Harnessing Uganda s Competitive Advantage Through Education

Transcription

1 Harnessing Uganda s Competitive Advantage Through Education Mary Goretti Nakabugo, PhD Twaweza Lead and Manager, Uwezo, Twaweza East Africa Presentation at the 5th CPA Economic Forum Imperial Resort Beach Hotel, Entebbe, 21 Jul

2 Is Uganda s Education Fit for Purpose? / / gnakabugo@twaweza.org

3 Introduction Education is critical to development* Possessing strong reading skills, for example, doubles the probability of having a decent job education is critical to developing the professionals for key technical and managerial positions. Education is associated with desirable development outcomes e.g. a child s health and mortality depends on the mother s education

4 Education is associated with desirable development outcomes, e.g. child mortality rates by maternal education 140 No education Primary Deaths per 1000 live births Rwanda Zambia Pakistan Bangladesh Yemen Egypt Bolivia Colombia Indonesia Philippines Sub-Saharan Africa Southern Asia Northern Africa and Western Asia Latin America and the Caribbean Eastern and Southeastern Asia

5 Education is associated with desirable development outcomes, e.g. child mortality rates by maternal education No education Primary Secondary Higher 100 Deaths per 1000 live births Rwanda Zambia Pakistan Bangladesh Yemen Egypt Bolivia Colombia Indonesia Philippines Sub-Saharan Africa Southern Asia Northern Africa and Western Asia Latin America and the Caribbean Eastern and Southeastern Asia

6 Education in Uganda: Is it fit for purpose? The role of education in development is well recognized in Uganda* No doubt access to education has widened Though Uganda spends less on education it has the highest net enrolment in the region

7 - In 2014, Uganda allocated the least % of the total GDP to Education - Kenya (6.7%) - Tanzania (6.8) - Uganda (3.2) (The Guardian magazine, 2014) - But in the same year Uganda registered the highest net-enrolment in the region - Kenya (88.2 NER) - Tanzania (76.4 NER) - Uganda (97.0 NER) (The East African Community Secretariat, 2016)

8 More on Education access in Uganda 3-5 year olds attending pre-school 23.4% (UBoS 2011); 27% (Uwezo 2015) Though enrolments declined for primary and secondary education in the 2015/16 Financial year according to the MoES annual performance report, the recorded 93.7% net enrolment rate (NER) for primary is no mean achievement The 21.8% NER for secondary education is pretty worrying considering the 0.84% enrolment in BTVET, which implies that over 70% youths of secondary school going age are neither in secondary school nor BTVET

9 Is education access sufficient without quality? Are our students learning and enabled to put Uganda at a competitive edge?

10 The Learning (Quality) Crisis The biggest dilemma for Uganda is that of low learning outcomes Many students in school are learning little or not at all 10

11 Learning outcomes are low nationally Uwezo assessment

12 At the end of primary level 2016 PLE Results (UNEB 2016): % of the candidates got a Division 1, - A total of 81,210 students failed representing 13%.

13 How do we compare with other countries in the region on basic learning? Local Language reading levels Kenya Tanzania 94 Numeracy Levels Uganda Kenya Tanzania Uganda P3 P7 P3 30 P7 84

14 At Lower Secondary level a large number of students fail, especially in the core subjects

15 DIVISION Overall UCE Performance 2016 NO. OF CANDIDATES DIVISION 1 23, % DIVISION 2 44, % DIVISION 3 63, % DIVISION 4 142, % DIVISION 9 41, % Total number of students who sat 316,624 PERCENTAGE Source: UNEB Website:

16 Pathetic Performance in Science subjects Less than 2% of candidates who sat scored a D1 or D2 in chemistry, physics or biology: D Physics 0.4 Chemistry 1.3 Biology 0.1 CRE 10.3 IRE 18.4

17 Higher Education: Quality of graduates A 2014 survey conducted by the Inter-University Council for East Africa found that graduates lacked employability skills technical mastery and basic work-related capabilities (The East African, 12 June 2014): At least 63% of graduates in Uganda were unfit for jobs i.e. lacked job market skills, followed by Tanzania at 61%, Burundi at 55%, Rwanda at 52% and Kenya 51% of graduates were believed to be unfit for jobs. most graduates lacked self-confidence, could not express themselves properly and lacked the technical mastery required in the jobs they were seeking

18 Are we competitive at the workplace? A big percentage of those already employed lack the knowledge and technical skills Examples drawn from the Health and Education sectors (vicious cycle of low technical knowledge and skills the trainers and the trainees)

19 The 2013 World Bank Service Delivery Indicators Study in Health and Education noted: In health, Uganda performed better than Kenya on input indicators and adherence to guidelines. However, Kenyan health providers were 20 percent more likely to get the diagnosis right and were twice as likely to correctly manage maternal and neonatal complications. Doctors in Uganda performed at about the same level as Kenyan nurses on both diagnostic accuracy and the capability to provide full treatment. The share of teachers in public schools with minimum knowledge was twice as large in Kenya compared to Uganda. Kenyan teachers performed better in every component of the assessment: English, mathematics, and pedagogy. Only 1 in 5 primary 4 English and math teachers in Uganda had mastery of the curriculum being taught compared to about 3 in 5 teachers in Kenya who could do so.

20 Conclusion: Can our current Education produce citizens with the right skillsets and attitude to deliver on Vision 2040 fundamentals? Vision 2040: a Transformed Ugandan Society from a Peasant to a Modern and Prosperous Country within 30 years

21 The fundamentals for attaining Vision infrastructure for (energy, transport, water, oil and gas and ICT); 2. Science, Technology, Engineering and Innovation (STEI); 3. land; 4. urban development; 5. human resource; 6. peace, security and defence

22 Why doesn t education data receive the same outcry as other information. E.g. if 50% of babies delivered by midwives die at birth, would expectant mothers still go to them?

23 Potential 3 Areas for Action 1. The public and policy makers should get as interested in the quality of education as they are with other issues 2. Address the issue of teacher quality and motivation [at all levels] urgently 3. Reform the curriculum and assessment: Vision 2040 would require a full package: Graduates who have the knowledge and skills (+creativity, innovation and critical thinking) but also with the right attitudes, character and values (talk of corruption )

24 References Cremin, P., and Nakabugo, M.G Education, development and poverty reduction: A literature critique. International Journal of Educational Development, Vol 32, No. 4, pp EAC Secretariat (2016) East African Community Facts and Figures (2016) Report. Arusha: East African Community Secretariat MoES (2016). The Education and Sports Sector Annual Performance Report, Financial Year 2015/16. Kampala: Ministry of Education and Sports. The East African (12 June 2014): per-cent-of-ea-graduates-half-baked/ jw87c4/index.html Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) and ICF International Inc. (2012). Uganda Demographic and Health Survey Kampala and Calverton, Maryland: UBOS and ICF. UNESCO (2016) Global Education Monitoring Report: Education for People and Planet. Creating sustainable futures for all. Paris: UNESCO Uwezo (2016): Are Our Children Learning? Uwezo Uganda 6 th Learning Assessment Report. Kampala: Twaweza East Africa