CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Peter Bahemuka, Uganda, January 1999
THEME = SOCIAL ACTION
In the 1996-97 Budget, the Uganda government announced it had
identified the roads
and primary education sectors as two of the three areas for expenditure priorities.
The other was the war-ravaged northern Ugandan region
At that time, the government said it had noted that the population in some areas of Uganda had failed to benefit from economic growth, because of inadequate access to markets, and therefore the road sector, both trunk and feeder, would be given priority.
Because feeder roads form the crucial link between rural producers and the markets for continued economic growth, the government increased expenditure on their rehabilitation and maintenance, to about US $16 million. The Finance Ministry also provided a further US $2 million to equip each of Uganda's 39 districts with its own feeder roads unit. (There are now 45 such districts).
In 1995-96, the Uganda government finalised its Ten-Year Road Sector Development programme, which envisaged road sector investments exceeding US $1 billion over the next decade. In September 1996, this project was presented to donors for financing. The programme gave priority to upgrading all the major gravel roads to tarmac standard. The government also said it was continuing to give high priority to the maintenance of the country's trunk road network with expenditure on road maintenance rising from US $16 million in the 1995-96 financial year, to US $21.5 million in the 1996-97 financial year.
In October 1998, the Minister of Works, Housing and Communications, John Nasasira, said that the government has budgeted over US $23 million to rehabilitate trunk roads that had been damaged by the El Niņo weather phenomenon late 1997 and early 1998. Nasasira announced this while closing a two-day Workshop for district and urban roads strategy at the International Conference Centre. He said the programme will begin in January 1999.
Four tarmac roads and one gravel road in Kampala will be repaired. 22 gravel roads in the districts of Mpigi, Luweero, Masaka and Mubende will be repaired; 21 roads in Soroti, Mbale, Tororo, Jinja and Moroto; 23 roads in Gulu, Arua, Moyo, Lira and Kitgun districts; 29 roads in Mbara, Kabale, Kasese, Fort Portal, Hoima and Masindi Stations will be repaired as well. Other roads in various sections of the country are also scheduled for repair.
The Government of Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency has given Uganda a US $7.8 million grant for improving Kampala's trunk roads. This follows a feasibility study conducted by the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication and the Japanese Embassy. The exchange of notes for the grant were signed on 24 November 1998. This project includes improving junction lay- outs, installation of traffic signs and pedestrian crossings, as well as sidewalks, and drainage improvements.
The principal engineer in the Ministry of Works, Housing and Communications, William Musumba, has advised the Ugandan government to hire out or sell off idle road construction equipment to local construction companies, since it is targeting to use private contractors to repair about 80% of the roads in the current phases of road reconstruction in the country. Musumba said that the ministry wants to promote the awarding of road rehabilitation and maintenance tenders to local contractors, but they must have basic road equipment. There are about 100 private contractors who may bid for the award of such tenders.
Another area for priority-spending identified by the government two years ago, was primary education. According to the government, research in Uganda had confirmed that where people have had access to at least the first four years of primary education, income from agriculture improves and poverty is reduced.
At that time, the government said it was imperative that it must intervene to encourage education, especially for girls and the children of the poorest. During the April 1996 presidential campaigns, President Museveni promised Ugandans that if elected President in May 1996, he would abolish the PTA and Building Fund contributions, which for a long time had been a pain in the neck for parents. He also promised to increase teachers' pay and that the government would pay school fees for four children per family in Uganda. So, what's happened?
Since July 1996, a new government portfolio, that of Minister of State for Education in charge of Primary Education, was created. The Finance Minister then announced that in order to reduce education costs and to enable more children to have access to schools, a substantial increase in resources for primary education had been provided. The government also removed the need for parental contributions to the Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) by increasing the minimum wage for primary teachers to a paltry US $72 per month.
Following a survey of requirements for new classes and preparation of a construction programme, the Building Fund, to which parents used to contribute annually, was abolished beginning in January 1997. The government then decided to expand its programme of classroom construction under the School Development Programme.
Beginning in January 1997, the government started paying school fees for at least four children per family under the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme, which has increased primary school enrolment nationwide.
The Minister of Education and Sports, Professor Apollo Nsibambi, has said since the government launched the UPE programme, the two basic problems of gender and disability have been addressed. He said his ministry is committed to seeing that at least two out of four children recommended for the UPE programme must be girls.
Since the implementation of the UPE programme, there has been a higher school enrolment which has worsened the problem of teacher- pupil ratio and caused overcrowding in the classrooms. The Ministry of Education has now introduced a "double shift" system meant to strengthen the UPE programme by reducing the teacher-pupil ratio, under which pupils will be taught effectively next year. The Ministry believes this scheme will inevitably reduce the teacher-pupil ratio to one teacher per 100-110 pupil contact, and improve the use of time and space. Teachers will, however, teach the same number of pupils but in two sets of the same class, at different times on the same day and using the same facilities. The government has promised to give them incentives for the additional hours spent teaching. Three hundred urban and semi-urban primary schools will be used as pilot institutions for the new scheme, before it is applied to rural schools.
Poor pay for teachers aside, there is the problem of lack of trained teachers to measure up to the current teacher requirements under the UPE programme. Also, there is the problem of "ghost" or non-existent teachers on the payroll. Eliminating these ghost teachers from the payroll has not been easy, since unscrupulous people both at the district education offices and the Ministry of Education headquarters in Kampala are involved in "creating" ghost teachers.
Uganda is receiving a great deal of support for its various programmes. That's not the problem. The real problem lies in the fact that the government has not adequately answered the call for prudent and accounting expenditure in its programmes. The government should not only be concerned with the allocation of resources, but also the efficiency of their use and the quality of services it provides.
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