The Education Development Partners have stressed the need for Government of Uganda to increase the percentage of its national budget allocation to the Education sector since it is a prerequisite for the sector to access more funding from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). They say that the decision whether there will be GPE funding for Uganda in the future will strongly hinge on the level of funding that the Government is putting into the education sector budget.

This was during a high-level meeting between the Education Development Partners and senior officials from the Ministry of Education to dialogue on the status of learning outcomes in the country, the next round of the GPE funding and progress of the Education Sector Strategic Plan formulation. The meeting held at State House Nakasero on Wednesday, was chaired by the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports Mrs. Janet Museveni and was also attended by the State Minister for Sports Charles Bakkabulindi, the outgoing American Ambassador to Uganda Deborah Malac, the United Kingdom High Commissioner to Uganda Peter West, DFID’s Education Advisor Isla Gilmore, USAID’s Education, Youth and Child Development Director Kay Leherr and her Deputy Melissa Chipilli.

Mrs. Museveni acknowledged that though the funding for the education sector in the national budget has not risen to the desired level, it is important to understand that in reality whenever the budget increases nationally, even the education sector budget increases. “Though when we talk of percentages we are not yet nominally where GPE requires us to be, I feel that the Education sector has been improving and not been stuck to the same budget it had in 2015 because its budgetary allocation has been increasing annually and we will continue to push until we are there in nominal terms. I want to believe that our partners at GPE will understand”, she said.

She lauded the Early Grade Reading programme saying it has made great impact and the learning outcomes in the Districts where it is being implemented have improved because the children easily understand when taught in the local languages. She said Government wants to expand this programme to cover schools countrywide and the National Curriculum Development Centre is now in the process of translating and publishing reading materials in more dialects. About the Education Sector Strategic Plan formulation, Mrs. Museveni said that a lot of progress has been made and the process is steadily moving on to ensure an evidence-based plan.

Ambassador Deborah Malac said that the Education Development Partners are very much supportive to see Uganda continue accessing the GPE funding and therefore emphasized the need for Government to demonstrate the actual budget increase to the Education sector. She also noted that more work needs to be done to improve on the indicators of learning outcomes in the country. She pointed out that the Education Sector Strategic Plan is really critical for informing the innovations that development partners might be funding or assisting Government to implement. United Kingdom’s High Commissioner Peter West echoed the core issue of the funding to the Education Sector saying that the analysis that was collectively undertaken shows a deficit and the need for funding levels to be increased. He also noted that the latest learning assessment report shows there has been a drop and there is need for improvement.

DFID’s Education Advisor Isla Gilmore updated the meeting on the progress of the Strengthening of Education Systems for Improved Learning (SESIL) programme which is funded by UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) under the Ministry of Education and Sports. SESIL is aimed at improving the equity and quality of measurable learning outcomes for girls and boys in Uganda at lower primary school level. Currently it is running in 27 Districts in Uganda. Kay Leherr, USAID’s Education, Youth and Child Development Director, pointed out the need to carry out research to get the actual data reflecting the improvement on the learning outcomes after the early grade reading interventions in Uganda by the USAID supported Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity (LARA) and Global Partnership for Education Uganda Teacher and School Effectiveness Program (UTSEP).