KAMPALA – First Lady and Education Minister, Janet Museveni has on Monday, May 13, confirmed that implementation of reforms in Lower Secondary Curriculum and introduction of Continuous Assessment.
Speaking at Manifesto week at Office of the President in Kampala, the Education Minister noted that subjects have been reduced from 44 subjects to 20 making it easy for students.
“The subject menu has been reduced from 44 subjects to 20; content made lighter and obsolete content removed,” said Mrs. Museveni.
The minister added that the reforms will motivate students to pursue science courses for related careers.
“It integrates approaches that will increase learners’ motivation to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). It introduces project-based and problem-based learning so that learners become oriented towards a culture of problem-solving and reasoning,” the First Lady added.
Mrs. Museveni said that UGX29Billion has been provided in FY2019/20 to fund the roll-out activities for the first year.
“The review of the Lower Secondary Curriculum is complete and UGX29Billion has been provided in FY2019/20 to fund the roll-out activities for the first year,” said Mrs. Museveni.
The Curriculum seeks to promote entrepreneurship so that our young people can become engaged in production and not just job-seeking. It is founded on competency-based learning to prepare the learner for the 21 st Century world-of-work.
She added that for higher education government has supported the training of courses whose graduates are currently needed by the local job market.
“Through the Higher Education Student Financing Board, 8,190 students have benefited from the loan scheme in the last 5 years to pursue 130 degree programmes and 76 undergraduate diploma courses mainly in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programmes with the exception of learners with Special Needs who are allowed to access the loans to pursue programs in Business and Humanities,” said the Minister.
Remarking on Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE), the Education Minister echoed the government’s directive of not imposing extra charges in UPE and U.S.E. Schools.
“As a Ministry, we would like to reiterate the government’s position previously communicated to all Schools and Local Governments directing them not to impose extra charges on pupils/students,” she said.
She urged the respective Departments of the Ministry and the Directorate of Education Standards to continue making regular follow-ups to ensure compliance by School managers.
“In addition, U.S.E. Schools are required to submit their budgets to the Commissioner Secondary Schools for scrutiny and approval,” she said.
It should be highlighted that, in nominal terms, financing of the Education and Sports Sector increased by UGX504.65 Billion in FY2017/18 compared with 2016/17. Furthermore, the NRM Government has projected to increase financing of the Sector in FY2019/20 by UGX1.135 Trillion to UGX3.286 Trillion compared with the Sector allocation of UGX2.15 Trillion in 2016/17.
