Nine Million Ugandans Below 12 Years Are In Primary School-Education Report

The Ministry of Education and sports has revealed that 8.9m Million Ugandans below the age of 12 years are in primary schools.

 The report was released by Vincent Ssozi a commissioner in the Ministry of Education while representing the Permanent Secritary during celebrations to Mark Statistics Statistics day that was held at Statistics House in Kampala under the theme "Supporting the Education by modernising production of fit for purpose statistics". Mr Ssizi says primary section has a huge population numbers compared to other sections like Pri-primary, Secondary and post Secondary.

" Our education sector is improving and we have less primary drop outs compared to the past when most children would drop out of school at a primary levels," He sounds.

He further sates that pri- Primary numbers have also increased which is at 40.2 that is children below 5 years. 

The Education boss says that there is still a challenge of day students moving abit of long distance to reach their primary schools.

 "80% of children move over 3kms to access primary education which is still considered as a challenge to young children," he says however adding that government is soon putting schools closer to the population.

 He reveals that Education is the key in promoting sustainable development through enhancing capacity development of the population in various skills.

 "Education system aims at training children and adults in a range of skills from basic education to professional development," he stresses.

He added that Data is the key building and pivotal input that shapes the formulation and implementation of effective policy. 

He however says that they still face some challenges that include Primary focus on formal education yet non formal education contributes to learning out comes like home education and adult education. "Existence of several systems that are not inter-linked is still a serious challenge," he says.

He added that low quality administrative data like poor record keeping, poor turn around is still hindering them. He says they still face a challenge of limited resources, financial, human and infrastructure.

"Limited standardisation and harmonisation of statistics compile such as measurement of school drop out rate is still a major challenge," he says adding that limited cooperation from date providers especially for establishment basis surveys is affecting them.

The celebrations to mark the Statistics day was also attended by several people who included UBOS boss Dr Chris Mukiza, UBOS Board Chairman Dr Albert Byamugisha, Professors from over 8 Universities, Ministry of Finance, Education, KCCA among others.