share of government expenditure devoted to education. Education’s share of total government ex-

Table 6 Total education expenditure as a % of GNP and as a % of total expenditure

% of GNP % of government spending 1970 1980 1990 1995 1970 1980 1990 1995

Low & middle-income 2.4 3 3.1 3.3 10 11.6 13.2 13 East Asia & Pacific 1.6 2.4 2.3 2.3 6.3 9.7 12.8 10.7 Europe & Central Asia 4 3.7 4.3 5 17.5 16.2 17.1 18.1 Latin America & Caribbean 3 3.8 3 4.6 14.5 17.8 13.6 18.1 Middle East & North Africa 5 6.1 4.7 4.9 15.9 16.2 21.1 17 South Asia 2.5 2.7 3.5 3.3 10 10.2 11.9 11 Sub-Saharan Africa 3.8 4 3.4 3.4 16 15.5 12.8 15.2

World 3 11.5 3.4 3.4 12.1 12.2 13.2 13 High-income 5.4 5.8 4.9 5 19.3 17.3 13.4 11.4

Uganda 4.1 1.2 1.5 2.6 17.7 11.3 11.5 21.4 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 13

Table 7 Recurrent budget allocation in billions of Uganda Shilling, 1998–2004 (estimated)

Sub-sector 1998/99 1999/00 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 Primary 142.7 161.8 194.3 228.5 254.6 281.6 Secondary 41.5 41.6 45.6 56.6 61.2 65.6 TVET 9.6 8.4 6.5 10.8 14.1 15.4 Tertiary 29.5 36.6 33.7 45.6 56.1 65.8 Other 8.3 9.8 8.2 10.1 10.9 11.9 Total 231.4 258.2 288.3 351.5 396.8 440.2

Primary share 0.62 0.63 0.67 0.65 0.64 0.64 Secondary share 0.18 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.15 0.15 TVET share 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.03 Tertiary share 0.13 0.14 0.12 0.13 0.14 0.15 Other 0.04 0.04 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 Notes : Figures in italics are planned expenditures. Source: Medium Term Budget Framework. penditure decreased from 17.7 percent to 11.3 per- Per student subsidy from the government varies cent during the 1980s; however, education expendi- substantially by education level. The government ture rose steadily to occupy about 21.4 percent of subsidy per primary student averaged about US$22, total government expenditure by 1995. Subse- as compared to US$148 per secondary student (see quently, it kept rising and stood at more than 26 section on cost and financing) and US$860 per uni- percent between 1997 and 2000. And, in 2000/2001, versity student in public universities. This results in the education budget reached 32 percent of the total a ratio of 1:7:39. government recurrent budget. Within the education sector, in 2000/01, about 15.8 percent of the recurrent budget was allocated to secondary education, 2 percent to BTVET, which is 1 Cohorts are defined over five years to overcome sample size low compared to the 67 percent allocated to pri- problems. They are identified with the year when the third youngest group within each cohort would have been mary and 12 percent allocated to tertiary education. through secondary school. 4 Uganda Post-Primary Education

4.1 Policy, objectives, structure, admission, and control of education to districts through the DEOs. size Implementation of decentralization is more advanced at the primary level. Secondary education remains the prime responsibility of the Commis- Policy context for post-primary education sioners for Secondary Education and the Commis- The long-term national policies for education stem sion for Technical, Vocational, Business, and Com- from documents and policy statements external to mercial Education. the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES). These However, these policy directions have not been include: implemented because their implications have never • Vision 2025: A Strategic Framework for National been studied, and therefore the Ministry of Educa- Development, 1999 tion and Sports has not translated them into con- • White Paper on Education, 1992 crete policies and guidelines. The 1992 White Paper th • Education Bill 2001, 4 Draft on Education proposed a number of reforms that • The Local Governments Act 1997 and the Local were never implemented because there was neither Governments Act Amendments 1997 a strategy nor any consideration of budget con- • Education Strategic Investment Plan (ESIP). straints. Senior managers in MOES are preoccupied with the day-to-day management of the secondary The Ministry of Finance prepared the Vision 2025 school system and have little time or capacity to document, which in Chapter 7 states that the edu- deal with policy, planning, and quality control. cation sector’s goal is to “ provide free and compul- Within MOES, policy takes the form of administra- sory universal primary and secondary education.” tive circulars regulating critical areas of secondary This goal was reinforced in the manifesto of the rul- education. As already mentioned, this study was ing party during the 2001 presidential election. inspired by the lack of a coherent policy framework The White Paper on Education identifies the cur- and the policy pronouncements that failed to con- riculum and institutional structure. In general, cur- sider resources and impact. rent MOES policies include incremental expansion of government funding, movement towards a com- Objectives of secondary education prehensive curriculum, and the expansion of BTVET The 1992 Government White Paper on Education via community polytechnics. states the aims and objectives of secondary educa- As demonstrated by the 1997 Local Governments tion as: Act, the government’s policy is to decentralize the

14 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 15

• Installing and promoting national unity and an qualified students and prepare students for the job understanding of social and civic responsibilities; market. strong love and care for others and respect for But what should the education system do to public property, as well as an appreciation of in- achieve these objectives? Should all schools train ternational relations and beneficial international all students with these two broad aims—or should cooperation; a division of labor take place? If there should be a • Promoting an appreciation and understanding of division of labor, then there is an equity issue: who cultural heritage of Uganda, including its lan- should be prepared for higher levels of schooling guages; and who should be trained to go to work? If all • Imparting and promoting a sense of self-disci- schools prepare all students with both aims, then pline, ethical and spiritual values, and both per- what and how should students be prepared to con- sonal and collective responsibility and initiative; tinue their education or go to work? What should a • Enabling individuals to acquire and develop core PPET curriculum be? The answer is that scarce knowledge and an understanding of the emerg- PPET resources (at least the public sector) must be ing needs of society and the economy; focused on instilling basic literacy, numeracy, and • Providing up-to-date and comprehensive knowl- problem-solving skills at the lower secondary level. edge in theoretical and practical aspects of inno- A focus on the basics will ultimately serve all pur- vative production and modern management meth- poses. ods in the fields of commerce and industry, and their application in the context of the socioeco- Structure nomic development of Uganda; Secondary education in Uganda immediately fol- • Enabling individuals to develop basic scientific lows a seven-year primary education. General sec- technological, technical, agricultural, and commer- ondary education consists of two O-levels: lower cial skills required for self-employment; secondary education (grades S1, S2, S3, and S4), and • Enabling individuals to develop skills of problem- upper secondary (grades S5 and S6). In addition, a solving, information gathering and interpretation, parallel technical and vocational education system, independent reading and writing, and self-im- consisting of three years of technical and farm provement through learning and the development schools, immediately follows the primary cycle. of social, physical, and leadership skills, such as This structure of thirteen years of primary and those obtained through games, sports, and clubs; secondary education is unusual. Recent UNESCO • Laying the foundation for further education; data indicate that most of the world now follows a • Enabling the individual to apply acquired skills in 6-3-3 structure for primary and secondary educa- solving community problems and to develop in tion (Table 8). There is also an international trend him a strong sense of constructive and beneficial that a basic or compulsory education cycle be de- belonging to that community; and fined to ensure minimum years of schooling for all • Instilling positive attitudes towards work and a children, where basic literacy, numeracy, and prob- strong respect for the dignity of labor and those lem-solving skills are taught. Most countries have who engage in productive labor activities. now defined that compulsory time period to be eight or nine years of education, or up to a certain age, and covering the entire primary cycle and part As in many other developing countries, post-pri- of the secondary cycle. Such a definition is still miss- mary education in Uganda has multiple objectives. ing in Uganda. It must provide the higher levels of schools with 16 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Table 8 Admission and examinations Structure of education system by world region At the end of the seven years of pri- Primary Lower Upper Compulsory mary education, pupils sit for Primary secondary secondary Africa 6 3 3 7 Leaving Examination (PLE), which North America 6 3 3 9 tests them in four subject areas: En- South America 6 3 3 8 glish, mathematics, social studies, and Asia 6 4 3 8 Europe 5 4 3 9 basic science and health education. Oceania 6 4 2 8 The results are then graded on a nine- point scale and the performance ar- Uganda 7 4 2 Not defined ranged in order of merit.

Source: UNESCO World Education Report 2000. Performance in the PLE determines selection in post-primary and train- There is no officially defined age of entry into ing. Although pupils choose favored schools for sec- secondary education. Ideally, if a child enters pri- ondary education, it happens that the best perform- mary at age six and completes the seven-year pri- ing secondary schools receive the highest appli- mary cycle, he or she would be thirteen years old by cants. From these, the best gain admission to the the time he or she enters a secondary school. How- schools, in most cases those with total aggregate 4 ever, the combination of late entry into primary and (i.e., a distinction 1 in each of the four subjects, thus repetition at the primary cycle means that most chil- aggregate 4). The rest of the schools then share the dren enter secondary school much later than age remaining applicants, but the hierarchy is main- thirteen. tained—the best schools getting the best candidates. Cutoff points for elite secondary schools are generally below six points.

Figure 5 Number of Secondary Schools, 1970–2000

Number of Secondary Schools

2000 1800 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600

Nu mber of Schools 400 200 0 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 Year

UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 17

Figure 6 Secondary Enrollment Trends, 1970–2000

Secondary Enrolment Trends

600,000

500,000

400,000 2000

300,000

200,000

Total Enrolment 1999 100,000

0 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 Year

Source: Educational Statistical Abstract 2000, Ministry of Education and Sports, Uganda.

Approximately 40 percent of all the pupils who But these figures must be treated with caution, sit for PLE have the opportunity for post primary since the MOES school census data, upon which this education and/or training. Most of the students en- analysis is based, are not completely reliable. More- rolled in technical vocational schools are those with- over, prior to the year 2000 data collection, private out a place in secondary school. Technical vocational schools were probably seriously under-reported. It schools therefore recruit from a lower performing is also unclear whether the dramatic increase in to- category of the primary school leavers. tal enrollment between 1999 and 2000 reflects ac- Admission to private schools varies by school. tual growth or is due to improvements in MOES Most private schools admit students who can pay data collection and analysis. the fees. As Table 9 shows, the post-primary education system is now composed of 1,892 general secondary Sector size schools, and 29 technical and farm schools. The to- During the last three decades, secondary schools tal enrollment in general secondary schools was have expanded significantly, although unevenly. 518,931 students in 2000 and about 8,000 in techni- Between 1970 and 2000, the number of secondary cal and farm schools. An unknown number of private schools in Uganda increased from 73 to 1,892, and secondary and/or technical schools may have not re- enrollment increased from about 50,000 to almost sponded to the ministry’s annual school survey; hence, 600,000, a more than tenfold increase. they would not be included in these statistics. The total number of secondary schools and en- Of the schools that responded, approximately 26 rollment was relatively flat during the 1970s, rising percent are government-owned, 31 percent are pri- in the early 1980s, and then leveling out again until vately owned, and 43 percent are community- the mid-1990s. Pronounced growth in the number owned. In terms of enrollment, only 41 percent of of institutions resumed in 1998. total enrollment is in government schools; the re- 18 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

maining 60 percent are in private and Table 9 community schools. Female enrollment Overview of the general secondary education system (2000) is on average about 45 percent through- School ownership # of schools Total enrollment % Female enroll. Pupil: teacher ratio out the system. Government 490 216,292 41 National average: Private 579 120,885 47 Community 811 178,510 46 4.2 System performance Unknown 12 3,244 n/a Total 1,892 518,931 n/a 17

4.2.1 Coverage Source: Annual school census 2000. The 1999/2000 Household Survey indicates that the gross and net secondary enrollment both primary and secondary education. In an ideal (secondary including all grades of S1 to S6) ratios situation, when all children start secondary school were, respectively, 19 percent and 13 percent in 1999. at age thirteen and graduate at age eighteen, and When broken down by age, the enrollment ratio the coverage is 100 percent, we would expect to see ranges from 2 percent of thirteen-year olds to the a flat horizontal line at the value of 100 percent, peak of 22 percent of seventeen-year olds. So, al- starting from age thirteen and ending at age eigh- though secondary education should officially start teen. Instead, due to less than 100 percent coverage, as at age thirteen, only 2 percent of the thirteen-year well as underage and overage enrollment, we see a olds enter secondary school. Most children enter curve starting around age thirteen and ending after between the ages of fourteen and seventeen. age twenty-five, but never reaching 100 percent. A visual way to illustrate the coverage is by plot- Clearly, overage enrollment is also a problem for ting the age-specific enrollment ratios against age. secondary education. Thirty-three percent of those Figure 7 plots the age-specific enrollment ratio for

Figure 7 Age-specific enrollment ratio

Age-specific enrollment ratio

100 Total 90 Primary 80 Secondary 70

60 50

% Enrolled 40 30 20 10 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Age UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 19

Table 10 Table 11 Age-specific enrollment ratio for Secondary gross enrollment ratio secondary school in 1999/2000 Secondary gross enrollment ratio Age-specific enrollment (1996) Age ratio for secondary school MF M F 13 0.02 14 0.08 WORLD TOTAL 64.4 65.2 64 15 0.15 16 0.19 High income 105.2 105.5 110 17 0.22 Middle income 67.3 67 68.2 18 0.20 Low income 39.4 42.2 34 19 0.16 20 0.11 OECD 108 106.6 109.4 21 0.08 Sub-Saharan Africa 30.4 33.2 27.7 22 0.07 Arab States 58.5 60.4 56.4 23 0.03 Latin America and Caribbean 59.7 51.8 56.6 24 0.02 Eastern Asia and Pacific 61.5 61.9 63 25 0.01 of which: China 68.9 72.5 65.1 NER 0.13 Southern Asia 57 62.2 51.3 GER 0.19 of which: India 49.4 58.8 39.3

Developing 51.2 49.7 47.2 who enroll in secondary school are beyond the offi- Least developed 24.7 29 20.4 cial target age range of 13–18. This implies at least Average for countries with GDP per capita $320 22 as great a shortfall in the secondary net enrollment Uganda 12 15 9 ratio. This is one reason why secondary coverage of Sources: UNESCO Education Indicators Database; the official secondary-age target population (13– World Bank Development Indicators 2000. 18) is so low, at only 13 percent.1 Such selectivity makes the PPET system elitist. The PPET sub-sector is more concerned with the 4.2.2 Coverage for the poor and other lower grades of S1 to S4. Looking only at the grades disadvantaged of S1–S4, the gross enrollment ratio is higher and estimated to be at 35 percent. However, even this By gender figure of 35 percent is low compared to international standards. Table 11 indicates that, worldwide, second- In 2000, only 44 percent of general secondary en- ary GER stood at 64 percent, and the average GER for rollments were female. However, the overall gen- developing countries was 51.2 percent in 1996. der balance has improved in recent years—from 40 Of course, policy-making should not be based on percent in 1996 to 44 percent in 2000. Figure 8 plots crude comparative statistics. But given the current the age-specific enrollment ratio by gender and economic conditions, Uganda should at least aim shows that the pattern of gender disparity varies for the overall secondary GER to reach a minimum by age. Girls have higher secondary enrollment ra- of 22 percent of the secondary age group, which is tios than boys from ages thirteen to sixteen. By age the average ratio for countries with similar economic seventeen, boys and girls have similar secondary development as Uganda. And the S1–S4 GER ratio enrollment ratios of about 22 percent. After age sev- should aim to increase to 50 percent. 20 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Figure 8 Comparison of secondary enrollment for males and females by age

Secondary enrollment by gender

30 MALES(SECONDARY) FEMALES(SECONDARY)

10 Percentage enrolled

0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 Age

enteen, however, boys start to have higher enroll- There are also significant differences by region— ment ratios than girls, and the disparity can be sub- specifically, schools in the Central region have sig- stantial. For example, at age twenty, more than 20 nificantly higher female participation, and schools percent of boys are in secondary school, compared in the Northern region consistently have the low- to less than 5 percent for girls. est female participation, generally less than one- Looking at the overall gross and net secondary third of total enrollment in Forms 5 and 6. enrollment ratios, boys have a slightly higher gross There have to be efforts to bring more girls into enrollment ratio than do girls. However, the net the secondary schools early in order that they finish enrollment ratios are almost identical, with females before reaching age seventeen—after this, the like- having a slight advantage over males. lihood of them dropping out is very high. Social norms may also determine gender parity, especially Table 12 in the Northern Region. Secondary gross and net enrollment ratios by gender By expenditure quintile Male Female Gross enrollment ratio 20% 16% Households are grouped into five quintiles by the Net enrollment ratio 12.7% 12.4% level of total household expenditure. Quintile 1 (Q1) is the poorest group and has the lowest level of expenditure; Quintile 5 (Q5) is the wealthiest group This finding indicates that the female disadvan- and has the highest level of expenditure. Figure 9 tage in secondary enrollment has been reduced sig- shows total enrollments for the top two quintiles nificantly and occurs mainly after age seventeen, (Q4 and Q5) and the bottom quintile (Q1). when girls start to have higher dropout rates than Extreme income-based inequality shows up at this boys (see section 4.2.4). In fact, examining the pro- level. Q5 households have the highest enrollment portion of girls enrolled by grade, we find that by ratio at all ages. In contrast, the Q1 households have Form 6, girls represent less than 40 percent of total the lowest enrollment ratios up to age twenty-four. enrollment. UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 21

Figure 9 Comparison, by quintile, of secondary enrollment by age

Age-specific enrollment ratio for secondary

45 40 Q1 35 Q4 30 Q5 25

20 Enrolled % 15 10 5 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Age

For example, at age seventeen, fewer than 4 percent His findings confirmed that poverty induced in- of the Q1 children are enrolled in secondary schools, equality in secondary enrollment and, more impor- whereas 42 percent of the Q5 children are enrolled. tantly, that the inequity had actually worsened since The richest 20 percent of the households occupy 63 1992 for secondary schools. In 1992, the ratio of en- percent of total secondary spaces. Therefore, the in- rollment of the richest to the poorest students was equality in secondary schools is more widespread slightly more than 2 (10 over 4.9), whereas in 2000 than in primary schools, in the sense that more chil- this ratio increased to more than 4 (12.9 over 3.6). dren are disadvantaged in relation to the richest 20 The Ugandan Government cannot neglect equity percent of the households. goals while focusing on expanding the system. In There is also evidence that, not only is there gross fact, there should be specific policies aimed at help- inequity in secondary enrollment, but also that the ing the poor segments of the population to access inequity may have worsened over the last decade. secondary education. Orphans, including HIV/AIDS Using the Household Surveys of 1992, 1997, and orphans, must also be given special consideration. 2000, Deininger (2001) examined the net secondary enrollment rates by quintile for 1992, 1997, and 2000.

Table 13 Secondary enrollment rates by quintile, 1992, 1997, and 2000

1992 1997 2000 All Girls Boys All Girls Boys All Girls Boys Poorest 4.9 3.2 6.3 3.8 3 4.3 3.8 3.6 3.9 Q2 8.3 8.5 8 7.1 6 8.2 7.7 7.5 7.9 Q3 9.8 7 12.6 11 12.5 9.5 12.4 11.7 13.1 Q4 11.2 11 11.5 21.5 19.7 23.1 17.2 18.4 16 Richest 17.4 16.1 19.4 34.1 32.3 37 28.3 27.9 28.8 Uganda 10 9 11 11.1 11.2 11 12.4 12.9 12

22 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

4.2.3 Determinants of secondary enrollment that a girl is less likely to enroll in secondary schools Further analysis using multiple regression method after age seventeen because she is entering into (see details in Annex 1) confirms that poverty is marry and becoming the spouse or head of a new linked to secondary enrollment. Children from bet- household, or taking care of the youngest child in ter-off households are more likely to be enrolled or the household, whether or not the child is hers. Start- to have benefited from secondary education than ing girls’ schooling earlier is likely to lead to higher their poor counterparts. attainment for girls, in addition to helping more girls In addition, being a head or spouse of the house- into secondary school. hold lowers the probability of secondary attendance. The 1999/2000 survey also asked the reasons for The age of the youngest child in the family also low- not attending school or for dropping out. Though ers the probability of enrollment for the target child, not precise, it gives us an opportunity to crosscheck especially the girl. Finally, the father’s education is our findings from the statistical analysis. Apart from 2 another significant factor. The more years of educa- “indifference,” the most important reason for not tion the father has received, the more likely the tar- attending is cost. Cost is also the most important get child is to enroll or to have enrolled in second- reason for dropping out (more than 70 percent). ary school. These findings are consistent with our findings from Earlier, we said that girls have a lower age-spe- the regressions that poverty is the most significant cific secondary enrollment after age seventeen. The factor for not enrolling in secondary schools. regression results show that—only controlling for A small proportion also cited “need for work” as a household economic factors but without control- reason for not attending or dropping out of school. ling for family structural characteristics—girls are However, this does not mean that only a small pro- still less likely to enroll than boys. However, once portion of children are working. Because of pov- we take into account whether the target child is the erty, many poor children need to work. A small sec- head or spouse of the household and the age of the tion on labor income in the 1999 survey enables us youngest child in the household, girls do not differ to examine the proportion of children working by from boys in enrollment probability. This means expenditure quintile. Figure 12 shows that between

Figure 10 Reasons for not attending school for children of secondary age group

Reasons for not attending

0.5 0.45 0.4 0.35 0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 Sick Indifferent Need to Cost School too Orphaned Insecurity Others disabled work far UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 23

Figure 11 Reasons for dropping out of school

Reasons for dropping out

0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 Need to Domestic Cost Transport School Sickness Pregnancy others work work quality

2 percent and 22 percent of children and young from the lowest expenditure group are much more adults ages 11 to 25 are already participating in the likely to be working than those from the high ex- labor force. This is probably an underestimate of penditure group at all ages, helping to explain why the proportion of children productively engaged out enrollment rates in secondary education are so low, of school, since many children also contribute to especially for the poor. domestic work or are working in the informal sec- If roughly 20 percent of the age group 16–20 is tor. The figure also shows that, at all ages, children enrolled in school and about 20 percent is engaged

Figure 12 Comparison, among quintiles, of percentage of children working

% of children working by consumption quintile

25 Q1 20 Q2 15 Q3 Q4 10 % Working Q5 5

0 Ages 11-15 Ages 16-20 Ages 21-25 24 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

working in the formal sector, this means that more Table 15 than 60 percent of the age group is idle or engaged Primary to secondary transition rates (in %) in domestic and other informal activities. In the long term, we hope this proportion will decrease as the Transition rates from primary to secondary education (1994) PPET system is further expanded. In the short term, WORLD 79.8 the Government of Uganda needs to be concerned South America .. about the very large numbers of young people who of which: Chile 53.5 seem not to have any work skills. Alternative deliv- Costa Rica 68.3 ery mechanisms, such as distance education, may Guyana 96.8 help provide a minimum set of skills to these people. North America .. This must be an explicit part of the government’s Europe 89.5 strategy. Oceania .. of which: New Zealand 101.7 4.2.4 Internal efficiency: transition, repetition, and Arab states .. dropout rates of which: Kuwait 106.4 Palestine 81.7 Transition rates Qatar 96.9 Asia .. PRIMARY TO SECONDARY TRANSITION. We know that of which: China 87.6 Uganda has very low coverage at the secondary Hong Kong 99.2 level. We also know that the low secondary cover- Mongolia 95.1 age is because of a low transition rate from primary Africa 60.6 to secondary, or a high dropout rate at secondary grades, or a combination of both. Uganda (2001) 50 Sources: UNESCO online database; Uganda MOES. Table 14 Transition rates from P7 to S1 (in %) than the rapid expansion in the sector. This means that less than half of the P7 graduates enrolled in Year 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 2000 2001 Transition rate 22 31 42 40 36 31 40 50 secondary schools. Therefore, any attempts to expand the secondary education system must take into account that at least half of the P7 graduates have We use the ministry’s MIS data to estimate the dropped out of the education system entirely. transition rates in public schools. Although the re- The level of transition from primary to secondary sponse rate varies from year to year, student flow school is slightly lower compared to the African information can still be estimated within a single average of 60 percent (Table 15). More importantly, year, since the same number of schools report en- given the increased number of P7 graduates because rollment for all grades. According to the ministry’s of UPE, the transition rate is likely to fall in the next official statistics, transition from P7 to S1 has ranged few years. The extent of decrease will depend on from 22 percent to almost 50 percent in public the rate of secondary enrollment growth, which is schools since 1993 (Table 14). In the last three years, further determined by the size of the government the transition fluctuated between 30–50 percent. The budget allocated to secondary education. (See sec- fluctuation may have more to do with the captur- tion 5 on enrollment and transition rates projections.) ing of private schools in the school census, rather UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 25

TRANSITION FROM S4 TO S5. Transition from S4 to S5 9.6 percent, while for females these rates were about is low. Upon completing S4, students sit for the 11 percent for both S2 and S3. Although we are not Uganda Certificate of Education exam. Most stu- sure why dropout rates are higher at S2 and S3, it is dents exit the education system at this point. In 2000, possible that students may feel or have been told only about 26 percent of the S4 graduates proceeded that they have no hope of doing well (passing the to enroll in S5. The system is designed to be very UCE) and then drop out. Total dropout rates for selective at this stage. grade S6 were the lowest, indicating that if a student decided to stay in school long enough to begin the sixth year, he or she would most likely finish. Table 16 Dropout rates for all six grades were slightly higher Transition rates from S4 to S5 for females than for males. The overall dropout rate for selected years in Uganda is relatively low compared to most other Year 1995 1997 1998 2000 low-income countries. Transition rate 28 35 44 26 Dropout rates also vary by type and location of school. Generally, the dropout rates are higher in nongovernment-aided schools as compared to government-aided schools (12.8 percent versus 10.2 per- Dropouts and repeaters cent overall). Schools located in rural areas also tend DROPOUTS. Table 17 shows that for the year 2001 the to have higher dropout rates than those located in overall average dropout rates for secondary educa- peri-urban or urban areas. Female students in rural tion in Uganda were approximately 8.2 percent for non-government-aided schools have the highest males and 9.2 percent for females. The S2 and S3 dropout rate of 16.9 percent, and male students in grade years seem to have had the highest dropout government-aided schools have the lowest aver- rates. For males, these rates were 10.1 percent and age dropout rate of 3.9 percent.

Figure 13 Dropouts by grade and gender

Dropouts by grade and gender

8 % MALE DROPOUTS 6 % FEMALE DROPOUTS 4 Dropout rates (percent) 2

0 S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 TOTAL Grade

Source: Annual school census 2000. 26 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Figure 14 Repeaters by grade and gender

Repetition rates by grade and Gender

2.5

2 % MALE REPEATERS 1.5 % FEMALE REPEATERS 1

Repetition rates (percent) 0.5

0 S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 TOTAL Grade

Source: Annual school census 2000.

REPETITION. Repetition rates of secondary school can find a place in PPET, incentives are strong for grades were much less pronounced than those for teachers to teach and students to learn to the re- dropouts. The overall repetition rates were similar quirements of UCE and UACE rather than of the for males and females, at about 2 percent. Second- curriculum. ary school repetition rates are much higher in other As part of the study on PPET—and to better un- low-income countries. The low repetition rates may derstand how much students in secondary schools be because Uganda actually has an automatic pro- are learning—criteria-based English and mathemat- motion policy for secondary schools. However, this ics tests were designed for Form 1 and Form 3 stu- policy is not strictly implemented, as one can infer dents to test basic competencies. They measure how from the non-zero repetition rate. Table 17 4.2.5 Examinations, assessment, and student Dropout rates by type of school and location, 2001 learning achievement Government-aided Nongovernment- Secondary school students sit for the Uganda aided Certificate of Education at the end of O-level Rural Female 12.8 16.9 Male 10.1 14.9 (UCE) and the Uganda Advanced Certificate of All 11.5 15.5 Education at the end of A-level education Peri-urban Female 9.8 11.5 Male 9.4 10.9 (UACE). These are national-level, curriculum- All 9.9 11.0 based examinations designed for certification Urban Female 5.4 9.4 and selection. There have not been any national Male 3.9 8.8 All 4.7 9.0 assessments of student achievement at this level All Female 11.1 13.8 of education other than the two tests. Because Male 9.0 12.4 only about 40 percent of the primary graduates All 10.2 12.8

UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 27

Figure 14 Repeaters by grade and gender

Repetition rates by grade and Gender

2.5

2 % MALE REPEATERS 1.5 % FEMALE REPEATERS 1

Repetition rates (percent) 0.5

0 S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 TOTAL Grade much Ugandan students have achieved against a education, 6.8 percent in Christian religious educa- set of minimum competencies appropriate for Form tion and 5 percent in English, but only 2.8 percent in 1 and Form 3 students. This section presents the re- physics, 2.2 percent in chemistry, 1.6 percent in math, sults from UCE, UACE, and new competency tests and 1.3 percent in biology. in math and English. The poor performance in math UCE is not a new phenomenon. Since 1996, more than half of those Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) who took math tests have failed.

In most subjects, the numbers of candidates taking Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) the examination increased by over 23 percent between 1998 and 2000, but candidates for physics and chemis- There are a growing number of candidates for all try only increased by 18 percent and 17 percent, re- subjects, but numbers in mathematics and science spectively, from what were already low numbers. remain low. Comparative pass rates for mathemat- Overall performance on the UCE was particularly ics, economics, and chemistry are also low, although low for mathematics and science. In 2000, of almost mathematics has a higher percentage (6.5 percent) 90,000 students who sat for the UCE, the pass rate of candidates passing at grades 1 and 2 than in most was only 47.5 percent for mathematics. The pass rate subjects. was also comparatively low for physics (71 percent), The 2000 UCE and UACE results indicate that: chemistry (54 percent), and biology (64 percent). • Science subjects and mathematics are not popular There were similarly low percentages of candidates and will not be selected by many students if made achieving grades 1 and 2 (distinction) passes in optional. mathematics and science, compared to humanities • Physics and chemistry candidates at UCE level are and social sciences. Thus, 17 percent of students approximately only one-third of the number of gained distinction in history, 13 percent in political candidates taking humanities and social sciences 28 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Table 18a subjects. At the UACE level, candidates sit- UCE candidates and pass rates by subject (2000) for main ting for math and the three science subjects subjects are only 20 percent or fewer of the candidates taking humanities and social sciences. Subject No of candidates % Pass rate % Distinction (grades 1-8) (grades 1&2) Performance in mathematics exams is par- English language 87,564 89.0% 5.0% ticularly poor. Math 87,509 47.5% 1.6% • Performance in most of the science sub- Geography 87,488 87.0% 2.6% Biology 83,090 64.0% 1.3% jects is significantly worse than for humani- Commerce 79,584 60.0% 1.7% ties and social science subjects. Low candi- History 78,617 91.4% 17.0% Christian RE 65,765 86.0% 6.8% date numbers and poor results are blamed Agriculture 40,518 74.0% 1.8% on poor or nonexistent laboratory facilities, Chemistry 29,873 54.0% 2.2% scarcity of essential consumables, and a lack Physics 28,487 71.0% 2.8% Art 18,758 99.0% 0.5% of textbooks and qualified teachers in most Political education 17,176 72.0% 13.2% Ugandan secondary schools. Health science 13,210 75.0% 1.0% • Those subjects related to business (com- Luganda 12.030 76.0% 3.7% Principles of accounting 11,010 65.0% 2.5% merce and principles of accounting in UCE Source: UCE Examinations Results Statistics Summary 1998-2000, and economics in UACE) all have low pass provided by UNEB. rates compared to other subjects. • The study of literature in either English or in a local language has seriously declined. This is Table 18b reportedly a consequence of the scarcity of litera- UCE candidates and fail rates for Math and English ture books in the classroom. Year Candidates % fail Math % fail English 1996 61,706 58 23 1997 67,569 62 42 A study of school quality of secondary schools or 1998 75,318 58 29 equivalent grades in technical/vocational schools 1999 84,803 59 14 2000 91,666 52 11 Although reflecting the extent to which students 2001 105,768 51 28 master the curriculum materials, the UCE and UACE are heavily driven by selection. To understand how students are mastering the basic core competen- Table 19 cies (assuming there are minimum competencies UACE candidates and pass rates by subject (2000) for PPET students, regardless of which track they are enrolled in), the ministry commissioned a Sec- Subject No of candidates % Pass rate % Distinction (grades 1-8) (grades 1&2) ondary School Quality study through the Uganda General paper 39,041 87.0% 7.0% National Examination Board. With support from Economics 32,385 71.0% 1.4% an international test expert, mathematics and En- History 25,619 86.0% 2.8% Geography 21,469 84.0% 0.2% glish tests were designed and administered to Christian RE 20,772 94.0% 2.0% selected samples of Form 1 and Form 3 students Art 9,474 99.0% 0.2% Physics 6,349 82.0% 0.6% in 120 randomly selected schools nationwide. Mathematics 5,140 66.0% 6.5% Results from the School Quality Study indicate Chemistry 4,949 76.0% 1.0% that the quality of PPET is poor, as reflected by Biology 4,338 84.0% 1.0% test scores, especially for mathematics. Nation- Source: UACE Examinations Results Statistics Summary 1998-2000, provided by UNEB. wide, more than 40 percent of Form 1 students UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 29

and half of Form 3 students failed the math tests. to economic development. For example, Germany, Results of the English tests are slightly better: 25 Japan, and Korea consciously programmed their percent of both Form 1 and Form 3 students failed economic development to include science and en- the English tests. The results on math are largely gineering education as centerpieces of three very consistent with the UCE results, both of which in- successful economic development strategies. dicate that half the students fail math. The results on English from the Quality Study (25 percent fail- 4.2.6 Learning achievement of the poor and other ure rate) are worse than the UCE English results, disadvantaged which indicate that only 11 percent of students failed Another sobering finding from the School Quality (89 percent passed). Study is the great disparity in student achievement. Table 21 indicates that nationwide, sec- Table 20 ondary girls do significantly worse in Quality Study Failure Rates I mathematics than boys. Forty-six percent of the girls failed the Form 1 math test Form 1 Math Form 3 Math Form 1 English Form 3 English Male 37.5% 47% 27% 23.3% compared to 36 percent of the boys. More Female 46% 54% 23% 22.1% than 54 percent of the girls failed the Form Overall 40.5% 50% 25% 22.7% 3 math test compared to only 47 percent of the boys. However, achievement in English does not seem to show any significant gen- The high rates of failure in Form 1 mathematics der difference. and English tests point more to the poor quality of primary education than of secondary. The truth is Although we cannot make a perfect correlation that students are graduating from primary school between test scores and student socioeconomic without mastering basic skills. This means that the background, there is evidence that children from education system as a whole, and what secondary poor families have higher failure rates in math and education can achieve, must be examined. English tests than do those from better-off families. Two observations support this: (a) there is a However, the equally low or even worse achieve- higher concentration of poor and disadvantaged ment in Form 3 indicates that secondary education students in rural, private/community, and day and/ is equally guilty of not providing quality education or mixed, and smaller secondary schools compared to its students. to urban, private/religious, government, boarding, Although designed for different purposes, the re- and larger secondary schools; and (b) the School sults from UCE, UACE, and competency tests sug- Quality Study found that students from urban, gov- gest that secondary students in Uganda are not ernment, private/religious, boarding, and larger learning as much as they should, especially in math- schools have significantly higher achievement ematics. Many students are graduating from the (lower failure rates) than those rural, private/com- system without mastering basic skills and compe- munity, day and/or mixed, and smaller secondary tencies, regardless of whether they are continuing schools. In fact, private community schools fare the to higher levels of education or going to work. The worst. Fifty-nine percent of students in private com- problem may become more acute as the country munity schools failed Math 1; 77 percent failed expands it PPET system with limited resources. math; 3; 38 percent failed English 1; and 32 percent The poor performance in math and sciences failed English 3. should be of special concern for policy-makers in It was also found that students from schools with PPET—advances in science and technology are key enrollments of more than 600 do significantly bet- 30 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Table 21 Quality Study Failure Rates II

Form 1 Math Form 3 Math Form 1 English Form 3 English Rural 40% 50% 33% 31% Urban 40% 49% 15% 13%

O-level 40% 47% 23% 17% A-level 24% 44% 7% 5%

Government 35% 43% 27% 29% Private – religious 36% 45% 18% 17% Private – community 59% 77% 38% 32%

Day 51% 66% 32% 29% Mixed 49% 60% 32% 36% Boarding 27% 33% 16% 11%

Small school (less than 200 students 57% 68% 47% 35% Medium school (201 – 600 students) 54% 68% 37% 40% Large school (more than 600 students) 24% 32% 7% 8%

ter than smaller schools. In fact, there may be a posi- 4.2.7 Labor market outcomes tive relationship between school size and student Education increases the productivity of an indi- achievement. This may be because larger schools vidual. The performance of the education system is usually charge higher fees and thus can afford bet- therefore reflected in the labor market outcomes of ter teachers and learning resources. Thus, there may its graduates. There are at least three important ele- be an argument for larger schools. ments to the labor market outcomes: (a) the prob- This finding is tragic. It means that, compared to ability of being employed in the formal sector, (b) their wealthier counterparts, children from poor the salary scale once employed, and (c) the “pro- households, in addition to having fewer chances of ductivity” if engaged in the informal sector. enrolling in secondary school, are more likely to go The 1999/2000 UNHS data include information on to a lower quality school if they do enroll. And since the Ugandan labor force. Table 22 shows that Uganda education is a powerful instrument for upward has a small proportion of the population in the la- mobility—social and economic—the poor, lacking bor force (46 percent). Only 12 percent of the labor the opportunity to go to a quality school, will al- force is engaged in the formal sector, and the re- ways remain behind. maining 86 percent is in the informal sector. One quarter of the formal sector labor force is employed Table 22 by the public sector, and two-thirds are employed The Ugandan labor force by the private sector. The unemployment rate is 7.3 % of population in the labor force 46.1% percent. % of the labor force in the formal sector 12% % of the formal labor force in the public sector 24.4% % of the formal labor force in the private sector 66.7% Education and employment in the formal sector % of the formal labor force unemployed 7.3% The analysis shows that higher levels of education are linked with a higher probability of being employed in the formal sector. For example, Table 23 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 31

Table 23 ings, we estimated a standard Mincer (1976) equa- Probability of being in paid employment by tion as follows: educational attainment Ln(wage) = B + B1*(years of (Individuals age 15-69, not in school) education)+B2(experience)+B3(experience squared). Education Sample Employed Probability None 18,285 547 3.0% The results indicate that the wage premium for an Drop P1 303 32 10.6% additional year of education is high in Uganda. Table P1 571 77 13.5% P2 1,223 176 14.4% 24 lists the coefficients and standard errors associ- P3 1,680 213 12.7% ated with the predictors. On average, for every ad- P4 1,863 237 12.7% P5 1,922 287 14.9% ditional year of education, the wage increases by P6 2,340 319 13.6% more than 17 percent (B1). It has been argued that P7 2,639 407 15.4% the wage premium may differ by level of education. J1 108 21 19.4% J2 133 25 18.8% In a separate model (not reported) that looked at J3 86 16 18.6% yearly returns to different levels of education, we S1 532 106 19.9% found that yearly returns are highest at the lower S2 565 106 18.8% S3 437 88 20.1% secondary level: 24 percent, compared to 16 percent S4 841 254 30.2% for primary and 15 percent for upper secondary (Fig- S5 84 16 19.0% ure 15). This implies that, for every additional year S6 173 59 34.1% Spec-certif 777 452 58.2% of lower secondary education, earnings increase by Diploma 536 399 74.4% 24 percent.3 Therefore, the case for investing in sec- Degree+ 130 93 71.5% ondary education, and particularly lower second- Unknown 116 24 20.7% Total 35,344 3,954 11.2% ary education, is very strong. Source : Analysis of 1999/2000 UNHS Data Source: Apart from the returns associated with education, Analysis of 1999/2000. wages in the Central and Western regions are significantly higher than in the Northern and Eastern regions. For a given level of education and experi- shows that an S4 graduate is about twice as likely ence, people in the Central region (including to be in paid employment as a P7 graduate. An indi- Kampala) have higher wages than those residing in vidual with higher education (diploma or degree) is other regions. In addition, women with the same five times as likely as a P7 graduate to be in paid level of education and experience, and working in employment. The probability of being in paid em- the same location, still earn about 18 percent less ployment, by education level is shown in Table 23. than their male counterparts do.

Wage premiums associated with post-primary education Table 24 Higher levels of education usually mean higher pay Wage premiums levels in the formal sector. To calculate the wage Variables B (S.E) premiums associated with higher levels of educa- Experience 0.12***(0.00) tion, we used the 1999 Household Survey data and Experience squared -0.0002***(0.000) restricted the sample to only about 16.7 percent of Years of education 0.17***(0.004) Western region (compared to Northern) 0.25***(0.06) the Ugandan labor force who are between the ages Central region (compared to Northern) 0.44***(0.05) 15–65, not in school, and working in the formal wage Eastern region (compared to Northern) 0.09(0.05) Female -0.18***(0.04) sector. Looking only at the yearly pecuniary earn- 32 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Figure 15 Yearly return to education

Yearly return to education

0.3

0.25

0.2

0.15

0.1

0.05

0 Primary Lower Upper Tertiary secondary secondary

These private rates of return to education are rela- The case for expanding secondary education, and tively high compared to other countries, which usu- especially lower secondary education, can be made ally have returns to each additional year of educa- not only on the ground of coverage and equity, but tion of around 10–12 percent. This may be partly also from the point of view of societal investment, because there are still few educated people in as returns are very high regardless of who should Uganda. finance such an expansion.

“Productivity” in the informal sector Demand for post-primary graduates More than 80 percent of the Ugandan labor force is A separate study of 400 firms in the formal sector engaged in informal sector activities. The analyses confirms that there is a high demand for post-pri- of opportunity cost in section 4.4.2 and in Annex 2 mary graduates from the formal private industry show a strong pattern of productivity increasing sector. Employers generally trust the traditional with education. This suggests that formal education qualifications of O- and A- level certificates (see significantly increases productivity, not only in the Box 1). This demand has been more than able to formal sector, but also in household production. compensate for the decline in the demand from the These results demonstrate that returns to second- public sector as civil service is reformed. The con- ary education materialize both in the form of access cern that the O-level certificate may be obsolete is to formal employment and in the form of remunera- not justified. The requirement for entry into the for- tion. Wage premiums, and especially those corre- mal sector will increase as more of the population sponding to completion of lower secondary educa- obtains O-level education. tion, are high. Returns to technical education also Justification for the expansion of secondary edu- seem to be high, although we know that costs are cation is also based upon evidence of skill short- substantially higher for technical education. ages. Employers support increased work and industry relevance within the curriculum, which they fre- UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 33

Box 1 Skills and attributes valued by employers: Findings from the Firm Demand Survey—Uganda

The vast majority of firms rate oral and written Over 80 percent of forms rated as “very good” communication, numeracy, initiative, and problem or “good” the following skills of general second- solving skills as “very important” or “important.” ary school graduates: verbal ability, the ability to The highest ranking was given to oral communi- follow verbal and written instructions, oral communication, followed by problem-solving ability and cation, numeracy skills, and communication skills. initiative. These results are consistent with the high degree Over 80 percent of firms rate as “very impor- of trust in post-primary qualifications that firms tant” punctuality, honesty, enthusiasm, friendliness, have demonstrated elsewhere in the survey. politeness, and reliability as “very important.” The Based on these responses, the cognitive devel- highest frequencies are for punctuality, honesty, opment in Ugandan secondary education so and reliability. highly regarded by employers can be supple- But there is little evidence of a high demand mented with the development of more general for occupationally specific skills, except for the skills of problem solving, production, or project work. high importance attached to industry experience. The habits of punctuality and reliability, completion Firms are seeking trustworthy, responsible em- of work on time and to a high standard can be built ployees, with good work habits and communi- into schoolwork routines. Means of demonstrat- cation skills, who can learn quickly. ing these skills and attributes to employers through school reports can also be developed. quently express as vocationalism; but, based on sur- Considering what skills are in demand, an expan- vey evidence (Box 1), as well as international expe- sion of secondary education, as compared to tech- rience, this should not include specific job or occu- nical training, is more justified. The increasingly di- pational training. Instead, they include general oral versified and dynamic formal industry sector also and written communication, knowledge of the makes it difficult for schools to guess which practi- work process, and the capacity to respond to new cal skill is in demand; therefore schools are better work situations. In addition, employers value good off transmitting basic foundational skills so that stu- behavioral traits, including trustworthiness, reliabil- dents learn to adapt to different work environments. ity, and punctuality. In short, despite the advocacy for vocationalization, employers often place more value on generic The evolving structure of the Ugandan economy skills and knowledge, plus positive work attitudes. In fact, this is reflected in the choice that P7 stu- Designers of PPET education policy should also be dents make about applying to a general secondary, aware of the evolving structure of the economy. or to a technical, school. In 2001, of about 400,000 P7 Uganda has recently been applauded as a high eco- graduates, only slightly more than 3,000 applied to nomic performer in the region. Gross domestic prod- enroll at the technical and farm schools, and evi- uct maintained an average growth rate of 7.2 per- dence shows that the technical and farm schools are cent from 1990 to 1999, compared to the world aver- seriously under enrolled/utilized. ages of 3.5 percent for middle-income countries, and 2.3 percent for high-income countries. 34 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Fortunately, Uganda can benefit from the experi- This is where the link to the PPET and higher edu- ences of dozens of countries that have already navi- cation comes in. Increases in output per worker are gated this juncture, and a pattern has emerged from achieved through efficiency improvements and this collective experience. With income growth, per- higher capital-labor ratios. At the workplace, this formance varies by sector. This is mostly because means carefully planning the production process, higher income fuels faster growth in demand for as well as using more expensive and more complex urban-based industrial and service sector outputs. equipment for all workers. Whether it involves ro- Labor therefore migrates to these urban sectors, re- botics on the shop floor or computerized reserva- sponding to their call for more workers voiced tions at the hotel, people must learn about sophisti- through higher urban wages. As they leave the coun- cated tools. The people who use and maintain them tryside, self-subsistence agriculture is rapidly dis- need more basic skills and on-the-job training. The placed by large-scale production. The remaining people who design the tools and manage the sys- rural inhabitants must learn to feed not only them- tems that employ them need higher education. selves, but also the growing cities. The urban sector This pattern is emerging in Uganda, though slowly. produces for itself, for its rural countrymen, and for While agriculture grew an average of 3.7 percent in export to foreign consumers. All of this structural the 1990s, its rate of growth fell far behind that of transformation requires higher productivity. After industry, especially the manufacturing and service all, income per person can only rise if output per sectors, which grew at average rates of 12.7 percent, person rises. 14.2 percent, and 8.1 percent respectively. Econo- mists have every expectation that these sectors will

Table 25 Growth of outputs 1990–99

Gross domestic Agriculture Industry Manufacturing Services product 1980-90 1990-99 1980-90 1990-99 1980-90 1990-99 1980-90 1990-99 1980-90 1990-99 Low- 4.7 3.2 3 2.5 5.4 2.8 7.7 2.7 5.6 4.7 income Middle- 3.3 3.5 3.6 2 3.7 4.3 4.6 6.3 3.6 3.7 income High- 3.4 2.3 1.4 income Low & middle- income East Asia 8 7.5 4.4 3.3 9.5 9.3 10.4 10.2 8.8 6.5 & Pacific Europe & -2.3 -2.9 -3.2 0.8 Central Asia Latin 1.7 3.4 2.3 2.3 1.4 3.4 1.3 2.6 1.8 3.5 America & Caribbean MidEast & 2 3 3.2 3.4 6.8 6.5 7.1 7 6.5 6.9 N Africa South 5.6 5.6 3.2 3.4 6.8 6.5 7.1 7 6.5 6.9 Asia Sub- 1.7 2.2 2.3 2.7 1.2 1.5 1.7 1.6 2.4 2.4 Saharan Africa Uganda 2.9 7.2 2.1 3.7 5 12.7 3.7 14.2 2.8 8.1 Source : World Development Indicators 2001. UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 35

continue to grow at similar rates. This means that Therefore, both SED and DBTVET have overall the economy urgently needs or will need middle- responsibility for all areas of policy for secondary level skills. A focus on science, technology, and en- education and BTVET, respectively, although other gineering will coincide with the general trend of departments and units in the ministry (including the economy and can bring Uganda in line with suc- the Policy Analysis Unit and the Education Plan- cessful international examples of PPET in the ser- ning Department) provide some assistance. In prac- vice of economic development. The so-called tice, however, senior managers in both SED and middle-level skills and a focus on science and tech- DBTVET are preoccupied with the day-to-day man- nology is still within the basic secondary literacy, agement of the secondary school system and have numeracy, and problem-solving skills. relatively little time or capacity to deal with their main functional areas of responsibility, namely policy, planning, and quality control. 4.3 System inputs School-level management and de facto decentralization

At the school level, the Board of Governors (BoG), 4.3.1 Governance and management Parent Teacher Association (PTA), and headteachers Two departments in the MOES share primary re- are all involved in the management of secondary sponsibility for post-primary education and train- schools. ing: the Secondary Education Department (SED) and The 1992 Education Act empowers Boards of Gov- the Department of Business, Technical and Voca- ernors to take full responsibility for all aspects of tional Education and Training (DBTVET). A com- school management. The BoGs are composed of rep- missioner, who reports directly to the permanent resentatives from school and the founding body, secretary, heads both departments. The PPET sys- which selects the chair of the BoG. Members are tem as a whole has no organization and governance selected at the school level but are subject to the arrangement, and capacity for both SED and ministry’s approval. However, most BoG members DBTVET is limited. Staffing is inadequate in both have not received the training to fulfill their duties, departments, with only ten professional staff posted and, especially in rural areas, most have poor edu- at the SED ministry headquarters and only four at cational backgrounds. the DBTVET. With parents now funding a substantial propor- Article 176(2) of the Constitution clearly articu- tion of expenditures in most government-aided sec- lates the principal of decentralization. The Local ondary schools, PTAs have become increasingly Governments Act of 1997 stipulates that district important in the management of schools, often re- councils should have responsibility for both primary sulting in the twin control of schools by BoGs and and secondary education. While the management PTAs, which often has serious consequences for ef- of the primary education system has been decen- ficient management. tralized to district councils and district education Most private, for-profit schools and training cen- offices, MOES retains formal control over second- ters do not have BoGs. But the new education bill ary education. Most senior managers interviewed states that all PPET institutions will be required to at MOES headquarters believe that it will be some have BoGs. Once the bill is enacted, institutional time before the district level builds enough capac- arrangements for school management will be stan- ity for there to be full decentralization. dardized. The bill does not, however, clarify the PTA’s role and its relationship with the BoG. Inter- 36 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

estingly, founding bodies are to be given an even are difficult to analyze. Capacity at the district level greater say in the selection of BoGs. to collect and verify school data is also limited. Finally, the limited supervision by the MOES (for Unlike the primary sub-sector, there is a lack of lack of resources and capacity) has meant that in macro incentive for developing reliable data for practice the system is very decentralized—second- PPET. The priority nature of the primary sector has ary schools have a high degree of organizational, allowed it to utilize the Medium Term Expenditure management, and financial autonomy. The weak- Framework, and progress (hence funding) is mea- ness of many BoGs and, more generally, the increas- sured by the achievement of a set of previously iden- ing complexity of school governance arrangements tified indicators. This creates a huge macro incen- on the ground have enhanced the position of the tive for the EMIS to produce timely and reliable data headteacher who has become a separate power. Sec- for primary education. Such a context is still lacking ondary headteachers are not accountable and mini- for PPET. mally supervised, and are not subject to any con- crete performance incentives. Inspection

Management information Secondary schools in Uganda are rarely inspected. The situation is worse for private and community Since the mid 1990s, Uganda, with support from the schools. Quality control of secondary schools is sup- Academy of Education Development, has developed posed to be the responsibility of the Inspectorate, a comprehensive Education Management Informa- but the rapid growth in secondary schools has far tion System (EMIS). The EMIS system provides up- outstripped the limited capacity of the Inspectorate, to-date information on student enrollments and which is based in MOES headquarters. educational attainment (repetition and dropouts), In order to redress this situation, the government as well as physical, financial, and human resources has recently approved the establishment of an Edu- information for each type of educational institution. cation Standard Agency (ESA) as an autonomous However, because of technical and organizational body responsible for quality control of education at shortfalls, the EMIS has not yet been fully integrated all levels. This coincides with the recommendation into the planning and management processes at the in the White Paper of 1992 to strengthen the Inspec- national and district levels. torate by making it an autonomous body. The chief The current EMIS also has not developed a stan- executive of the ESA will report to the minister dard categorization for the various PPET institu- through the permanent secretary. According to the tions. This can be illustrated by the different cat- new (2001) education bill, the minister will be ulti- egories of schools in the 2000 statistics as compared mately accountable to Parliament for all ESA activi- to 2001. This is especially relevant for PPET since ties. It has been recommended that the ESA have a the organization of the sub-sector is very complex. three-tier structure, comprising the central, divi- The data for the BTVET is not comprehensive or sional, and sub-divisional teams. Secondary schools reliable. Despite significant improvements during will fall under the responsibility of the ESA divi- the last two to three years, many private schools sional teams, each of which will cover an educa- and other training centers are still not included in tional region. It is expected that the registration of the EMIS, and the quality of some data (particularly private schools will be an important source of in- income and expenditure)4 is still poor. The EMIS come. ESA staff will make regular inspections of software is not user-friendly and, even with assis- private schools. tance from EPD programmers, the annual data sets UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 37

4.3.2 Teachers However, improved efficiency should not dimin- ish the quality of education. There may be a case for Pupil:teacher ratio low pupil:teacher ratios in sparsely populated areas. Also, the deployment of teachers cannot be sepa- The World Education Report 2000 reports that the rated from the curriculum requirements. It will be pupil:teacher ratio (PTR) in secondary schools in difficult to increase the pupil:teacher ratio if many Uganda has been steady since 1990–96 (18:1). Ac- subjects need to be taught and teachers teach only cording to the 1998 official MIS data, there are 16,206 one subject. teachers at the secondary level, which is equivalent to a pupil:teacher ratio of 23:1. However, data from Teacher qualification the Annual School Census for 2000 indicate that the national average for the pupil:teacher ratio in 2000 Secondary school teachers in Uganda are relatively has decreased to 17 (30,384 teachers over an enroll- well qualified. The Annual School Census 2000 data ment of 518,931). This ratio is well below the aver- indicate that 29 percent of the faculty at secondary age African pupil:teacher ratio of 25 in secondary schools in Uganda had at least a first graduate de- schools. gree, with less than 2 percent having postgraduate The pupil:teacher ratio varied considerably from degrees of some kind. Teachers who have at least a district to district. Kalangala was ranked lowest, first graduate degree are called “graduate” teachers. with a ratio of 12, while Moyo and Kotido ranked Of the remaining 71 percent, about 96 percent had highest, with ratios of 30. The mode ratio was 18. secondary education. This means that the majority This suggests that there is considerable room for of secondary school teachers (95 percent) had at least improving efficiency, especially in districts where secondary education themselves. The most common ratios are below the national average. degree/certification level was that of A-level edu-

Figure 16 Pupil-teacher ratio by region

Pupil-teacher ratio by region

20 P:T 15

Pupil-teacher ratio 10

Gulu Nebbi Mpigi Mbale Soroti Kumi Moroto Kibaale Masindi Kotido Ntugamo Kampala Kabarole Kalangala Kapchorwa Regions

Source: Annual School Census 2000. 38 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

cation, with a certificate or diploma in Education. utilized. Most of the under-utilized teachers teach Over 50 percent of the teachers fell into this cat- only one subject. (One subject: 20.9 periods; two egory, that is, “Grade V” teachers. Less than 5 per- subjects: 23.1 periods; and three subjects: 25.8 peri- cent have a below A-level education. ods). Forty-five percent of teachers teach only one subject, although all teachers have been trained to teach two. There are large district-level variations in teach- Table 26 ing loads. Teachers in twenty-five out of the forty- Teacher education by gender and degree five districts have average teaching loads of more than twenty periods a week. In five districts, how- Education Male Female Total % Female %Total ever, teaching loads average less than fifteen peri- Doctorate 13 1 14 7.14 0.05 ods (Apac, Bushenyi, Gulu, Kampala, and Masters 321 108 429 25.17 1.14 Sembabule). Post grad diploma 862 203 1,065 19.06 3.51 Teaching workloads also seem to vary consider- Graduate (first degree) 5,893 1,634 7527 21.71 24.77 ably by the subject. They are generally highest for A-level + Cert./Dip. 12,077 3,142 15,219 20.65 50 science, English, and math teachers (25–30 periods) A-level 3,804 636 4,440 14.32 15 and lowest for teachers in subjects (such as agricul- O-level + Cert./Dip. 609 115 724 15.88 2 ture) taken as options in S3 and S4. O-level 65 8 73 10.96 0 The teaching load norm at BTVET institutions Primary + Cert./Dip. 74 17 91 18.68 0 seems to be even lower than that of general O- and Primary 66 7 73 9.59 0 A-level schools at about 10 to 14 hours per week. Unknown 604 125 729 17.15 2 Total 24,388 5,996 30,384 19.73 100 There is therefore considerable room for improving efficiency, especially in technical and vocational Source: Annual School Census 2000. institutions. However, the picture is complex, since there are also teachers who appear to be over-uti- Teaching load lized, especially those who teach science, English, and mathematics, and those who teach two or more Teachers, especially teachers of optional subjects in subjects. certain schools and districts, are seriously under- utilized. The Teacher Utilization Study surveyed ninety-two secondary schools in mid-2001. Teach- Teacher specialization and major subject taught ers at these schools taught an average of 22.5 peri- Only 10 percent of the secondary teachers were spe- ods per week, which were broken down as follows: cialized in math or technical subjects, although this UCE teachers: 22.5, UACE: 20, and UCE and UACE: number jumps to 31 percent when the sciences are 25. Given that the average secondary school has a added. Non-technical subjects, such as arts and fifty-period week (see section 4.3.3, Curriculum), crafts, social studies, foreign languages, local lan- teacher workloads represent less than half of the guages, religious studies, and English accounted for weekly requirements. 48 percent of teachers’ specializations. Commercial The report defines “optimally utilized” UCE and subjects and economics also made up a small fraction. UACE teachers as teaching between 22–26 periods From the number of instructors teaching in each and 16–20, respectively. Based on these MOES staff- subject area, it was obvious that not all were teaching norms, 34 percent of teachers are under-utilized, ing classes within their specialization. The number 27 percent over-utilized, and 39 percent optimally of teachers teaching math, science, and technical UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 39

subjects, as well as social studies, local languages, The results from the ESC pilot validation exercise foreign languages, commercial subjects, and English in four districts during 2001 are also revealing. Of are more than the number of teachers specializing the 1,217 teaching staff interviewed, 13.8 percent in these areas. However, the number of teachers were on the payroll but not appointed; 44.1 percent teaching religious studies, arts and crafts, and non- were on the payroll but not confirmed; 3.5 percent specified subjects is actually fewer than the num- were receiving the wrong salary; and 5.3 percent ber of teachers specializing in these areas. The in- were illegally employed. No support staff had been crease in the number of teachers teaching math, sci- appointed. ence, and technical subjects may indicate a demand Since 1996, there has been a public sector recruit- for those subjects beyond the number of trained ment freeze (except for primary teachers), which personnel in those areas. affects the hiring of secondary teachers. Individual The higher demand for math and science teach- schools have done most recruiting and paid these ers, coupled with the poor performance of Uganda teachers from PTA funds. Around one quarter of the secondary students in these subjects as compared teachers sampled for the Teacher Utilization Survey to others, provides convincing evidence that Uganda were still on probation because of the recruitment PPET reforms, whichever format they take, should freeze. not neglect math and science subjects. CAREER STRUCTURE AND REMUNERATION. There are three basic grades for trained secondary school Teacher management and performance teachers on the public sector payroll: graduate teacher (U5a–3), Grade V diploma teacher (U5c–b), SELECTION AND RECRUITMENT. To date, teacher recruit- and Grade III teacher (U7–6). Once appointed to ment has been decentralized. Teachers seek out job each grade, the only avenue for real career progres- opportunities by visiting schools. Once a school has sion is by promotion to deputy headteacher and selected a teacher, official approval is then sought headteacher, or by qualification upgrading (from from the MOES head office. Because the MOES of- diploma to degree). The headteacher of an O-level ten has had inadequate information about the staff- school is on Grade U2, and Grade U1 at an O/A level ing situation in each school, the ministry has not school. The Teacher Utilization Study concludes that been able to ensure that recruitment decisions are the “lack of career progression has resulted in frus- sound. tration among teachers, inducing many to leave There is also a great deal of inefficiency in the teaching or seek administrative offices somewhere appointment (start receiving payment) and deploy- else.” ment of teachers (start teaching). The Teacher Utili- Starting salaries in 2001 for graduate and Grade V zation Survey found that teachers in about 30 per- teachers were Ush.300,000 and Ush.135,000 per cent of districts had been appointed yet remained month, respectively. Annual salary increments are undeployed for more than a year. In half of the dis- too small (typically around Ush.2,000) to sustain or tricts, teachers had been deployed but had waited improve teacher motivation. A new grade and sal- for more than a year before they were formally ap- ary structure was introduced in 1994. Salaries were pointed. The report notes that “delayed deployment roughly doubled, but the salary differential between after appointment is likely to cause anxiety, under- graduate and diploma teachers also increased sig- mine morale, and is a waste of financial resources.” nificantly (from 89 percent to 60 percent). Such a Delayed appointments leads to government exploi- large differential is inequitable, since it does not re- tation of the teacher since the teacher is working flect actual differences in the productivity and teach- while not yet on the payroll. The ministry must cor- ing performance between the two groups of teach- rect this situation. 40 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

ers (there is no performance evaluation system grade V teachers have a strong financial incentive whatsoever). Paying teachers for diploma rather to obtain a graduate teaching qualification. The SEC than at least the level they teach does not seem wise report notes that there were about 300 “up-grad- either. With graduate teachers heavily concentrated ers” on the payroll in 1999 “who are counted as in urban schools, these schools have also benefited though they are in class,” and teachers covering their disproportionately. work were mostly paid by parents. The report rec- Annual unit salary costs have increased from ommended that their numbers be kept within the Ush.0.53 million in 1994 to Ush.2.86 million in 2001 ceiling of the school. In late 2001, there were up- (equivalent to US$1,787). In real terms, this is an wards of 4,000 students enrolled on the B.Ed. dis- increase of over 330 percent and, compared to the tance-learning, upgrading program offered by the GNP per capita of US$320, public secondary teach- Department of Distance Education at Makerere Uni- ers in Uganda seem on average to be well paid. In versity. Another 2,000 individuals were studying for addition, most schools supplement teacher salaries; the B.Ed. degree through evening classes at MU and typically, about half of PTA funds are allocated for Mbare University. Tuition costs are Ush.1.8 million this purpose. However, the level of salary supple- per annum. mentation varies considerably from school to Such a training effort is commendable—but it has school. While well-resourced, high-fee schools can major implications for teacher efficiency. Studying double basic salaries, most secondary schools pro- for a degree (at a distance) in one’s own time is de- vide an additional Ush.100,000–50,000 per month. manding, time-consuming and, unless a teacher is Various housing and responsibility allowances are seriously under-utilized, is likely to badly affect also paid. teacher productivity and overall performance. In- Teachers in private schools or teachers who are formation on overall completion rates still needs to paid entirely out of PTA funds in government schools be obtained, but the evaluators met numerous teach- generally receive much less than those fully paid by ers who had upgraded and evaluated the program the government. positively. Headteachers believe that studying for Informally appointed teachers are paid entirely the degree is worthwhile for improving teacher from PTA funds and typically receive Ush.70,000– competence and morale. The challenge then is to 100,000 per month. This is roughly the same as full- make sure students are not denied learning because time teachers in private schools. Part-time teachers their teacher is pursuing a degree program. in private schools are paid between Ush.600–1,000 IN-SERVICE TRAINING. Secondary school teachers re- per period. Given the average teaching loads in gov- ceive virtually no systematic in-service training. The ernment-aided schools, this is two-thirds less than Teacher Utilization Study found that teachers at the salary costs per period for teachers on the public schools surveyed had attended 1.8 “refresher” sector payroll. courses since 1993. There are Teacher Resource Centers in thirty-one Professional development. districts intended to provide in-service training to secondary teachers. Each center is supposed to be There are two types of professional development staffed by a full-time co-coordinator, librarian, and activities: qualification upgrading and regular, in- an administrative assistant. However, MOES has service training. not yet been able to fulfill its formal commitment QUALIFICATION UPGRADING. With the large salary dif- to put these staff on the payroll. They are seriously ferential between graduate and diploma teachers, under-funded and most are under-utilized. UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 41

Summary on teachers The proposed O-level curriculum in the 1992 Edu- cation White Paper lists up to eight subjects for “gen- Although they are generally well qualified, there is eral” secondary schools and sixteen subjects for the some evidence that on average Ugandan secondary new “comprehensive” secondary schools. However, teachers are under-utilized. Because of the great dis- this has never been implemented. parity, interventions aimed at improving the effi- With no clear guidance and little or no supervi- ciency should be targeted only at schools with low sion of curriculum implementation, what is taught pupil:teacher ratio and low teaching loads. Also, at schools is strongly driven by the UNEB examina- very few teachers are deployed promptly upon ap- tion guidelines. In such an exam-driven system, it is pointment. Teachers are generally well paid, al- not surprising that the upper subject limit has be- though there are huge and perhaps unjustified dif- come the norm. In 1999, 80 percent of government- ferences in pay between graduate and diploma aided secondary schools offered 16 to 18 subjects at teachers. S1–S2. However, due mainly to lack of laboratory Teachers should be encouraged to continue learn- facilities, only 30 percent of all secondary schools ing once deployed, and they should receive their (i.e., both government-aided and private) offer phys- qualifications in a timely fashion, if they have not ics and chemistry at the S3–4 levels.5 Instead, arts already. In a system that has little incentive for subjects are taught as a deliberate strategy to in- teachers to embrace teaching as a career, students crease pass rates. Non-examined subjects, such as suffer most. physical education and music, were taught by less On the other hand, reforms are sensitive, highly than 10 percent of the schools. political, and likely to be difficult despite good in- Following this curriculum means that most sec- tentions. Commitment needs to be sought from the ondary schools have a 50-period week.6 Periods are highest level of government possible. Teachers and forty minutes in duration, but these are usually com- their unions must be brought on board as soon as bined into double periods wherever possible.7 By possible—and teachers should see themselves as international standards, the school day seems long— partners working together to achieve higher qual- typically, from 8.30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with only a half- ity teaching and learning for secondary school stu- hour morning break and one hour for lunch. This dents. The PPET system cannot alienate teachers. leaves little time for extra-curricula activities. Most students do not get home until early evening and 4.3.3 Curriculum still must do homework; and for many students, poor housing and a lack of electricity make doing The National Curriculum Development Center homework difficult. On the other hand, it is per- (NCDC) is responsible for the secondary school haps a good thing that students spend long hours in curriculum. There are subject panels, but they rarely school where the learning environment is better meet, and some subjects have combined panels. The than most homes. Still, the concern that too many transferred VET institutions continue to be largely subjects are being covered is valid and should be responsible for their own curricula. addressed. The secondary school curriculum has not under- gone any major revision since the early 1970s. The current O- and A-level curricula follow the subject 4.3.4 Physical infrastructure guidelines issued by the Inspectorate in 1982. Table For many years, secondary schools have relied 27 presents the number of subjects and the number largely on their own resources for the construction of lessons per week prescribed in these guidelines and equipping of classrooms, laboratories, and other for S1-S4. buildings. Though the overall pupil:classroom ratio 42 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Table 27 Current ‘O’-level curriculum based on the 1982 subject guidelines

S1 – S2 S3 – S4 No. of subjects to be No. of lessons per No. of subjects to be No. of lessons per taken week taken week Group 1 Mathematics 6-7 1 (compulsory) 6-7

Physics 2-3 3-4 All 6 Chemistry 2-3 3-4 Biology 2-3 At least 4 3-4 Geography 2-3 Out of 5 3-4 History 2-3 3-4 Sub-total 6 16 – 22 5 18 – 23 Group 2 Technical subjects 3-4 or 5-7 for 4 3-4 subjects Home Economics 3-4 at least 1 3-4 or 5-6 Business Studies At least 3 2-3 for 3 subjects 4-6 Agriculture 3-4 5-6 Arts and Crafts 3-4 4-6 Sub-total 3 6 – 18 1 3 – 6 Group 3 English Language Compulsory 6-7 1 (compulsory) 6-7 PE Compulsory 1-2 n.a. Literature in English Not treated as n.a. 3-4 separate subject Music 1-2 At least 1 3-4 Religious Education 2-3 3-4 Political Education 2-3 3-4 French Any 3 3-4 4-5 German 3-4 4-5 Luganda 3-4 4-5 Kiswahili 3-4 4-5 Other language 3-4 4-5 Sub-total 5 12 – 21 2 9 – 12 Minimum no. 14 34 – 61 9 (S3) 10 (S4) 33 – 48 subjects* and total lesson periods Source : MOES (1999) “Setting Staff Establishment Ceilings for Post-Primary Institutions.” of 46:1 in 2000 was not bad, there is a great varia- textbooks.) Unfortunately, in Uganda there is a tion: Bundibugyo and Kotido had to accommodate chronic shortage of textbooks and other learning more than seventy students per classroom. Accord- materials in many secondary schools. It has been ing to the 2000 Education Statistical Abstract, there estimated that the overall student:book ratio may are also serious shortages of other buildings, includ- be 6:1 in secondary schools. The situation varies ing workshops and libraries (see Table 28). greatly depending on the type of school. Generally, the pupil:book ratio is better in government-aided schools than in private schools, and better in lower 4.3.5 Learning materials forms compared to higher forms, as well as better in The availability of textbooks and other teaching and Kampala and other urban regions than other areas. learning materials has a consistently positive im- Box 2 illustrates some findings on textbooks from pact on student achievement in developing coun- th recent study, “The Provision of Instructional Ma- tries. (Box 3 provides an interesting experiment on terials to Secondary Institutions in Uganda.” UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 43

Table 28 them. Parents who can purchase textbooks Buildings at secondary schools, 2000 do so according to book lists provided by the school. The retail prices of most core Type of building Existing Under construction Needed % Shortage Classrooms 11,216 3,026 5,387 27.4 subject textbooks range from Ush.30– Latrine blocks 5,186 885 2,710 30.9 60,000. Given that most students cannot Libraries 709 293 1,334 57.1 Office 3,553 517 2,288 36.0 afford these books, alternative, low-cost Staff rooms 1,445 224 918 35.5 “pamphlets” are now widely available. Store rooms 2,363 390 1,865 40.4 These are written by teachers and draw Teachers’ houses 5,496 836 13,555 68.2 Workshops 377 189 1,617 74.1 heavily on the material found in standard Total 30,345 6,360 29,674 44.7 texts. Most are little more than examina-

Source: Annual School Census. tion crammers. There is a chronic shortage of training Funding of textbooks materials at BTVET schools and institutes, which, in the case of the VTIs, has been seriously The same study on instructional materials also re- aggravated by the abolition of cost recovery in 2001. vealed that, while in theory, all schools have an an- Consequently, students do not have enough prac- nual budget for textbooks that comes from the capi- tice in mastering basic techniques. As one instruc- tation grant, fee income, or any other school level tor put it, “we are just producing theoretical techni- incomes, these textbooks and library budgets were cians.” In contrast, at the well-resourced private, not- rarely spent, the money being diverted to other for-profit training centers, practical training ac- school needs. In reality, textbooks account for less counts for 70 percent of total instruction. than 2 percent of total expenditure at the school level. The MOES contributes less than one-third of Box 2 this amount. Most of the capitation grant provided by the ministry has been used for other “more ur- A recent survey of thirty-five secondary gent” purposes, including subsidizing teacher sala- schools in seven districts in Uganda revealed ries and other repair and maintenance needs. It may that: be necessary for the ministry to restrict the use of • Three “elite” schools in Kampala claimed that capitation grants to non-wage expenditures, includ- all pupils at all grades had textbooks in the ing materials and other operating costs, rather than core subjects. on teacher salaries. • Most other schools in Kampala region esti- In recent years, very few schools received any mated ratios of 1 textbook to 2 or 3 pupils in textbooks from the Ministry of Education and the lower forms, rising to 1 to 10 or more for Sports. In cases when they do, the number of text- some subjects in the higher forms. books provided had been small. The textbooks pro- • In Mubende District only 3 of the 6 schools vided were mostly ones not required by the schools, surveyed estimated as high a ratio as 1 text- who would have instead preferred to have been al- book to 5 pupils in the lower grades. located budgets to select the textbooks they need. • In most of the schools surveyed in Kibale Dis- If they have the textbooks, most schools lend trict the textbook situation was dire. Some them to their students. And, because of the sanc- schools estimated that they had 1 textbook tions imposed, the levels of loss are mostly very for every 10 pupils, but in others there were low. However, most schools do not have books to few if any textbooks in the school even for lend, and therefore obtaining textbooks depends the teacher use. very much on whether students’ parents can afford 44 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Box 3 The “Book Flood” experiment in Fiji

In 1980, grade 4 and 5 classes in eight rural Students were tested before the book flood be- schools in Fiji were inundated with a wide range gan, again after eight months of the program, and of high-interest, illustrated storybooks in English. again one year later. Both book flood groups Each grade 4 and 5 teacher received 250 books. showed much greater improvement than the con- Half the “book flood” teachers were trained to trol group. In the first eight months, the share book use the “shared book” method, whereby the teach- group and the silent reading group had each im- ers spend several days discussing the book, the proved their reading levels by fifteen months, pictures and the title, and reading aloud while the while the control group had shown only 6.5 children listen. The other half of the teachers months’ gain. After nearly two years with the en- merely encouraged children to read silently for riched reading program, the book flood groups thirty minutes each day. A control group of simi- had increased their growth even more, and the lar students were taught English using a conven- effects persisted on the national examinations, in tional approach without reading any books. which the pass rate was twice as high for the book flood students (73 percent) as for students in con- ventional rural schools (37 percent).

Source: Elley and Maugubhai (1983). From the “World Bank Policy Paper on Primary Education, 1993.”

4.3.6 Access to information 4.4 Cost and financing of post-primary education The world is living in an information age, and the and training success of PPET education is entwined with access to information. Unfortunately, Uganda does not do 4.4.1 Public expenditure well in this regard. The World Development Indicators (World Bank, 2001) reported that only two out of The budget process 1,000 people in Uganda have access to a daily newspaper, as compared to twelve for Sub-Saharan Af- The process follows two separate tracks, depend- rica. Taking into consideration the much higher adult ing on the nature and priority of the activity. The literacy rates, this circulation is low. In addition, only high priority placed on the primary education sub- 127 out of 1,000 people have access to radios, 28 out sector has permitted the use of enhanced budget- of 1,000 people have televisions, and 2.5 out of 1,000 ary management and associated budget execution people have a personal computer. There were only mechanisms as laid out in the government’s Pov- 0.7 Internet hosts for every 10,000 people, 25,000 erty Action Fund (PAF). Internet users in the entire country, and one single But the other PPET sub-sector components oper- secure Internet server in the country. These statis- ate largely through incremental budget preparation tics show that Uganda is far below even the aver- and disbursement mechanisms. Consequently, age levels of Sub-Saharan Africa, let alone the rest while work plans, disbursements, monitoring, and of the world. accountability arrangements for high priority primary education programs are done on a quarterly basis, are regular, and are almost 100 percent guar- UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 45

Table 29 The Information Age

Daily Radios per Television Personal Internet Internet Internet newspaper 1000 per 1000 computers per hosts per users, secure per 1000 people people 1000 people 10,000 thousands server people (1999) people (1996) Low-income 157 85 4.4 0.48 4,766 224 Middle-income 360 279 27.1 13.2 45,241 4,622 Low & middle- income East Asia & Pacific 302 252 17 3.98 23,593 844 Europe & Central 102 446 370 39.3 24.1 10,184 1,392 Asia Latin America & 71 419 272 37.7 29.6 9,687 1,946 Caribbean Middle East & No. 33 272 175 25.4 0.67 1,153 72 Africa South Asia 113 71 3.2 0.31 3,034 97 Sub-Saharan Africa 12 201 43 8.4 3.1 2,357 495 Uganda 2 127 28 2,5 0.07 25 1 Source : Word Development Indicators 2001. anteed, programs in the low priority PPET sub-sec- sary for needy students totaled Ush.510million in tor have seen almost no growth in real resources 2001/02, rising to Ush.1.68 billion in 2003/04. How- budgeted for each year since 1994/95. Disbursement ever, this is only a drop in the ocean, and many sec- depends on the circumstances surrounding revenue ondary schools do not have access to bursaries. And, performance and other budget operations, and is at the public knows very little about the bursary the discretion of officials at the central ministries. scheme and the selection criteria, and thus it is likely At the school level, government subsidy comes that children with real needs may not be benefiting mainly in two forms: teacher salary and capitation from the current scheme. The government has to grants. In so-called government or government- examine this issue, especially if expanding the bur- aided schools, the Ministry of Education, according sary scheme is to become an explicit strategy for to a predetermined pay schedule, directly pays system equity. It is also difficult to target bursaries teachers that it appoints. Government schools also by income, so it may be necessary to devise more receive a block capitation grant every year for peda- innovative targeting mechanism—such as, target- gogical purposes. The level of the capitation grant ing schools that charge lower fees and that, is determined by the ministry and is now set at therfore,are not the choice of wealthier families. about Ush.65 per student per day. However, the disbursement of capitation grants is vulnerable to over- Share of education budget devoted to PPET all government resource constraints and intersectoral demands, since it is not classified as a As discussed in the government financing section, protected priority. The level of the capitation grants the secondary share of total recurrent education is unpredictable from month to month, with delays budget has been around 15 percent, and the share of in disbursement adding another difficulty. TVET has been around 3 percent. This expenditure Additionally, the government introduced a bur- on secondary education is very low compared to sary scheme for needy students. The budgeted bur- international standards, as shown in Table 30. On 46 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Table 30 In addition, the government has reached Secondary education expenditure as a % of all levels an agreement with all its development partners that the share of primary education Public education expenditure should be fixed at about 70 percent for at (Secondary as % of all levels) 1985 or closest year 1995 or latest year available least the next five years. This is to make High-income 41.4 44.2 sure that the enrollment gains achieved Middle-income 34.6 37.7 through UPE are maintained and the qual- Low-income 33.6 36.4 ity of primary education is improved. In the tertiary sector, the government is also OECD 38.1 41.4 contemplating significant system reforms, Sub-Saharan Africa 34.1 28.3 which may reduce the tertiary budget Arab States 49.1 59.2 share in the long term. However, in the Latin America and Caribbean 24.5 25.4 short term, the tertiary budget is likely to East Asia and Pacific 33 36.6 increase, which means that the tertiary of which: China 33.2 32.2 share may also increase in the short term Southern Asia 40.2 37.4 given the recent political promises made, of which: India 25.3 26.5 including the establishment of two more public universities and the doubling of the Developing 32.8 34.3 number of government-sponsored stu- Least-developed 30 27.7 dents at Makerere University. In this context, the best we can hope for is that the Uganda (91, 99) 17 15 share of secondary budget allocation be Sources: Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports; Human Development Report 2000. maintained at about 15 percent of the education budget, with a share for BTVET of about 3 percent. Therefore, any policy pro- average, Sub-Saharan African countries spend al- posals need to take into account this macro resource most 28 percent of their total education budget on constraint. secondary education. The nominal budgetary allocation for secondary 8 recurrent was Ush.51.3 billion for the fiscal year 2000/ Public expenditure per pupil 2001, of which Ush.38 billion (78 percent of total Based on the 2000/01 budget, and using the 2000 secondary recurrent) was for teacher wages, secondary enrollment in government schools of Ush.5.23 billion (11 percent) was for capitation 216,292 as a data source, public expenditure per sec- grants to schools, Ush.5.7 billion (12 percent) was ondary student amounts to a total of Ush.236,994 for other quality improvement, and Ush.0.13 billion (about US$148). (0.3 percent) was for ministry overhead. The 2000 Education Statistical Abstract also re- Of course, in Uganda this low share in secondary ported public expenditure per student by district. education expenditure as a percentage of total edu- However, public expenditure per pupil was derived cation expenditure reflects a high level of expendi- by dividing total public expenditure by total enroll- ture on primary education, since the introduction of ment instead of enrollment in government schools. UPE in 1997 placed serious financial demands on Also, total expenditure did not include overhead the government. expenditure incurred at the central offices. There- fore, the average public expenditure per student re- UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 47

Table 31 2001/02 Planned budget for secondary recurrent expenditure

Teacher wages Capitation Quality Ministry Total grants improvements Total planned 2001/02 (Ush.billion) 38.0 5.8 5.7 0.1 51.3 Per secondary student—government 175,827 26,816 26,353 583 236,994 school only (Ush.)

ported in the 2000 Education Statistics Abstract is secondary student (see section on cost and financ- only Ush.72,252 (equivalent to US$45), which is sub- ing) and US$860 per university student in public stantially lower than the Ush.236,994 reported universities. This results in a ratio of 1:7:39. Lewin above. and Calloids (2001) noted, “the comparison of pub- If we use Ush.236,994 as a measure of public ex- lic unit costs between primary and secondary is strik- penditure per secondary student, the level of ex- ing. In low gross enrollment countries, this ratio penditure as a percent of GNP per capita amounts averages 3.5:1; in high gross enrollment countries, to 46 percent, double the world average of 22.5 per- the ratio is only 1.3:1. Part of the reason for this lies cent and still higher than the Sub-Saharan average in pupil:teacher ratios.” The policy implications are of 36.5 percent (Table 32). that the relative high costs of secondary education The government subsidy per primary student av- must be reduced if the gross enrollment ratio is to eraged about US$22, as compared to US$148 per grow. Of course, one must also bear in mind that in Uganda the cost of primary education is low.

Table 32 Expenditure per secondary student Public per pupil expenditure by district as a percent of per capita GNI Although underestimated for the reasons men- World 22.5 tioned above, the per student expenditure data from High-income 21.9 the 2000 Education Statistical Abstract can be used Middle-income 17.9 to illustrate the variation of public expenditure per Low-income 29.6 pupil among districts. At the extremes, average district per pupil expenditure differed by a factor of 27. OECD 21.6 Since capitation grants remain the same for all Sub-Saharan Africa 36.5 schools, the main reasons for this are variations in Arab States 19.5 the proportions of (relatively more costly) the Latin America and Caribbean 9.9 graduate teachers employed, school and class size, East Asia and Pacific 11.7 student:teacher ratios, and teaching periods per of which: China 11.7 week. Graduate teachers are also concentrated in Southern Asia 13.8 urban schools, which tend to be larger both in terms of which: India 17.7 of overall enrollment and class size.

Developing 21.2 Least-developed 31.5 Sources: World Development Indicators 2000, World Bank online GNI data for 2000. 48 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Table 33 Public expenditure per pupil by district (including both government and private enrollment)

District Expend District Expend District Expend District Expend Adjumani 14,005 Kiboga 47,350 Moroto 68,948 Rukungiri 84,474 Bundibugyo 25,204 Busia 47,438 Hoima 69,926 Tororo 91,956 Nakasongola 30,826 Sembabule 49,500 Mpigi 70,450 Lira 94,199 Mubende 34,298 Mbale 52,114 Luwero 71,126 Kampala 94, 349 Iganga 35,655 Rakai 56,804 Nebbi 73,072 Mukono 95,039 Kisoro 37,350 Kumi 58,279 Mbarara 73,896 Ntungamo 107,055 Bugiri 38,011 Kitgum 58,458 Moyo 74,255 Apac 121,997 Pallisa 38,674 Kibaale 58,535 Kasese 78,090 Jinja 212,749 Masindi 41,751 Kabarole 59,067 Arua 78,929 Kalangala 378,238 Kamuli 43,812 Masaka 67,963 Kabale 79,091 Katakwi 46,738 Kapchorwa 67,985 Gulu 79,329 Soroti 46,772 Kotido 68,183 Bushenyi 82,183 National 72,252

S ource: Educational Statistical Abstract 2000, Ministry of Education and Sports, Uganda.

Equity of public expenditure efiting disproportionately from public subsidies to secondary education. Table 34 indicates that the This section briefly analyses who benefits from the poorest 20 percent of the population only receives government subsidies to secondary education. The 13 percent of government subsidy, whereas the rich- structure of the education system itself, in terms of est 20 percent of the population enjoys 34 percent enrollments and subsidies, determines the equity of the subsidy. Figure 17 is the Lorenz curve, illus- of public education expenditure. trating the same issue of inequity. The estimated Using estimates of government expenditure on Gini ratio is 0.22. (In the case of perfect equality, the secondary education by district from the year 2000 ratio would equal to zero; in the case of perfect in- Statistical Abstract and estimates of the secondary equality, it would equal to one.) age-eligible population from the same source, we The source of inequity in PPET public financing developed a table that shows the cumulative share lies in two areas. First, most poor children do not go of total age-eligible population (in ascending order to secondary schools, so they do not benefit from from poorest to least poor) and cumulative share of subsidies that government may provide to second- total government expenditure on secondary educa- ary schools. Second, of those poor children who do tion (Table 34). go to secondary schools, most opt for cheaper pri- Public expenditure on secondary education is re- vate/community schools that do not receive gov- gressive—that is, the wealthier population is ben- ernment subsidies. Among those who go to government secondary schools, children from wealthier families tend to go to schools that are better Table 34 resourced in terms of teachers (paid by the govern- Cumulative percent of public subsidy ment) and other inputs. These schools usually have by population cohorts more teachers per student and more teachers with Population cohorts Percent of public subsidy higher qualifications. Because of the higher fees Q1 (poorest) 13 charged, normally only students from wealthier Q2 12 Q3 19 families can afford these schools. So, apart from the Q4 22 smaller enrollment of the poor, the deployment of Q5 (richest) 34 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 49

Figure 17 Accumulated subsidy by population cohorts

100.0%

Accumulated Subsidy 80.0%

60.0%

40.0%

20.0%

0.0% 0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0% 100.0% Cohort population

better qualified and better paid teachers is a major ance checks on private education in order to encour- source of inequity in public financing of PPET. age the rapid growth of private secondary schools.” Thus, to achieve more equity in public financing Without government support to private schools, of PPET, government support for government further growth of private provision will result in schools will have to be changed. A viable option is even greater inequity in public financing of PPET. to devise a formula-based funding earmarked for However, we are not advocating public support to teacher salary based on student enrollment. Schools private schools—for now, the constraints on the will have the freedom to determine how to use this PPET resource envelop may not allow this. The pri- grant in terms of how many teachers and the mix of mary focus should be to reform the public subsidy qualifications. Section 4.3.5 (learning materials) rec- to public schools. ommends that the old capitation grant be restricted to non-wage expenditures so that, at the school 4.4.2 Private expenditures level, there is some guarantee that the capitation Public expenditures on PPET, although already sub- grant is used for teaching and learning materials. stantial as revealed by the previous analysis, are by We are recommending that government provide no means the only cost to Ugandan society. House- two forms of capitation grant to schools (both holds also bear a significant cost, both in terms of based on student enrollment of course): one ear- direct costs and opportunity costs. marked for teacher salary and the other for non- wage expenses. The equity concern also has implications for pri- Private direct cost vate sector provision. One of the government strategies to increase PPET coverage is through “relax- We have already mentioned that the major reason ing current controls, restraints, and quality assur- for not attending secondary school is poverty. While public financing is well documented, much less is 50 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

known about the costs to students and families. This ture patterns of 120 sampled PPET institutions na- private cost applies both to families whose children tionwide. The study concluded that nationwide av- are attending government schools as well as to pri- erage recurrent unit cost per secondary student is vate/communities schools, since even government about Ush.490,236. The small difference may be be- schools charge fees. cause the Unit Cost Study aggregated all sources of The 1999/2000 household survey collected infor- incomes at the school level, including government, mation on total household expenditures on educa- households, and other donations. tion, including contributions to the Parent Teacher Association, boarding and lodging, uniforms, books Private opportunity cost and supplies, and other expenses. Estimates of expenditure for a household member in an educational In addition to direct costs, families (and, by exten- institution were derived by regressing total house- sion, society), also incur “opportunity costs.” The hold expenditure on education on the set of vari- opportunity cost of a student’s time is the value of ables for household members enrolled at each level. that time in the best alternative activity. Using the The regression coefficient on the number of house- 1999/2000 Household Survey and combining the hold members enrolled can be interpreted as the additional expenditure associated with having one addi- Table 35 tional household member enrolled in that level of educa- Opportunity cost of PPET tion. (Detailed analysis is provided in Annex 2.) Activity Percent Wage Our best estimate of the private costs of having a Market employment 15% 498,443 household member in secondary school is therefore Household enterprise 85% 223,812 Weighted average 265,007 in the range of Ush.238,000 to 241,000 per year. Bear in mind that these figures only reflect household expenditure. To the extent that extended family market employment and household enterprise pro- members, or other sources, contribute to educational ductivity (weighted by the probability of market expenditure, they may be biased downward. employment), we estimated that the opportunity cost for PPET is about Ush.265,007 (see Annex 2). Total unit cost (direct) This figure of Ush.265,007 is slightly higher than the average direct cost to households, Ush.241,000. We have estimated that the average annual direct We estimated earlier that the average public expen- cost of providing public secondary education in- diture in PPET was Ush.236,994 per pupil enrolled cludes costs borne by the government at in secondary education. The combined cost to fami- Ush.236,994 and by families at Ush.241,000, suggest- lies (direct and indirect) is Ush.506,007, represent- ing a total average annual direct unit cost of ing over two-thirds of the total recurrent cost of Ush.478,000 per student. Currently, families meet secondary schooling, as shown in Figure 18. over half, on average, of the direct cost of second- How big are the average direct and indirect costs ary education, even in government schools. In pri- to of Ush.241,000 and Ush.265,000 to an average vate and community schools, government does not household? Keep in mind that 47 percent of Uganda provide any subsidy; therefore, the total unit cost households have annual incomes of less than should be equal to the total private cost borne by Ush.620,500 in 2000. To those families, the average the family. private cost of Ush.241,000 represents 40 percent of This figure is similar to the results from the Unit total household income, an unaffordable propor- Cost Study, 9 which analyzed the school expendi- tion. On the other hand, if they let the child go to UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 51

Figure 18 cation and training institutions from the busi- Costs of PPET ness, health, agriculture, technical, and para- professional fields being recently brought under the purview of the MOES. Table 36 pro- 32% files the institutions in the BTVET compo- 36% nent, and provides enrollment capacities and Indirect cost Direct cost—Family actual enrollment for the years 1994/95–2000/ Direct cost—government 02 as reported by the MOES. Table 36 shows that the Uganda public BTVET has enrollment capacity of around 25,000 students in the government institu- 32% tions. There is some indication that the facilities may be under-utilized. This is a relatively work, household annual income can be augmented small sector, around 10 percent of the total enroll- by more than 40 percent. In short, there may be little ment in general public secondary schools. room for increasing the private financing of educa- However, only a small proportion of the BTVET tion, in both the public and private sectors. institutions—the twenty-nine technical/farm schools—are at the secondary level. Most of the BTVET admit students after O-level secondary edu- 4.5 Business, technical and vocational education cation. Enrollment at the technical/farm schools appears to have grown over time, though at a much 4.5.1 Institutions and enrollment slower pace than the growth of general secondary Business, technical and vocational education and education. The current enrollment at these schools training (BTVET) is exceedingly diverse, with edu- is 8,028.

Table 36 Institutional profile of BTVET and enrollment capacity

No of Category of institutions Inst Enr. Enrollment Cap 1994/95 1995/96 1996/97 1997/98 1998/99 1999/00 2000/01 Vocational training centers–DIT 4 ...... Technical colleges 5 2500 1210 1762 2155 2200 2094 2055 2094 Technical institutes 33 8500 6414 7405 7699 7650 7781 7750 7500 Technical/farm schools 29 8000 5837 6705 6316 7050 7019 7600 8028 Commercial colleges 5 4000 2373 2319 2964 3000 3400 3400 3753 Agricultural colleges 2 400 ...... Forestry colleges 1 200 ...... Cooperative colleges 2 250 ...... Medical schools and colleges 17 4000 ...... Meteorological colleges 1 50 ......

CP Instructors colleges 11 1210 Source : Ministry of Education and Sports, Uganda. 52 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

The following discussions on BTVET policy con- Organizational arrangements text, organizational structure, and financing mechanism, show that the mixing of secondary technical Restructuring of BTVET management is incomplete schools with post-secondary institutions has made since the transfer of institutions previously under it difficult for BTVET to formulate a coherent sub- the health, agriculture, and labor sectors. The whole- sector strategy. It seems plausible that the first step sale transfer of these institutions to the BTVET De- toward a coherent and viable BTVET strategy is to partment of MOES did not consider how the insti- separate the two. tutions would relate in a practical manner. This is evident from the vague demarcation of operational responsibility between the BTVET and higher edu- Policy context for BTVET cation departments of MOES. The Directorate of Industrial Training too was appended to the BTVET As in many other countries, the BTVET sub-sector department without clarifying how it would relate suffers from its residual role in an elite academic to the vocational education and training that has system. The system operates with a supply-driven been within the purview of the BTVET department approach to teaching and learning, without consid- in MOES. ering the evolving demand of the labor market. However, the expectations from this component of the PPET have increased significantly, with the need Financing mechanisms to accommodate the oncoming UPE bulge, the need to provide employable skills to the vast majority of Private sector institutions are funded primarily by the population, and improving productivity by pro- charges levied on the trainees, an apprentice sys- viding skills to industry employees. The draft Na- tem, and employee training expenditures. In some tional Policy Framework for Vocational Education instances donor support to private sector institu- and Training emphasizes orienting vocational educa- tions has been provided through equipment and tion and training to employment and local markets. other capital costs. A coherent strategic policy framework for BTVET Financing mechanisms for government BTVET must be developed, especially for post-secondary institutions principally follow the pattern for sec- institutions. The strategic policy framework would ondary education—but in this case the government have to clarify the roles of government and the pri- also provided tutor remuneration and a capitation vate sector. For example, under-utilization of gov- grant. In year 2000/01, the Government of Uganda ernment vocational institutions and the existence spent about 3 percent of its total education budget of about 450 private sector institutions providing on TVET as a whole, Ush.6.5 billion in nominal terms. technical and vocational education and training Because the BTVET component is a low priority brings into question the practicality of building 850 non-PAF area, resource programming and flows are more polytechnics in the midst of a tight resource unpredictable. Even within government-run insti- envelope for PPET. There may be room for operat- tutions, a large proportion of recurrent costs is fi- ing public–private partnerships with clear mandates nanced from charges levied on students and train- for each party. Questions about curriculum devel- ees. Funding from the government budget has been opment, testing and certification, and standardiza- irregular, with some institutions receiving only 25 tion of qualification need to be addressed strategi- percent of budgeted expenditure. cally to ensure effective regulation and supervision. Further complicating the situation, in early 2001 the government abolished cost sharing for government BTVET institutions. As a result, the BTVET in- UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 53

stitutions experienced a fall in total income. The were collected in 2001, and the annual per pupil ex- BTVET sub-sector must be more innovative in its penditure at a well run private technical center for financing mechanisms if it is to survive and prosper. primary school leavers and S1–S4 dropouts is Ush.1.1million—more than three times the average 4.5.2 Technical and farm schools expenditure per student at an O-level school. However, the higher school expenditure per pu- The twenty-nine technical and farm schools in pil at the technical and farm schools does not seem Uganda admit students who have just completed justified in terms of student achievement, as evi- primary school. Generally, primary graduates do not denced from the School Quality Study, which tested favor technical and farm schools, which are viewed students’ basic competency in math and English. as being mainly for those whose low performance The results indicate that students at the technical

Table 37 Average expenditure per student per year

Technical & farm school O-level secondary school Technical school as percent of O-level school Personnel administration costs per pupil 56,822.6 61482.7 0.9 School expenditure on supplies per pupil 442,167.2 144,444.1 3.1 Teacher salary costs per student 124,678.9 123.045.3 1.0 Total school recurrent expenditure per pupil 623,668.7 328,972 1.9

at the PSLE prevents them from going to a general and farm schools are, on average, twice as likely to O-level school. Of the 400,000 PLSE passes in 2001, fail math and English tests as students at the O- only 3,000 applied for technical/farm schools, of level schools. In fact, more than two-thirds of the which 2,000 were admitted. The 3,000 that applied Form 1 and Form 3 students in technical and farm were the lowest passes of the 400,000 graduates. schools fail math tests and more than half of techni- The Unit Cost Study found that average school cal students fail English tests. Of course, the poor recurrent expenditure per pupil in technical schools, Ush.623,668, is almost twice that of an average O- Table 38 level secondary schools, Ush.328,972 (Table 37). This Technical and O-level secondary failure rates is mainly because of the higher delivery costs associated with BTVET and the low student enrollment. O-level secondary Technical Form 1 mathematics 33 percent 68 percent An added cost to BTVET comes from the accommo- Form 3 mathematics 45 percent 75 percent dation and feeding that government provides at Form 1 English 20 percent 55 percent these institutions—a policy abolished in secondary Form 3 English 15 percent 64 percent schools in the early 1990s. The cost for technical and farm schools is still quality can not be entirely attributed to the techni- likely to be underestimated because, effective in cal schools, since students admitted into the techni- 2001, the government abolished the cost-sharing cal schools are generally lower achievers in primary policy for BTVET institutions; hence, schools did school than those admitted into general O-level not receive income from fees. The unit cost data schools. 54 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

International experience during the past 15–20 Box 4 years also indicates that these additional costs are Findings from “Vocational Skills Development unwarranted, using a cost-effectiveness criterion. in Sub-Saharan Africa: Phase I— Synthesis” The findings of a seminal 1985 study (Psacaropoulos and Loxey, 1985) are still considered valid. There is 1. Low levels of literacy and general education little empirical evidence that the higher costs result (a) severely restrict labor market flexibility, in increased future earnings, a better fit with mar- (b) constrain productivity in the formal and ket demand, decreased time for job search, or im- informal sectors, and (c) increase the amount proved outcomes in further study. The 1991 “World and cost of training needed by workers, and Bank Policy Paper on Vocational and Technical Edu- reduce the effectiveness of that training cation and Training” reiterates these points: “The 2. Even in informal sector training, basic educa- additional resources used for diversified curricula, tion is important. There is a need for improved are better invested in improving learning achieve- literacy and numeracy (“empowering skills”) ments in, or access to, academic secondary educa- along with livelihood skills. Those who have tion” (page 31). This position is further emphasized more education do better at entrepreneurship. by the recent World Bank report, Vocational Skills De- 3. It is not possible to build an efficient system velopment in Sub-Saharan Africa: Phase I—Synthesis, of skills formation without a solid educa- which concluded that basic education is one of the tional foundation. most important skills for productivity and economic 4. General education makes people “trainable” growth (see Box 4) and therefore flexible in the labor market. This analysis shows that there seems to be less 5. The most cost-effective use of public re- demand for technical and vocational education at sources is to improve the productivity and the PPET level from both parents and employers. It flexibility of the labor force through invest- also suggests that technical and vocational educa- ment in general education at the primary and tion is a more expensive but less effective method secondary levels (Betcherman). for delivering basic PPET competencies, and that 6. In view of the above, governments should governments are better off devoting their limited (continue to) give priority to building a sound resources to general secondary education. This con- base of basic education. clusion also raises serious doubts to the government proposal of further vocationalizing general secondary education by means of community polytech- secondary expansion. It has also proposed nics, comprehensive, and vocational schools. There- vocationalizing the general secondary O-level fore, we recommend that the two parallel systems through comprehensive and vocational schools. existing in PPET—O-level and technical schools— In fact, it proposed establishing one community need to be integrated into a single system, with a polytechnics in each of its sub-counties, a total of curriculum focus on basic foundational skills and 850! The April 2001 “Revised Concept Paper on Com- competencies. munity Polytechnics” describes it as “multi-skills training centers equitably distributed throughout 4.5.3 Proposed community polytechnics and the country (i.e., one in every sub-county) in a vocationalization of secondary schools through phased manner.” comprehensive and vocational schools The concept of community polytechnics is still The Uganda Government is considering adopting fluid. The idea is to erect new, or convert existing community polytechnics as one of its strategies for structures, in every sub-county to cater mainly to UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 55

Table 39 The proposed comprehensive and vocational secondary school curriculum

Proposed comprehensive curriculum Number of subjects Category of subjects Total no. of subjects S1–2 S3–4 Knowledge extension 6 All (6) All (6) Values/culture 6 5 (IRE/CRE+Hist.+any 3) Any 2 Vocational subjects 8 6 (ES+any 5) 2(ES+any1) Total 22 15 10

Proposed vocational curriculum Number of subjects Category of subjects Total no. of subjects S1–2 S3–4 Knowledge extension 6 All (6) 5 (Eng.+math.+any3) Values/culture 6 3 (IRE/CRE+any 2) Any 1 Vocational subjects 8 6 (ES+any 5) 4 (ES+any3) Total 22 15 10 Note: IRE=Islamic religious education; CRE=Christian religious education; HIST=History; ES=Entrepreneurship skills. primary graduates who do not go to secondary In section 4.3.3 we stated that the curriculum at schools and to secondary school dropouts. The cur- O-level is already overloaded and makes learning riculum will have a heavy dose of vocational sub- difficult. More importantly, the overloaded curricu- jects, and training will be based on identified local lum makes the efficient use of resources, such as economic activities and needs. While the govern- teachers, impossible. The new curriculum for comment will finance the development costs, the comprehensive and vocational education proposes to munity and households are expected to shoulder further increase the number of subjects at O-level, most, if not all, of the costs of running the schools. and to introduce more vocational subjects. The pro- Graduates from community polytechnics are ex- posal may have major implications, unfortunately pected to enter the world of work either individu- not positive, on system efficiency, student learning, ally or as groups. However, for those interested, and system equity. there will be provisions for them to continue aca- In regard to efficiency, we found that technical demically. So far, the government has not established education at the secondary level (specifically tech- any community polytechnics. nical and farm schools) has been at least twice as The curriculum for the new comprehensive and expensive as a regular O-level school. The higher vocational schools was proposed during the Fifth unit costs will apply to both community polytech- Education Sector Review last April (Table 39). Both nics and comprehensive schools due to the similar comprehensive and vocational schools are a move- curriculum focus on vocational and technical sub- ment to steadily vocationalize the secondary cur- jects. There is a clear but implicit trade-off between riculum. The proposed comprehensive/vocational average unit costs and number of places. After care- curriculum increased the number of subjects for S1– ful analysis, the government may decide that it is S2 from a minimum of fourteen (Table 39) to fifteen; willing to incur these costs, but the trade-off of fewer for S3–S4 from a minimum of nine to ten subjects. places must be made explicit and enter into the Further, in the new comprehensive schools, the num- policy dialogue. ber of vocational subjects to be taught will increase From the student learning point of view, evidence from at least three to six for S1–S2; and from at least suggests that technical school students are not mas- one to two for S3–S4. In the new vocational schools, tering the basic competencies valued by employers the number of vocational subjects for S3–S4 will be in the formal sector. More than two-thirds of the further increased to four subjects. 56 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

students in technical schools fail basic competency community schools were included in the 2000 school tests in math and English. A heavier dose of practi- census.10 Total private and community enrollment cal subjects will mean a reduction in teaching and amounts to almost 300,000 students, about 57 per- learning in math and English, and will further erode cent of total secondary enrollment—although pri- their competitiveness in the labor market. vate enrollment is only 23 percent of total enroll- Regarding community polytechnics, the relation- ment if we only include private “private” schools. ship between the community polytechnics and the This proportion of private enrollment is extremely formal institutional and qualifications structure has high compared to other countries. UNESCO data not been defined clearly. Most important, the idea contained in the World Education Report 2000 indi- that community polytechnics will be mainly fi- cate that in 1996, at the general secondary level, nanced by community contributions further raises South America had 26 percent of enrollment in pri- the issue of equity. Most of the target population, vate schools compared to 22 percent for Africa, 15 namely the P7 leavers and S1–S4 dropouts, will be percent for Asia, and 12 percent for Europe. There is the poorest section of the population. Withholding also an indication that the proportion of secondary subsidy to these schools will worsen the already enrollment in private schools has decreased since inequitable public financing system. 1990 in most countries. Finally, from the supply side, there is a substan- Thus, there may be no room for increasing the pro- tial and growing private sector training capacity. It portion of private enrollment in Uganda. The ESIP is estimated that 400 firms now have in-house train- target of increasing the proportion of private en- ing programs and prefer to do their own training. rollment to 68 percent by 2010 may be unrealistic. So, there is reason to be concerned about the viabil- On average, there were 27.8 private secondary ity of the proposed community polytechnic model schools per district; however, there is substantial as a central component of the BTVET strategy. At variation between districts, with the number rang- most, the idea of community polytechnics and coming from zero (Kalangala and Kotido) to 145 (Mpigi). prehensive schools can be piloted in relatively well- Most of the schools are in rural locations (53.8 per- off districts with reasonable demands for such a cent), and the overwhelming majority (86.5 percent) school. Table 40 4.6. Private provision of post-primary education Percent of private enrollment in general secondary schools and training 1990 1996 Africa 24 percent 22 percent 4.6.1 Size of the private sector in PPET North America 26 percent 18 percent Private provision is substantial in PPET. There are South America 27 percent 26 percent Asia 20 percent 15 percent three types of secondary school ownership: gov- Europe 13 percent 12 percent ernment, private, and community. However, the dis- Uganda 57 percent (2000) tinction between private and community school is not always clear, except that community schools are in either rural or peri-urban areas. This, in part, may have a better chance of being converted into reflects the demographics of Uganda—but it also government schools. Since neither private nor com- indicates that, although there are a few religiously munity schools receive any subsidy from the gov- founded elite private schools, most private schools ernment, both categories of schools are really pri- are for the rural and poor. vate schools. A total of 579 private schools and 811 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 57

Table 41 Percent enrollment in private secondary schools by district, 2000

District % District % District % District % District % private private private private private Kalangala 0.0 Kabarole 8.9 Luwero 17.6 Mukono 27.1 Masindi 36.5 Kotido 0.0 Kabale 10.0 Adjumani 18.0 Mbara 27.1 Bundibugyo 39.3 Moroto 0.0 Rukungiri 10.1 Soroti 18.6 Sembabule 29.8 Busia 40.2 Moyo 0.0 Bugir 11.4 Kasese 18.6 Kibaale 30.2 Hoima 40.4 Apac 0.7 Arua 11.9 Mbale 19.8 Kitgum 30.4 Mpigi 42.2 Kumi 2.5 Nakasongo 12.5 Gulu 21.3 Kamuli 31.2 Nebbi 3.8 Pallisa 12.7 Bushenyi 22.4 Tororo 31.3 Kapchorwa 3.9 Rakai 13.6 Mubende 22.8 Kampala 33.2 National 23.4 Lira 8.4 Masaka 15.3 Iganga 24.4 Ntungamo 34.2 Kisoro 8.9 Katakwi 17.1 Jinja 24.7 Kiboga 34.6 Source : Educational Statistical Abstract 2000, Ministry of Education and Sports, Uganda.

4.6.2 Registration and licensing of private schools genuine quality and operational control. In an at- There are statutory regulations for the licensing and tempt to prevent new school openings in mid-year, registration of private schools, which are set out in the MOES’ Education Standard Agency will confine sections 22 to 36 of the 1970 Education Act. The pro- licensing and registration activity for private cedures for licensing private schools and institutions schools to the period June to December for new are set out in guidance notes provided by the In- school openings in January of the following year spectorate (now the ESA). Registration procedures The licensing and registering of “private” schools are slow and arduous. The actual requirements in- are now free of charge. There is no mechanism for clude land title; tenants’ agreement; bank statement the receipt of fees by the MOES. However, the min- and proof of financing; original proprietor’s bio- istry is planning to start collecting nominal fees data; headmaster’s bio-data; site and building plan; through the ESA. In fact, it is expected that the fees copy of the terms of contract for teachers and signed will finance the operational costs of ESA. contracts; detailed district school inspector’s report, three references; and a health inspector’s report. 4.6.3 Private provision and coverage Registering a private school is a two-stage pro- Growth in the provision of private education in cess—an initial one-year’s license followed by a Uganda seems to be driven by the unmet societal permanent registration. The proposed private demand for PPET places. Private secondary schools school is subject to initial inspection by the district in Uganda can be further categorized into two inspectors of schools and the district health inspec- types: a small proportion of elite private schools, tors, with a second education inspection at the end which offer high quality education and cater to chil- of the license year. In cases of doubt, there may be dren from wealthy families, and a majority of low an additional inspection by the central inspectorate. quality private schools located in rural areas, which The MOES is currently opting for a less rigorous cater to the needs of poor and disadvantaged stu- licensing and registration policy to encourage the dents who cannot afford the more expensive gov- development of private secondary education. How- ernment schools. ever, the relaxed regulations may result in a lack of 58 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Table 42 a negative implication on the system Correlation of private provision and NER equity. The private sector seems to be catering mainly to the poor and disad- Correlations N = 46 Pct. Private enrollment vantaged students who cannot afford the NER male Pearson Correlation 0.276 more expensive government schools; Sig. (2-tailed) 0.064 hence they will not receive government NER female Pearson Correlation 0.347 Sig. (2-tailed)* 0.018 subsidies if government subsidy is not NER total Pearson Correlation 0.331 extended to the private schools. Yet, Sig. (2-tailed)* 0.025 given the current resource constraints, GER male Pearson Correlation 0.252 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.091 government is in no position to provide GER female Pearson Correlation 0.346 financial assistance to private schools on Sig. (2-tailed)* 0.019 a large scale in the short or even medium * Significant at the .05 level. term. At this stage, the reform of financ-

Source : Educational Statistical Abstract 2000, Ministry. ing public school is a higher priority.

4.6.4 Private provision and unit costs Using the district as the unit of analysis, there is a positive correlation between the percentages of stu- A general argument in favor of private provision is dents enrolled in private schools and net and gross that entrepreneurs will have both the incentive and enrollment ratios (Table 42). Although the relation- opportunity to identify and use more cost-effective ship is statistically significant for female, but not combinations of inputs to increase efficiency. Analy- male, enrollment, the correlation must be treated sis of the Unit Cost Study suggests that private PPET with some caution, since the “direction of causa- providers have a lower unit cost than their govern- tion” is unclear. Does increased private provision, ment counterparts and that they are using a funda- in and of itself, increase access (especially for girls), mentally different production function in which or do private providers “respond” to unmet demand capital is substituted for labor. in certain districts? This area warrants further ex- Annual salary costs per pupil (reported by the ploration. Clearly, a higher percentage of age-eli- schools) are reported to be less than 40 percent of gible girls are likely to be in secondary school in those in public schools. This implies either higher districts where more places are provided by private pupil:teacher ratios, lower average remuneration, institutions. or a combination of the two (Table 43). Interestingly, The government’s policy explicitly includes “re- private schools appear to spend less than half per laxing current controls, restraints, and quality as- pupil on supplies. This may be an artifact of the con- surance checks on private education in order to encourage the rapid growth of Table 43 private secondary schools.” In fact, the Unit costs per pupil in public and private PPET ESIP targets of reaching the gross second- Cost category Public Private Priv. as % pub. ary enrollment of 58 percent by 2010 as- 1. Teacher salary costs pppa 199,705.3 76,192.9 38.2 sume that the private sector will provide 2. Personnel administration 57,852.6 31,541.1 54.5 68 percent of the enrollment. We men- Teacher salaries & admin. 257,557.9 107,734.0 41.8 3. Supplies 418,832.0 186,976.5 44.6 tioned earlier that this target seems unre- Recurrent salaries & supplies 676,389.9 294,710.5 43.6 alistic. Even if the 68 percent of private (1, 2+3) enrollment were achieved, there would be 4. Assets acquired year 2000 49,517.4 110,989.5 224.1% Source: Analysis of IDC and F. Mungereza & Co., 2001, Table 4, rows 13&14. UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 59

struction of this variable. One major difference be- Figure 19 tween private and public schools appears to be ex- Distribution of expenditure—public and private penditure on assets. Private schools reportedly spent more than twice as much per pupil on assets Private accumulation during the survey year than their public counterparts. This suggests a production function in which capital is being substituted for labor. New Assets Salaries Figure 19 depicts the differences in the implicit 27% 27% production function. Public expenditure (upper panel) provides a substantially smaller share of its total of new assets. Overall, the total annual costs (salary, supplies, and asset accrual during the current year) result in a Supplies substantially lower total unit cost in the private 46% schools (Table 43). If this sample is representative of the national situation, the study suggests that private providers are able to provide PPET services at about half the cost (56 percent) of public institu- Public tions. In large part, this seems to be due to a substi- tution of capital for labor.

However, the lower unit cost in private schools New Assets does not mean higher efficiency. As discussed in 7% Salaries section 4.2.6, despite a few private religious schools 35% whose average performance in mathematics and English tests is comparable to government schools, most private schools were established by individuals and communities and offer low quality educa- Supplies tion. Students in private/community schools gener- 58% ally do worse than those in public schools or in private/religious schools in basic competency tests of English and mathematics. Almost 60 percent of pri- schools; 32 percent of private/community Form 3 vate/community students in Form 1 failed the math students failed English compared to 29 percent in test compared to 35 percent in government schools government schools and 17 percent in religious pri- and 36 percent in private religious schools; 77 per- vate schools. These figures confirm the earlier find- cent of Form 3 private/community students failed ing that, in Uganda, private schools (most of which math compared to 43 percent in government schools are private community schools offering low quality and 45 percent in religious private schools. The dif- education) are more an alternative for the poor. ference is less drastic in English performance: 38 percent of pri- Table 44 vate/community Form 1 students Math and English failure rates in government and private schools failed English compared to 27 Form 1 Math Form 3 Math Form 1 English Form 3 English percent in public schools and 18 Government 35 percent 43 percent 27 percent 29 percent percent in religious private Private–religious 36 percent 45 percent 18 percent 17 percent Private–community 59 percent 77 percent 38 percent 32 percent 60 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

4.7. Cost effectiveness of various PPET up the school supplies expenditures (dormitory institutions costs included in the school supply). A-level schools also spend about Ush.70,000 per 4.7.1 Variation of school expenditure per pupil by pupil more on teachers compared to either O-level type of school or technical schools. This is consistent with findings from the Teacher Utilization Study that teach- The Unit Cost Study revealed a great variation in ers teach fewer periods at the A-level than do those school expenditure per pupil. Table 45 lists the ex- at the O-level (implying a lower pupil:teacher ra- penditure information by category and by school tio), and that there is a higher proportion of gradu- type. Notice that the national average school-level ate teachers at the A-level schools who are better expenditure per pupil is about Ush.490,236, which paid than others. is similar to the direct unit cost (Ush.478,000) estimate derived from adding the public expenditure As expected, school expenditure per pupil also per pupil (Ush.236,994) and the private direct cost varies greatly among day, boarding, and mixed (Ush.241,000). schools. Total recurrent expenditure at boarding schools (Ush.845,744) is 2.4 times higher than an

Table 45 Breakdown of use-attributable cost per pupil

Type of school Personnel adminis- School expenditure cost Teacher salary costs per Total school recurrent tration on cost per pupil per pupil on supplies B1 student expenditure per student O-level 61,482.70 144,444.10 123,045.30 328,972.10 A-level 40,721.60 414,781.50 193,124.00 648,627.10 Technical/farm school 56,822,60 442,167.20 124,678.90 623,668.70 Rural 60,887.60 322,570.00 166,920.80 550,378.40 Urban 43,304.80 380,812.20 159,398.90 583,515.90 Peri-urban 40,339.50 328,054.40 153,989.70 522,383.60 Day 49,356.20 196,320.10 112,787.00 358,463.30 Boarding 53,623.90 561,044.40 231,076.10 845,744.40 Both day & boarding 46,316.50 287,956,50 141,542.80 475,815.80 Boys 63,300.70 594,408,60 177,755.40 835,464.70 Girls 56,554.20 534,171.60 263,457.60 854,183.40 Mixed 45,895.50 261,870.10 134,506.00 442,271.60 Public 57,852.60 418,832.00 199,705.30 676,389.90 Private 31,541.10 186,976.50 76,192.90 294,710.50 National average 42,136.00 299,456.00 135,278.00 490,236.00

average day school (Ush.358,463). The expenditure As indicated in Table 45, A-level and technical for an average mixed school (Ush.475,815) lies be- schools are twice as expensive as O-level schools in tween the pure day and boarding schools. Again, terms of recurrent expenditures. School expendi- the disparity is driven by both school supply (board- tures per pupil on administrative staff are similar ing costs) and teachers. Boarding schools spend 2.8 across these three types of schools. The disparity is times more per student on school supplies (a major mainly driven by expenditures per pupil on school category being boarding costs) as compared to day supplies. A-level and technical schools spend almost schools. In addition, boarding schools spend more twice as much on school supplies as do O-level than twice per student on teachers than a day school schools. The school supplies include everything ex- because of the lower pupil:teacher ratio and higher cept wages and capital costs, including dormitory proportion of graduate teachers in boarding schools. costs. The high dormitory costs seem to have driven UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 61

It is also interesting to note that “boys’” schools fied “graduate” teachers in boarding schools is a and “girls’” schools have an average school expen- major source of inequity in the system. diture per pupil of more than Ush.800,000, which is similar to that of the boarding schools and twice as 4.7.2 Variation of school expenditure per pupil by much as the expenditure in a mixed school. We know school size that most of the single-sex schools are boarding Enrollments are too low at many secondary schools schools, whereas the mixed schools tend to be day in Uganda to allow economies of scale to be reaped. schools. This also illustrates the high costs of board- Government-aided schools in urban areas have, on ing schools because of boarding facilities and average, twice as many students and teachers than teacher costs. do rural schools. The average enrollment for pri- The School Quality Study found that students vate and community schools was 200 in 2000 com- (Form 1 and Form 3) in boarding schools do signifi- pared to 465 in government schools. Full boarding cantly better than those in day and mixed schools— schools tend to have much larger enrollments than and the difference is striking. For example, 17.6 per- day and partially boarding schools. cent of Form 1 boarding students failed the math- The Unit Cost Study found that the optimal school size is Table 46 between 500 and 750 students, Failure rates by school type taking into account per student Form 1 Form 3 Form 1 Form 3 expenditure and manageability. Mathematics Mathematics English English Seventy percent of private ru- Day 43.3 percent 70 percent 37 percent 37.7 percent Boarding 17.6 percent 24 percent 18.3 percent 10.6 percent ral schools have less than 250 Mixed 57.5 percent 64 percent 39.8 percent 35.5 percent students. The corresponding figures for private peri-urban and Girls 26 percent 28 percent 10.2 percent 1.4 percent Boys 4.5 percent 9 percent 16.7 percent 14.5 percent urban schools are 53 percent and Mixed 47 percent 61 percent 36 percent 26.1 percent 44 percent, respectively. While government-aided schools tend ematics test compared to 43 percent in day schools to be much larger in urban areas, and 57.5 percent in mixed schools. In fact, second- only one-fifth have more than 1,000 students. Sixth ary students in day and mixed schools seem to have Forms, which are relatively resource-intensive, are very low achievement in mathematics and English. also relatively small. This is especially true for day About one-half of the students fail mathematics test and partly boarding schools in rural and peri-urban and more than one-third fail English tests. Note that areas. In the late 1990s, each TSS and TVI had an these tests are not meant for selection or certifica- average of 250 students; so, there is considerable tion and that they are developed to assess the basic room for increasing the size of secondary schools competencies. The high failure rates in these tests with small enrollments. highlight the grave challenges facing the Uganda However, increasing secondary school size re- post-primary education system. quires some caution, and special consideration must Government provides for teacher salaries and capi- be given to sparsely populated areas. This is impor- tation grants, but the families bear almost all the tant if the Uganda Government decides to provide boarding costs through boarding and other fees. the O-level education or at least 2 –3 years of O- Hence, most children in boarding elite secondary level education free as part of the basic education schools are from wealthier families than those at movement, in which case basic education becomes day schools. And the concentration of better-quali- a right in itself. 62 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

1 In fact, there has been an interesting discussion on whether 6 One of the rural secondary schools the evaluation team vis- the net enrollment ratio is a useful statistic for secondary ited had a 45 period timetable. education, since in developing countries, because of enroll- 7 During the 1970s, most secondary schools had no more than ment and repetition in primary schools, children rarely en- 7 to 8 periods per day, although periods tended to be 45 ter secondary education within the “target secondary age minutes long. range.” 8 Terms such as unit cost or expenditure are often used inter- 2 The category of “indifference” could mean many things, changeably. In this report, public expenditure per pupil is including cost, disappointment at the quality of education, the total government expenditure divided by number of unwillingness to respond, did not pass the PSLE, and so students in government schools. Private cost/expenditure forth. Future surveys should try to provide less vague rea- refers to direct cost borne by the household for every child sons. enrolled in PPET. Private indirect cost refers to the opportu- 3 Appleton (2001) reported that the rates of return to educa- nity cost of PPET. Unit cost is the total direct cost to society, tion in Uganda are 17 percent for primary, 11 percent for including both the public expenditure per pupil and pri- secondary, and 23 percent for university. The 11 percent re- vate direct cost. Finally, school expenditure per pupil is de- turn to secondary education reported in Appleton’s paper rived from total school-level expenditure divided by enroll- is lower than the 24 percent reported above. This may be ment of that school. School expenditure usually lies be- due to two factors. First, the analysis above does not take tween public expenditure per pupil and unit cost. Data col- into account the direct monetary costs to education. Sec- lected from the Unit Cost Study are school expenditure ond, the Appleton paper did not separate lower secondary data. from upper secondary education. Further, Appleton ob- 9 The results from the Unit Cost Study should be treated served an increase in the rate of return to secondary educa- with more caution. In particular, the ratio of expenditure tion in the 1990s. for remuneration, relative to supplies, does not seem intu- 4 Nearly 400 out of the 1,850 schools in the 2001 EMIS database itively correct. The MOES may wish to review this issue. did not submit all the required income and expenditure 10 It is estimated that about one-quarter of private schools are data. not licensed or registered, so the extent of private provision 5 Two out of the three private schools visited did not offer may be substantially higher than suggested by the school physics and chemistry in S3 and S4. census data. In addition, up to 70 percent of the private secondary schools in Kampala were not included in the data (Ministry of Education and Sport, 2000). 5 PPET Enrollment and Transition Rates Projections

PPET enrollment projection In this context, secondary school enrollments are likely to grow along the lines shown in Figure 21. This indicates that government schools could see ased on current primary enrollment, repeti- their enrollments increase from about 375,000 to over tion, and dropout rates, Figure 20 shows how 600,000 and private schools might grow from per- B many pupils are likely to reach P7 and how haps 420,000 to over 900,000 over the projection many will pass the PLE assuming the pass rates re- period. Total secondary enrollment will reach about main at present levels. These PLE graduates consti- 1.5 million. Technical/farm schools and technical in- tute the cohort seeking access to S1. Their numbers stitutes would enroll less than 20,000 by 2012. Even peak in 2005 (650,000) and 2009 (825,000), then de- this is optimistic given the current pattern of pref- cline as the effects of UPE work their way through. erence for such schools. Three thousand four hun- In 2002, about 102,000 PLE holders were selected dred candidates applied for technical/farm schools for entry to S1 in government schools and another in 2002 and less than 2000 were accepted based on 131,000 in private schools (reaching an overall tran- the lowest grade of PLE pass. This is less than 1 per- sition rate of about 50 percent). cent of P7 enrollment. Enrollment patterns in sec- This report contends that places in government ondary schooling are assumed to remain static in schools will grow at a rate determined by the size terms of repetition and drop out. of the public budget and the public unit costs of On this basis, the transition rates from P7 to S1 provision. An initial rate of growth in both private will initially decline as the growth of S1 enrollment and public secondary places of 7.5 percent is used, declines relative to the growth of P7 graduates. falling to 5 percent after five years. Higher rates of However, the transition rate will then recover to growth are unlikely to be sustained as costs are high about 50 percent over a ten-year projection period. relative to household incomes, and there are already This is shown in Figure 22. signs that growth is slowing. It seems probable that secondary school fee rates in both government and private schools are approaching the limit of affordability for the marginal households.

63 64 PPET ENROLLMENT AND TRANSITION RATES PROJECTIONS

Figure 20 Primary enrollment in P7 and PLE passes 1200000

1000000

800000

Enrollment P7 600000 PLE Passes

400000

200000

0 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Figure 21 Total enrollment government and private 1000000

900000

800000

700000

600000 Govt 500000 Private Enroll TI and TS 400000

300000

200000

100000

0 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 UGANDA POST PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 65

Figure 22 Nominal transition rates P7–S1

Govt 30 Private Overall

0 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 6 Conclusions

he reform measures being introduced in the and dropouts rates are higher in rural and non- primary sub-sector and their resulting achieve- government schools. In addition, bottlenecks oc- Tment have unfortunately not yet been ex- cur at the transition from primary to secondary tended to secondary education. The PPET sub-sec- (between 40–50 percent including both public and tor remains a low priority—this is evident from the private) and from Ordinary level to A-level (26 relatively low budget allocation—and the Uganda percent). However, given the projected increase post-primary education system faces significant in the primary graduates, the transition rate will challenges, including: fall if no action is taken to expand and improve •LOW COVERAGE AND EXTREME INEQUITY. Coverage at the PPET system. the secondary level is very low: GER for S1–S4 • POOR STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT, ESPECIALLY IN MATH, (the main focus of PPET) is 35 percent, and overall ENGLISH, AND SCIENCES. A recent School Quality GER for S1–S6 is only 19 percent. This means that Study found that, nationwide, 40 percent of Form at least two-thirds of the age group population 1 students and half of Form 3 students failed math have no access to PPET, and about 80 percent of tests. Results of the English tests are only slightly the overall population has no access to secondary better: one-quarter of students fail English tests. education. In addition, inequity in the Ugandan These tests were specifically designed to test the secondary system is much more widespread than basic concepts and skills in math and English and at the primary level, with the richest 20 percent of are tests of minimum requirements. Such high fail- the households occupying 63 percent of total secure rates indicate that a substantial proportion of ondary spaces. secondary students are leaving without the skills • GENDER DISPARITY. Female enrollment ratios fall and competencies they will need. below those for males, especially after age seventeen. Only 41 percent of secondary enrollment is The report identified reasons for the poor perfor- female. Gender disparity is worst in the Northern mance. These include: the low priority accorded the Region perhaps because of social norms. Girls do PPET sector, the quality and quantity of primary significantly worse in mathematics than do boys graduates, and—significantly—the inefficient use nationwide, but their performance in English is of public resources and the highly inequitable fi- similar. Since the Ugandan Government has com- nancing mechanism. mitted itself to the Millennium Development The low pupil:teacher ratio at the PPET institu- Goals, the gender disparity must be addressed. tions and the overloaded curriculum, which requires • LOW INTERNAL EFFICIENCY. The PPET system overall many specialized teachers, are responsible for the has low repetition but significant dropout rates— high cost of PPET. Public financing also tends to sub-

66 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 67

sidize children from wealthier families dispropor- Box 5 tionately more. Hence, it is almost impossible for Expanding secondary education: the system to expand within a reasonable budget- The Zimbabwe experience ary allocation. If performance in terms of coverage, equity, and quality is to improve, the unit cost of Several factors enabled Zimbabwe to expand PPET will have to drop. its secondary schooling quickly after indepen- With the UPE wave coming through the system— dence. The main one was a high level of com- and with the growing economy requiring skilled mitment to public resources. As much as 8 per- labor educated at the secondary level—the Govern- cent of GNP and 17 percent of public expendi- ment of Uganda cannot afford to ignore these chal- ture were allocated to the education budget. lenges. And the HIV/AIDS epidemic has made it even The second reason is that the public costs per more difficult for the government to address these student at secondary average about twice those challenges within a reasonable budget. This report at primary, which is low by Sub-Saharan Afri- argues that the only way to meet these challenges can standards. Part of the basis for the relatively within a sustainable budget is by increasing system low costs is the extent to which the public fi- efficiency and improving the equity of public financ- nancing of secondary schools is supported by ing. Without reducing the relative unit cost of sec- fees and other contributions. Automatic pro- ondary education, it will be difficult to improve sys- motion at primary has reduced repetition rates tem coverage, equity, efficiency, and quality. to low levels, and double shifting has contrib- Box 5 describes the Zimbabwe experience in ex- uted to increased capacity and savings in capi- panding secondary education. Unfortunately, the tal costs (Lewin and Calloids 2001, p. 344). government’s proposal for expanding PPET— through community polytechnics and through com- The ministry must, through a consultative pro- prehensive and vocational schools to vocationalize cess, develop a policy framework and strategies for secondary education—is a move in the opposite di- the PPET sector, with clear, realistic goals. Targets rection. Not only will the CP mean higher unit costs and indicators for the next ten years in coverage, than a regular day O-level school, but the concepts quality, and efficiency will also be needed. Finally, of CP and vocationalization of secondary schools the strategic plan should articulate the means for will also adversely affect the equity and quality of reaching those goals. the system. In addition, the CP and vocationaliza- These proposed broad options should be evalu- tion will not improve gender equity; a much higher ated with respect to anticipated cost and incorpo- proportion of students in technical schools are boys. rated into the strategic plan. To the extent possible, And it is unfair to require that the poorest section of the PPET sub-sector should emulate the primary the population pay for this education entirely out sector and use a medium-term budget framework of their own pockets, without the benefit of gov- to prioritize activities, and adopt the semi-annual ernment subsidy. Education Sector Review as a monitoring tool. Evidence also shows that technical and vocational At the same time, there has to be quick decisions students are not mastering the basic competencies on key issues, such as community polytechnics and most valued by formal sector employers (over two- increasing efficiency in the current system. The gov- thirds of technical students fail the math and En- ernment is already committing itself to plans it can- glish tests), and a heavier dose of vocational sub- not afford: The current budget plan includes the jects will further reduce teaching and learning in community polytechnics, and there has been pres- core subjects. And, there appears to be no demand for sure to hire additional secondary teachers. It is ur- such education from both parents and employers. gent that these key issues be resolved. 7 Policy Options

he report offers ten broad policy recommen- maneuvering resources, happens at the school level. dations for the ministry to consider for incor- The Study of the Provision of Instructional Materi- Tporating into a strategic plan. These suggested als discovered that many headmasters are schedul- options are not prescriptive, but rather a menu of ing classes in such a way so that every student has choices based on the challenges discussed in this access to a textbook during the class. Such energy at report. the school level should be harnessed—but the ca- Policy options are clustered into three areas: (a) pacity of school-level management needs to be short-term focus on increasing the efficient use of strengthened through capacity building and other current resources as a way to expand and improve motivational incentives. quality; (b) medium-term focus on a more equitable It is also important to remember that large differ- distribution of public financing, and on reducing the ences exist between regions, districts, and even cost burden, especially on poor and other disadvan- within districts. The policy options will have to be taged households as a strategy to improve equity, tailored to the local context. coverage, and quality; and (c) long-term focus on structural and curriculum reforms for improving quality and relevance. The options are presented in A. Short-term focus on increasing efficiency of the a policy matrix at the end of this chapter. current system: Expanding and improving quality These options are part of the emphasis on improv- within the next five years ing the quality of education, reducing the age of first enrollment, and achieving greater internal effi- The short-term measures can improve secondary ciency at the primary level. Policy-makers often ig- coverage without significant changes in the re- nore such critical linkage between primary and sec- source allocation pattern. However, although the ondary. But quality improvement measures at pri- proposed measures may result in efficiency gains if mary level are central to improving coverage, eq- implemented successfully, they may require extra uity, and quality in secondary education. funding during the transition period. This is where These options must also be seen as part of the the EFAG may offer assistance, based on sound and effort to improve school-level management. Much agreed upon policy decisions. of the innovation in teaching and learning, and in

68 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 69

1. Require all secondary teachers to teach at least This also means that the government should not two subjects start massive construction of community polytech- About 45 percent of secondary teachers teach only nics. At most, the community polytechnics should one subject area, even though all teachers have been only be piloted in selected districts with a cheaper trained to teach two subjects. Without increasing version of design that can be easily converted into the number of subjects teacher teach, it will be al- regular day O-level secondary schools. most impossible to increase the overall pupil:teacher ratio without altering the curriculum. Yet, revising Re-organize post-secondary BTVET institutions into a the curriculum—although ultimately desirable—is single system of Further Education institutions of more a medium- to long-term undertaking. Since viable size, and invest in improving quality and teachers have already been trained to teach two efficiency, either through larger multi-faculty colleges or subjects, the implementation of such a policy may larger single field of study institutions be relatively easy. A strategic review is needed of post-school provision to re-energize, rationalize, and increase value 2. Increase pupil:teacher ratio for money in this sector. There is room to (a) adopt This is a core strategy for improving the efficiency more demand-led approaches to enrollment plan- of the system. Increasing the overall pupil:teacher ning and institutional development, (b) provide in- ratio from the current level of 17 to 30 will, for ex- centives and flexibility for colleges to increase par- ample, increase the enrollment by more than 150 ticipation using cost recovery, and (c) generate a percent without incurring additional costs. Increas- dynamic, post-school, occupationally and profes- ing PTR does not mean drastic measures, such as sionally orientated education and training system. firing teachers; instead, it can be achieved by reducing the hiring rate and restricting the hiring to teachers of subjects in demand, such as math, English, B. Medium-term focus on more equitable distribu- and sciences. However, the burden the increase tion of public financing to improve coverage, should not fall on the more crowded schools. And equity, and quality of PPET (within 5–10 years) the process has to be linked to the rationalization of curriculum, teacher workloads, and deployment. 4. Broaden the concept and forms of the capitation grant to schools 3. Distinguish the secondary (O-level) versus post-secondary (post O-level) institutions, both Capitation grants for non-wage expenses conceptually and administratively The existing capitation grant must be revised so that Create an integrated secondary school system to include it can be used only for non-wage and non-boarding general O-level and secondary technical and farm expenditures. Currently, the capitation grant is used schools under a single system of administration, to subsidize teacher salary or to hire additional pri- governance, finance, and curriculum focus vate teachers. Variations of the formula can be introduced to address the inequity in public financ- Technical and vocational education at the O-level is ing. For example: expensive, ineffective in transmitting basic compe- • To improve equity, the capitation grant can be for- tencies—as compared to general secondary—and mulated so that schools serving predominantly is generally not a preferred option for families. The poor students receive a higher allocation on a per government should consider converting these capita basis. schools into regular O-level day secondary schools. 70 POLICY OPTIONS

• More radically, the government may stop paying 5. Increase the average secondary school size to capitation grants to elite boarding schools serv- reap economies of scale; gradually reduce the ing predominantly wealthy families (one impor- number of schools with enrollments of less than 250 tant indication is the high level of fees charged). There is a longstanding concern that, at many Ugan- • Or, the government could provide capitation dan secondary schools, enrollments are too low to grants to the elite boarding schools, but only based allow economies of scale to be reaped. The Unit Cost on the enrollment of poor and day students in Study found that the optimal school size is between those schools. 500 and 750 students, taking into account per stu- • The government could consider supporting the dent expenditure and manageability. Seventy per- private sector by approving the same grant for cent of private rural schools have less than 250 stu- private schools. There is no reason why such a dents. The corresponding figures for private peri- grant should not be provided to private and com- urban and urban private schools are 53 percent and munity schools. Of course, given current resource 44 percent, respectively. About 23 percent of the constraints, the government will not be able to government schools in rural areas have enrollments provide support immediately. Reforming public smaller than 250; the corresponding figures for gov- financing to public schools is still the priority. ernment peri-urban and urban schools are 6 percent and 7 percent. Sparsely populated areas, where secondary schools have small catchment areas, need Formula-based teacher salary grant special attention. This is especially true if the Ugan- Much of the variation in per student expenditure dan Government decides to provide the O-level comes from the proportion of graduate teachers in education or at least 2 –3 years of free O-level edu- the school. This variation is also a major source of cation as part of the basic education movement, in inequity of public financing, since rich students usu- which case basic education becomes a right. ally go to schools better endowed with graduate teachers. To correct this, the ministry may want to 6. Expand the existing scholarship scheme to provide a formula-based capitation grant that is cover needy students, including AIDS-orphans earmarked for teacher salary only. The schools will The PPET system faces challenges of efficiency, ac- then decide how to use this grant, determining the cess, quality, and equity. And equity will not im- number of teachers, proportion of graduate teach- prove without explicit intervention from the gov- ers to be hired, and salary level for teachers. The ernment. Ministry of Education will determine the value of Bursary schemes are an effective strategy. The the grant to cover a certain number of teachers. analysis shows that bursaries should be targeted at This option is not as drastic as it sounds—second- the poor and other disadvantaged students. But it is ary schools already have a large degree of freedom not clear to what extent the current bursary scheme in hiring teachers and reallocating resources. And is benefiting students with real needs. Expanding such a grant can eventually be extended to private the bursary scheme should therefore be preceded and community schools. However, there may be by careful study of the current scheme. Perhaps bur- resistance from teachers’ unions because the strat- saries can be targeted to schools that meet certain egy implies a change in contractual terms. Also, at- performance criteria and that charge fees below a tention needs to be paid that teachers are not ex- certain level (since the rich may not be opting for ploited by the system. such cheap schools). Or, bursaries can be used for day students attending boarding schools. Special provision should be made for orphans, including AIDS-orphans. UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 71

C. Long-term focus on structure, curriculum, and mainly designed to select students onto the next teacher reform to improve the quality and rel- level, and, inevitably, teachers and students will evance of PPET education teach and learn to the examinations if spaces in PPET are limited. With the gradual expansion in cover- 7. Structure and curriculum reform age, it may be possible to introduce other forms of assessment, such as continuous assessment or na- In the long term, Uganda must examine its struc- tional assessment of student aptitudes. This will ture and curriculum focus for PPET—and it must be provide more insights into the teaching and learn- done within the context of cultural, social, and eco- ing process, and help inform the curriculum review. nomic development as well as regional and international integration. It needs to ask what core competencies and skills are expected of a secondary gradu- 10. Increase the resource allocation for PPET ate, and then determine the structure of the education system, teaching method, and curriculum to Intra-sectoral shifts deliver such outputs. The country also has to decide At present, 65 percent of the education budget is whether it will adopt a basic education cycle that earmarked for primary education. In fact, the gov- covers primary and selected years of lower second- ernment is committed to guaranteeing 65 percent ary education, with a curriculum focus on literacy, of its education budget to primary education in the numeracy, and problem solving skills; and an en- next few years. It is conceivable that, after a few riched curriculum for higher secondary education, years when the primary situation is more stabilized with more focus on science and technology. and most of the overage students will have been absorbed into the system, primary budget may not 8. Reform teacher education and teacher incentive need to consume 65 percent. And, though reforms Both pre-service and in-service of teachers need to in the higher education may result in higher public be reviewed. Very little is known about what hap- finance in the short term, if implemented well, they pens at the teacher training colleges; however, evi- may result in autonomous higher education institu- dence suggests that teacher education would ben- tions, which will not require a large share of the efit from improved efficiency and relevance at the ministry’s budget in the long term. This is going to colleges. Teaching and learning at the colleges tend be a national decision. to be mostly content driven, with little attention to developing professional skills and attitudes. Reduce Inter-sectoral shifts salary differentials between graduates and non-graduates doing the same jobs, and link bonuses to If PPET were to become a high priority area, it is workloads to improve productivity and performance. possible that funds from other sectors might be committed to the education sector. This is clearly a deci- 9. Reform the secondary examination and assess- sion that must be made at the national level, with ment system consultation and concurrence by the Ministry of Fi- nance and Cabinet. By national standards, the share Secondary teaching and learning in Uganda are of the budget currently going to education in heavily influenced by two graduation examina- Uganda is already extremely high. tions: the Uganda Certificate of Education after primary, and the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Edu- cation at the end of O-level. Both examinations are 72 POLICY OPTIONS

The projected cost of adopting short-term reform that anticipates a gentle rise in the efficiency measures pupil:teacher ratio. It would allow about 200 new schools to be built by 2006 and 470 by 2011. The latter will ensure that all sub-counties have a sec- What is the resource implication of adopting the ondary school by 2011. It would also allow the sec- proposed short-term efficiency measures? The three ondary GER to climb towards 50 percent, the level short-term policy options center on increasing the at which gender parity is likely to become real. Fi- pupil:teacher ratio via creating core subject clusters nally, it only requires about 20–22 percent of the and having teachers teach at least two subjects. The overall MOE budget to be devoted to secondary cost projections assume that the initial costs of cur- and BTVET. The report regards the baseline model riculum adaptation are minimum or can be shoul- to be more politically feasible than the radical model, dered by the EFAG, and that the ministry is only which will require a much faster increase of PTR. concerned with the development costs (for piloting Therefore, the report recommends that the baseline community polytechnics and building regular day model be adopted for implementation. A process of secondary schools) and the recurrent costs of wages further national and regional consultation on these and capitation grants. options has been agreed upon during the April 2002 Two scenarios have been costed. Both scenarios Education Sector Review. And the final action plan center on increasing system efficiency via increas- will be presented to the October 2002 Review and ing the pupil:teacher ratio, though at a different rate. incorporated into the medium-term budget frame- The baseline model includes a modest agenda of work. Annex 3 details the cost projections. UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 73

Policy matrix Broad policy options for improving post-primary education

Short-term Medium-term Long-term (next 2 years) (next 3–5 years) (next 5–10 years) Efficiency Create core subject clusters and Continue to increase PTR so that it Maintain the average national Focus on curriculum and reduce the # of practical subjects reaches a sustainable national average PTR taking into consideration teacher rationalization being taught so that total number of desired by the country reasonable deviations due to courses taught can be reduced certain geographic and demographic conditions Increase the pupil:teacher ratio gradually from 20 to 30–33

Create an integrated secondary Increase the average secondary school Maintain a sustainable school system: convert the existing size to reap economies of scale where average school size, secondary-level technical schools feasible recognizing the special needs to regular O-level day secondary of certain remote areas

Re-organize and re-energize the post secondary BTVET*

Coverage and equity Revise the current capitation grant scheme Continue revise and Focus on financing reform so that only the non-wage expenses are implement the capitation and targeted assistance to covered; further introduce variations of the grants to maximize equity and needy students formula to address the inequity in public quality financing: - A higher capitation grant to schools serving predominantly poor or other disadvantaged children - Stop capitation grant to elite boarding schools, or only pay capitation grant based on the number of poor students enrolled in those schools - Entertain the idea of providing such a grant to private schools

Pilot formula-based salary grant so that Implement formula-based schools can decide the number and salary grant qualifications of teachers to be hired

Expand and revise the existing bursary Institutionalize the bursary scheme so that more poor and other scheme disadvantaged children can benefit from the bursaries

Quality and relevance Review the structure and Focus on structure, curriculum focus according to curriculum, teaching reform international benchmarks; establish a basic education cycle which will be provided for free with a core curriculum

Reform teacher education and teacher incentive structure

Increase the share of budget allocated to secondary (subject to national debate)

References

Appleton, S. 2001. “Education, Incomes and Poverty Lewin, Keith. 2002. “Options for Post Primary Edu- in Uganda in 1990s.” cation and Training in Uganda Increasing Access, Bennell P. and Sayed Y. 2002. “Improving the Man- Equity and Efficiency within Sustainable Budgets: agement and Internal Efficiency of Post Primary A Draft Framework for Policy.” Education and Training in Uganda.” Lewin, K. and Caillods, F. 2001. Financing Secondary Bennell, P., Hyde, K., and Swainson, N. 2002. “The Education in Developing Countries: Strategies for Sus- Impact of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic on the Educa- tainable Growth. UNESCO Publishing: Interna- tion Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Synthesis of tional Institute for Education Planning. the Findings and Recommendations of Three Ministry of Education and Sports. 2001a. “Concep- Country Studies.” tual Framework for the Proposed Curriculum for Bontoux, V., Buchan, A., Foster, D., Ibale, A., and Read, Secondary Education With Emphasis on Vocation- T. 2002. “The Provision of Instructional Materials alization.” Fifth Education Sector Review, April 2001, to Secondary Institutions in Uganda.” Draft final Uganda. report. . 2001b. “Revised Concept Paper on Community Buchan, A., Foster, D., Ibale, A., Read, T. (2001) “The Polytechnics.” Fifth Education Sector Review, April Provision of Instructional Materials to Secondary 2001, Uganda. Institutions in Uganda.” Draft inception report. . 2001c. Medium-term Budget Framework, 2001. MOES. .Education Statistical Abstracts, 1995–2000. Byaruhanga C., and Levine V. 2002. “Issues and Op- Uganda. tions for the Expansion of PPET in Uganda.” Tulya-Muhika S. “Unit Cost Study of Post Primary IMPACT Associates and Monarch Consulting Teacher Institutions in Uganda.” Utilisation Studies. Vol 2. “Final Report on Second- Uganda Examinations Board. “A Study of School ary Schools.” Quality in Secondary Schools and Equivalent Jansen, J. and Howie, S. 2002. “Secondary Education Grades in Technical/Vocational Schools in in Africa (SEIA): A Literature Survey and Review Uganda.” of Best Practices.” Draft. UNESCO. 2001. World Education Report. Keating, Jack. 2000. “Technical and Vocational Edu- World Bank. 2001a. World Development Indicators. cation in Uganda.” . 2001b.Edstats Database. . “Firm Demand for Post Primary Qualifica- . 1993. “Primary Education: A World Bank Policy tions.” Report to the Secondary Education Com- Paper.” mission, Ministry of Education and Sports, and . n.d. “Vocational Skills Development in Sub-Sa- the World Bank. Draft. haran Africa: Phase I Synthesis Summary of Main Latham, Michael. 2000. Uganda: A Review of the Cur- Findings and Recommendations.” Washington, rent Role of the Private Provision Within the Education D.C. Sector. HDNED. The World Bank, Washington, D.C.

74 Annex 1 Determinants of Secondary Enrollment Using Multiple Regression Method

ivariate comparisons, as shown below, give There are no apparent regional differences in sec- us some indication of how secondary cover- ondary enrollment among the primary graduates, B age varies by gender and by level of house- holding constant the control variables. This may hold expenditure. However, they are not able to iden- appear counterintuitive, since we know from the tify which are the most significant factors and there- ministry’s Education Statistical Abstracts that the fore cannot explain why coverage is low. Multivari- Central region usually has the highest age-specific ate analysis is needed for this. We used multivariate secondary enrollment, followed by the Eastern, logistic regression to predict the probability of sec- Western, and Northern regions. However, it is not ondary enrollment, including both currently en- contradictory since our sub-sample only includes rolled students and those who had graduated from primary graduates. The North has the lowest sec- secondary education, among a sub-sample of 13 to ondary enrollment, since it also has the lowest pro- 25 year-olds who had completed primary school. portion of children graduating from primary school. We included in our model the regional (Central, East- Also, in the multivariate analysis, we are control- ern, and Western, with Northern being the baseline), ling for all other variables. The Central and Eastern wealth (having a mud wall, total expenditure), pa- advantage in secondary enrollment can be mainly rental education, and family structure variables (age, attributed to the higher proportion of their popula- gender, number of children under eighteen, age of tion who are primary graduates and to the higher the youngest child). Our hypothesis was that these average level of expenditure (income). variables all affected the target child’s enrollment We also discussed that girls have a lower age-spe- in secondary school. cific secondary enrollment after age seventeen. The A series of logistic regression models were fit. regression results show that, only controlling for Table 48 lists the coefficients and standard errors for household economic factors but without control- each of the predictors. Model 7 is our final regres- ling for family structural characteristics, girls are still sion model. It shows that the variables that are sig- less likely to enroll than boys. However, once we nificantly correlated with secondary enrollment in- take into account whether the target child is the clude total household expenditure, age of the child, head or spouse of the household and the age of the whether or not the target child is the head or spouse youngest child in the household, girls do not differ of the household, the age of the youngest child in from boys in enrollment probability. This means the household, and the father’s education, control- that girls are less likely to enroll in secondary schools ling for everything else. after age seventeen because they start to get mar-

75 76 DETERMINATES OF SECONDARY ENROLLMENT

Table 47 Regression results: Predicting the probability of secondary enrollment among 13-25 year-olds completing primary school

Variables Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Model 6 Model 7 B (s.e) B (s.e) B (s.e) B (s.e) B (s.e) B (s.e) B (s.e) Central 0.45 0.42 0.42 0.19 0.41 0.45 0.38 (0.29) (0.29) (0.29) (0.30) (0.30) (0.33) (0.37) Eastern -0.05 -0.03 0.02 -0.14 0.09 0.02 -0.07 (0.32) (0.32) (0.32) (0.32) (0.33) (0.35) (0.38) Western 0.21 0.31 0.46 0.26 0.46 0.55 0.58 (0.31) (0.31) (0.31) (0.32) (0.32) (0.35) (0.38) Rural -0.76*** -0.65*** -0.47** -0.38* -0.28 -0.16 (0.15) (0.16) (0.17) (0.18) (0.19) (0.21) Mud wall -0.40* -0.14 -0.18 -0.40 -0.13 (0.19) (0.20) (0.21) (0.23) (0.24) Total expenditure (natural log) 0.34*** 0.43*** 0.33*** 0.23** (0.06) (0.06) (0.07) (0.08) Age 0.17*** 0.24*** 0.23*** (0.02) (0.03) (0.03) Gender -0.17 0.03 0.04 (0.15) (0.17) (0.19) Head or spouse -3.46*** -3.05** (0.73) (0.74) # Children under 18 -0.03 0.00 (0.03) (0.03) Age of the youngest 0.03 0.04* (0.02) (0.02) Father’s eduration 0.06* (0.02) Mother’s education 0.03 (0.03) Constant -3.30*** -2.92*** -2.90*** -7.75*** -12.36*** -12.32*** -11.56*** (0.27) (0.28) (0.28) (0.87) (1.12) (1.19) (1.30) Note: * P<=0.05 ** P<=0.01 *** P<=0.001 ried and become the spouse or head of a new house- of the household significantly lowers the probabil- hold or are taking care of the youngest child in the ity of secondary attendance. Finally, father’s edu- household, whether or not the child is hers. There- cation is another significant and positive factor. The fore, starting girls’ schooling earlier is likely to lead more years of education the father has received, the to higher attainment for girls, in addition to helping more likely the target child is to enroll or to have more girls into secondary school. enrolled in secondary school. Not surprisingly, household expenditure is sig- In short, the multivariate analysis found that pov- nificantly and positively associated with second- erty is the single most important factor in deter- ary enrollment. Children from better-off house- mining secondary enrollment (negatively), along holds are more likely to be enrolled or to have ben- with father’s education, whether the child is already efited from secondary education compared to their having his/her own family, and the age of the young- poor counterparts. This is consistent with our find- est child in the household. ings from bivariate analysis. Being a head or spouse Annex 2 Analyzing Private Direct and Opportunity Costs of PPET

Private expenditures Expenditure by level of educational service. Estimates ublic expenditures on PPET, although already of expenditure associated with having a household substantial, are by no means the only cost to member in an educational institution were derived PUgandan society. Households bear a signifi- by regressing total household expenditure on edu- cant cost in direct costs and opportunity costs. cation on the set of variables for household members enrolled at each level. The regression coefficient on the number of household members enrolled Direct cost can be interpreted as the additional expenditure associated with having one additional household member The major reason for not attending secondary enrolled in that level of education. To statistically school is poverty. While public finance is well docu- control for the effects of differences in household mented, much less is known about the costs to stu- income, total cash income (from enterprise and em- dents and families. The 1999/2000 household sur- ployment) was also included as an argument in the vey collected information on total household ex- regression equation. penditures in education, including school fees (including contributions to the Parent Teacher Asso- Results of the analysis are shown in Table 50. The ciation, boarding and lodging, uniforms, books and first equation (Model 1) is based on the entire UNHS supplies, and other expenses). The average house- sample of 10,696 households and shows the esti- hold expenditure on books and supplies amounted mated impact of one additional household member to Ush.2,494, on school uniform Ush15,699, on in a specific education level on total household edu- school and PTA fees Ush.228,857, and boarding and cational expenditure (statistically controlling for lodging Ush.490,471. family income). The equation explains over 50 percent (Adjusted R2) of the variance in spending within Though expenditure data are reported at the the sample. Only those variables that were statisti- household level and cannot be directly attributed cally significant at the 0.5 level are included in the to individual household members, it is possible to equation. For this reason, apprenticeship was not infer the costs associated with different household included in this model. members, based on changes in total household expenditure on education, since it relates to the num- The model suggests that having one additional ber of household members attending educational household member enrolled in secondary school is institutions. linked to an increased annual expenditure (on education) of Ush.241,000.

77 78 PRIVATE DIRECT AND OPPORTUNITY COSTS OF PPET

Table 48 Unit cost (direct) Education Expenditure UNHS 1999/2000 In summary, we have estimated that the average Item description Frequency Mean value annual direct cost of providing secondary educa- Books and supplies 6,333 12,494 School uniforms 4,821 15,699 tion includes costs borne by the government at School fees and PTA 3,855 228,857 Ush.236,994 and by families at Ush.241,000, suggest- Other education expenses 2,978 21,438 ing a total average annual direct unit cost of Ush. Boarding and lodging 332 490,471 478,000 per student. It is important to note that, on Source: Analysis of UNHS. average, families now meet over half of the direct cost of secondary education. Model 2 presents results from the same analysis, This figure is similar to the results from Unit Cost restricting the sample to the 6,724 households that Study, 1 which analyzed the expenditure patterns of report at least one member enrolled in education 120 sampled PPET institutions nationwide. The and at least some educational expenditure. The re- study concluded that nationwide average recurrent sults using this sub-sample are virtually identical to unit cost per secondary student is about Ush.490,236. those using all UNHS households (Model 1). The small difference may be because the Unit Cost Our best estimate of the private costs of having a Study aggregated all sources of incomes at the household member in secondary school is therefore school level, including government, households, in the range of Ush.238,000 to and other donations. 241,000 per year. Bear in mind that Table 49 these figures only reflect house- Regression analysis of household education expenditure—UNHS hold expenditure. To the extent that extended family members, or Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 other sources, also contribute to Dependent Variable -- TOTAL ED TOTAL ED FEES & PTA BOARDING > EXPENDITURE EXPENDITURE educational expenditure, they Sample N 10,696 6,724 6,724 6,724 2 may be biased downward. Adjusted R 0.527 0.552 0.449 0.373 Coefficient Sig. Coefficient Sig. Coefficient Sig. Coefficient Sig. The data also provide a basis (Constant) -34,987 0.0000 -44,285 0.0000 -29,696 0.0000 -15,310 0.0000 for estimating expenditure by nursery 46,441 0.0000 36,673 0.0006 32,325 0.0006 cost category. Models 3 through primary 13,186 0.0000 12,980 0.0000 7,893 0.0007 post-primary 192,892 0.0000 202,019 0.0000 88,313 0.0046 91,660 0.0000 7 show the analysis of informa- secondary 241,271 0.0000 238,042 0.0000 162,367 0.0000 51,168 0.0000 post-secondary 224,204 0.0000 234,666 0.0000 176,400 0.0000 48,928 0.0000 tion of expenditure on specific diploma 378,973 0.0000 400,333 0.0000 298,441 0.0000 76,894 0.0000 cost items. For example, Model 3 university 763,188 0.0000 746,015 0.0000 605,592 0.0000 107,865 0.0000 apprenticeship uses expenditure on fees and PTA Total cash inc. (000) 438 0.0000 54 0.0000 385 0.0000 10 0.0000 as the dependent variable, rather Model 5 Model 6 Model 7 Dependent Variable -- UNIFORMS BOOKS & OTHER than total expenditure. Table 51 > SUPPLIES summarizes the results of the five Sample N 6,724 6,724 6,724 2 expenditure regression analyses Adjusted R 0.487 0.518 0.291 Coefficient Sig. Coefficient Sig. Coefficient Sig. (Models 3 through 7). (Constant) 714 0.0920 -144 0.8157 -131 0.8717 The estimate total cost of sec- nursery 3,254 0.0000 1,664 0.0375 3,147 0.0026 primary 2,086 0.0000 1,373 0.0000 1,590 0.0000 ondary derived from the indi- post-primary 7,157 0.0001 10,790 0.0018 vidual cost item equations is secondary 7,575 0.0000 10,091 0.0000 7,022 0.0000 post-secondary 2,276 0.0201 3,959 0.0058 comparable to that derived from diploma 2,818 0.0418 15,518 0.0000 7,137 0.0070 university 3,407 0.0225 16,106 0.0000 13,333 0.0000 total expenditure. apprenticeship 6,913 0.0320 Total cash inc. (000) 1 0.0000 3 0.0000 1 0.0000 UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 79

Table 50 Table 51 Summary of household expenditure Average earnings of P7 completers by age on education by category Age category Mean N Std. deviation Item Cost Percent Lt 25 498,433 98 470,282 Fees and PTA 162,367 68.2 25–29 Boarding 51,168 21.5 655,076 100 596,910 Uniforms 7,575 3.2 30–39 794,246 120 991,984 Books and supplies 10,091 4.2 40–70 Other 7,022 2.9 794,131 89 895,406 Total 238,223 Total 688,799 407 785,283

Opportunity cost. In addition to direct costs, fami- a slight upward bias in the estimate. Based on relies (and, by extension, society), also incur “oppor- ported employment income, our best estimate of tunity costs.” The opportunity cost of a student’s the opportunity cost of P7 graduates (in the age time is the value of that time in the best alternative group attending PPET) would be approximately activity. 500,000 per year or about twice the direct costs to One approach to estimating opportunity cost is families. This estimate, however, is based on a to look at the earnings of primary school graduates sample of fewer than 100 individuals.2 (without secondary education) for whom earned Of course, in the Ugandan context, most P7 gradu- employment income data are available in the ates do not find paid employment. Those who are UNHS. However, given the structure of the Ugan- employed in the formal sector may be systemati- dan economy, few individuals are in formal employ- cally different from the majority of P7 graduates, ment. Of the total sample of 57,385 household mem- and so may be an inappropriate sample for inferring bers, only 4,291 (fewer than 8 percent) have em- opportunity costs. ployment income. Of those ages 15 through 69 not in school at the When we restrict the analysis to a sample of P7 time of the survey, only 11 percent were engaged in completers who are not in school, and have a re- paid employment.3 The probability of being in for- ported earned income of at least 4,000 per month, mal employment increases with educational attain- there are only 407 respondents in the sample. The ment, as discussed in section 4.2.7. mean income for this sub-sample (including all in- The UNHS does provide information on income come from main and secondary in cash and in kind) from household enterprises. However, unlike em- of employed P7 graduates is 689,000. ployment income, these data are not, and cannot However, it is well documented that individual be, directly attributed to individual household earnings increase over the working lifetime through members, and are reported for the household as a experience and on-the-job training. When we com- whole. pare mean earnings of P7 graduates by age groups, One way to infer the contribution of individual this anticipated relationship appears, as shown in household members is to look at total household Table 52. enterprise income4 in relation to the composition Ideally, we would look at the earning income of of the household workforce, statistically control- P7 completers in the age bracket 15–20 for our esti- ling for other inputs, such as land, equipment, live- mate of opportunity costs. UNHS does not provide stock, and geographic region. In order to develop sufficient cases in this age group, and we therefore estimates of this relationship, it is necessary to use use all individuals under age 25; this may introduce some simplifying assumptions about the contribu- 80 PRIVATE DIRECT AND OPPORTUNITY COSTS OF PPET

Table 52 Household enterprise production function

MODEL A Adj R square = 0.23

Independent Variable Coeficient Signif. N Yrs Educ Age (Constant) 122,118 0.0000 S4 / 15-25 473,195 0.0000 170 13.52 22.23 >S4 / 26-35 925,745 0.0000 160 13.98 30.00 >S4 / 36-45 974,381 0.0000 104 13.99 40.35 >S4 / 46-55 771,548 0.0000 73 14.23 50.58 >S4 / 56-69 266,158 0.0137 56 14.27 62.00 LAND_EQP (10,000) 99 0.0000 LIVESTCK (10,000) 978 0.0000 CENTRAL 579,921 0.0000 EAST 226,310 0.0000 WEST 400,724 0.0000

tion of household members to household enterprise mation on household enterprise income, assets, live- income. In the analysis that follows, we have at- stock and location; creating a new analysis file tributed all reported enterprise income to house- where the household is the unit of analysis. This hold members between the ages of 15–69 who are new file includes measures of household income, not students and who do not report significant productive assets, and labor involved in household earned employment income.5 production. Multiple regression is then used as a The analysis is based on a sub-sample of 8,664 way to explain differences in household production households for which enterprise income is reported by differences in assets and labor. The estimated and where adults (age 15–69), not in school and not coefficient on a specific category (education and reporting earned income, reside.6 The approach in- age) of household worker can be interpreted as the volves using individual household member data to “marginal productivity” of one additional worker construct “counts” of the number of members, who of that type on household production. That is, what fall into specific education and age categories by that individual contributes to annual household pro- household. These data are then merged with infor- duction, controlling for assets and location. In this UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 81

Table 53 •Returns to marginal investments in land and Estimated “shadow wage” of P7 completers equipment appear to be modest, on the order 7 Age Model A Model B Model C Mean of 1 percent. Returns to investments in live- 15–25 229,850 219,603 222,011 223,821 stock and poultry appear to be higher, on the 26–35 440,927 432,213 433,638 435,593 order of 10 percent. 36–45 398,997 389,197 392,363 361,001 46–55 366,719 357,928 358,354 361,001 •Controlling for assets and labor, there is a 56–69 330,509 338,472 328,088 332,356 premium associated with household enterprises located in regions other than the North- case, we are particularly interested in the contribu- ern region (the excluded dichotomous variable). tion of young P7 completers, since this is an esti- This premium is highest in the Central region. mate of the opportunity cost of their time. We estimated various household enterprise pro- The marginal productivity of P7 completers in duction functions. In each model, household labor household enterprise activities (the opportunity was entered as a count of the number of household cost of attending PPET) was of particular interest in members in one of twenty-five education-age cells this analysis. Estimates were consistent across the (five education by five age categories). Table 53 three models used, as summarized in Table 54. shows results of the best fit. “Model A.” The coefficients on the education-age cell variables can be interpreted as the contribution of one Table 54 Opportunity cost of PPET additional household member (with these characteristics) to total household production, controlling Activity Percent Wage for assets and geographic location. Market employment 15 498,443 Household enterprise 85 223,812 Several general points warrant comment: Weighted average 265,007 • There is a strong and consistent pattern of productivity increasing with education. This suggests that formal education significantly increases produc- We noted that about 15 percent of P7 completers tivity not only in formal employment but in house- (who do not continue in school) enter market em- hold production as well. For example, regression ployment. The remaining 85 percent are assumed coefficients in Model A suggest that at age 26–35, active in household enterprises. If we use the aver- primary school graduates are twice as productive age wage (weighted by the probability of being ei- as those with less education. ther in market or household employment) as the • Age earnings profiles appear to be convex from basis for estimating the opportunity cost of being above—rising with age, reaching a plateau and in PPET, our best estimate would be Ush.265,000 per then declining—in a pattern similar to that ob- annum, as shown in Table 55. This is approximately served for formal employment. In general, the equal to the average direct costs borne by households. peak comes at an earlier age than in the formal This estimate may be biased upward, since it is labor market. It is not possible to assess to what based on the age 15–25 cohort. But, to the extent extent this reflects lifecycle patterns in physical that individuals who do enter PPET may be system- strength and stamina or patterns of gaining skills atically more able (therefore more likely to find for- through on-the-job training. mal sector employment), the estimate may be biased downward. We have no basis for estimating the extent of biases; they may be offsetting. 82 PRIVATE DIRECT AND OPPORTUNITY COSTS OF PPET

In summary, the opportunity cost of attending 1 The results from the Unit Cost Study should be treated PPET, Ush.265,007 is slightly higher than the aver- with more caution. In particular, the ratio of expenditure age direct cost to households, Ush.241,000. We esti- for remuneration, relative to supplies, does not seem intu- mate an average public expenditure of Ush.236,994 itively correct. The MoES may wish to review this issue. 2 It could be argued that, to the extent that employment in- per pupil enrolled in secondary education. The com- cludes both an observed wage in addition to the “costs” of bined cost to families (direct and indirect) repre- “general” on-the-job training, this estimate may be biased sents over two-thirds of the total recurrent cost of downward. 3 Individuals with reported income of less than 4,000 per secondary schooling. month were excluded. 4 We have excluded property income, interest, dividends, and transfers from the analysis. 5 We have excluded household members who report average monthly employment income of 4,000 per month or greater. 6 To minimize the impact of “outlier” cases, we have excluded households in the lowest and highest 3 percent “tails” of enterprise income. 7 The asset variables Land and Equipment (LAND_EQP) and Livestock and poultry (LIVESTCK), were entered in units of Ush.10,000. Annex 3 Projected Cost of Adopting Short-term Efficiency Measures*

Options for policy, financing, and action mate. It is based on growth of 5 percent p.a. in enrollments that recent recruitment suggests is unlikely. Overall allocations therefore would be be- The baseline model tween 20 and 22 percent of the education budget, framework for policy has been developed an imaginable level to sustain. through consultation, the identification of The baseline model includes a modest agenda of A achievable policy goals, and the construction reform that anticipates a gentle rise in the of a detailed projection model. The Baseline Ten- pupil:teacher ratio. It would allow about 200 new year Uganda Projection Model for PPET has been schools to be built by 2006 and 470 by 2011. The used to test the financial sustainability of the pro- latter is sufficient to ensure all sub-counties have a posals. This assumes that the MTBF grows at 6.5 secondary school by 2011. It would also allow the percent, and price inflation is around 3 percent p.a. secondary GER to climb towards 50 percent, the The PPET model allows overall transition rates to level at which gender parity is likely to become real. S1 to be sustained between 40 percent and 50 per- The detailed activities included in the baseline cent and GER to climb from 30 percent to 45 per- model are listed in Tables 55 and 56. cent. It is assumed that private sector growth will Two further variants of the baseline model have fall away to less than 5 percent p.a. as price con- been developed. These are: straints exclude low-income households. Enroll- ments would climb in government schools to about The status quo model 625,000 and private schools to 900,000. The demand for newly trained teachers would be somewhat less This shows what would happen if PTRs at second- than 1,500 p.a. for government schools and about ary remained unchanged, and the number of teach- 2,250 in private schools. The current model will re- ers was allowed to grow accordingly. The growth quire allocations to secondary of about 18 percent of S1 enrollments has been kept the same as in the of total public expenditure on education, and 4 per- baseline model. In addition, community polytech- cent for BTVET. The latter is likely to be an overesti- nics have been constructed according to the latest full-cost proposal (not the low- cost, small-scale pilot in the baseline model), which would result in * This annex draws heavily from Prof. Keith Lewin’s recent work with the Ministry of Education on PPET enrollment 240 existing by 2006, and the building/conversion projection and costed options for expanding the sector with program continuing at the same level into the fu- a sustainable budget framework.

83 84 COST OF ADOPTING SHORT--TERM EFFICIENCY MEASURES

ture, giving 480 institutions by 2011/12. Table 55 Twenty-one thousand students would be en- Consolidated reforms and activities in the baseline model rolled in CPs by 2006 and 124,000 by 2011. The with incremental reforms other activities have been retained as in the Key indicators 2002 2006 2011 baseline model. There would not be a substantial gain in tran- Total primary enrollment 371107 461600 598038 sition rates; secondary GER in government Total P7 enrollment 601987 828452 949803 schools would not change, and the increased Transition rate P7-S1 (government) 23 15 17 BTVET enrollment would add at most about 8 Transition rate P7-S1 (total) 54 36 39 percent to the GER after ten years if places were Gross enrollment rate (government) 16 18 20 taken up. Over 25,000 teachers would need to Gross enrollment rate (total) 35 40 45 S1 entry enrollment (government) 103940 135702 169191 be employed in secondary at the end of the S1 entry enrollment (total) 140540 183432 228701 projection, working at the same levels of effi- Rate of growth of S1 entry (government) 1.075 1.05 1.025 ciency as today, and about 5,300 teachers in Rate of growth of S1 entry (private) 1.075 1.05 1.025 community polytechnics. Total enrollment secondary (government) 371107 461600 598038 Most importantly, this model would be un- Total enrollment secondary 808832 1007660 1302320 likely to result in gender parity (a Millennium TI enrollment 5500 6685 8532 Development Goal), both because GERs TS enrollment 6000 7293 9308 Secondary teachers govt. 14396 15444 16873 would not rise much, and because the increases New secondary teachers needed (government) 966 1343 1102 would be in community polytechnics, which New secondary teachers (needed private) 1012 1550 1250 have yet to attract girls (technical and farm CP teachers needed 0 125 175 schools overwhelmingly enroll boys). College enrollments (W1) 13116 15924 20347 This model is completely unsustainable. It NTC enrollments (W1) 8400 8400 8400 would require over 40 percent of the educa- PTRs secondary 23 27 32 tion budget. It would create recurrent deficits PTRs BTVET TI 9 9 9 of Ush.28 billion and Ush.60 billion in 2006 and PTRs BTVET TS 11 11 11 PTRs CPs 24 24 24 2011 for secondary, and Ush.16 billion and Total recurrent secondary 68.4 91.5 125.6 Ush.78 billion for BTVET. MTBF recurrent secondary 68.2 87.7 120.1 Balance recurrent secondary -0.3 -3.8 -5.5 Radical reform model Total development secondary 5.9 15.5 17.1 MTBF development secondary 7.1 9.2 12.6 This version of the model seeks to ensure that Balance development secondary 1.3 -6.4 -4.6 Total recurrent BTVET 14.7 20.3 29.3 all sub-counties have access to secondary MTBF recurrent BTVET 15.4 22.5 36.3 schooling by 2006. This requires a faster in- Balance recurrent BTVET 0.7 2.3 7.0 crease in PTRs, reduced enrollments in NTCs Total development BTVET 3.0 4.8 2.8 to reflect actual demand for teachers, and no MTBF development BTVET 4.6 5.9 8.1 community polytechnic program (since each Balance development BTVET 1.5 1.0 5.3 sub-county will have a secondary school and GoU budget 1228.0 1606.1 2200.4 two additional institutions cannot be sup- MTBF growth rate 0.065 0.065 0.065 ported within the envelope). The model pro- Recurrent vides for enhanced capitation to be directed to Percent to education 30.7 31.0 31.0 Percent to secondary 18.1 18.1 18.1 schools serving disadvantaged groups. It also Percent to BTVET 4.0 4.0 4.2 freezes publicly funded growth in post-school

UGANDA POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT 85

Table 56 Activities for baseline model

Activities Secondary Initial year 2002–2006 2007–11 Total 2002–2011 Build new schools in disadvantaged sub counties 15 196 273 469 New classrooms added to schools 77 982 1364 2346 Rehabilitated classrooms 100 640 560 1200 New labs/workshops 12 157 218 375 Textbook stocking, grants, rental (Ush. Billion) 2 11 14 25 Equipment restocking (Ush. Billions) 1.0 5.4 7.1 12.4 Bursaries (cost in billions) 0 2 3 Capitation (cost in billions) 6 9 14 BTVET New CPs 0.0 14.0 0.0 14.0 Converted CPs 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Rehabilitated TS 6.0 30.0 0.0 30.0 Rehabilitated TI 6.0 30.0 0.0 30.0 Rehabilitated colleges (cost in billions) 1.5 8.4 12.0 20.4

BTVET on the assumption that colleges would con- On this projection, PPET would absorb about 22 tinue to receive the current number of Window 1 percent of government’s recurrent expenditure on students (i.e., publicly financed), and that any education. BTVET’s share would drop significantly. growth would be in Window 2 students (privately It is assumed that savings on BTVET would be trans- financed). ferred to secondary. The investment necessary to Numbers enrolled would increase considerably cover the development costs can be fairly repre- to 1.8 million by 2011, giving higher transition rates, sented as the additional cost of taking on an ambi- rising to 55 percent and a GER of over 60 percent. tious program which that have a major impact on Teachers employed would rise initially to 16,700 access, equity, and efficiency. (2006), and then to 19,800 (2011). The increase in the GER would greatly increase the chances of achiev- Summary of projections ing the gender Millennium Development Goal, The results of these projections indicate that the sta- since progress on female enrollment rates is closely tus quo model is not only financially unsustainable, associated with increased secondary GER. since it would require 40 percent of total education The recurrent budget in 2006 has a deficit of about budget, but is also not desirable in terms of achiev- Ush.9 billion, and BTVET is in surplus by Ush.12 ing the enrollment and gender equity goals for PPET. billion. On the development budget, the figures are The radical reform model, on the other hand, con- Ush.23 billion deficit and Ush.3 billion surplus. Most tains drastic measures, the main ones being increas- of the development costs are new school building ing the pupil:teacher ratio from 17 to 40 over the costs. If the average price could be reduced signifi- next ten years and freezing publicly financed growth cantly below Ush.140 million, this would have a di- in the BTVET sector. Teachers and parents may re- rect effect on the deficit. If cost sharing and econo- sist such a fast increase in the PTR. The complete mies of scale in purchasing reduced costs to Ush.100 freezing of the BTVET sector also may go against million the deficit would fall by Ush.6 billion—to popular belief. about Ush.17 billion. 86 COST OF ADOPTING SHORT--TERM EFFICIENCY MEASURES

The baseline model, on the other hand, requires if necessary in the future. More importantly, it al- only a moderate increase of PTR to 33 over the next lows the gross enrollment ratio of S1–S4 to reach 50 ten years. It also allows for the construction of a percent by the end of the ten years projected, and it limited number of community polytechnics (a achieves better equity. The report therefore recom- cheaper version of what is now proposed) that can mends that the baseline model be adopted in the be easily converted into general secondary schools Uganda PPET Policy and Strategic Framework.