The ministry of Education, that is headed by the first lady, Janet Museveni has said that it will not listen to those sending wrong guidance and suggesting that UPE should be scrapped off.
According to the ministry’s basic education commissioner, Lusambu Mukasa she says that those focusing on the negative side are underrating our achievements from the UPE programn.
“The program has a number of advantages and has also made a lot mistakes which can be corrected. Let us not use the few disadvantages to remove something that benefits the community,” she said.
Mukasa adds that -the program is faced by mainly two types of people who take their children to UPE schools as a government policy and those who are keen to see their children get quality education.
He is now calling for collective efforts to ensure the UPE is more affordable for everyone.
Mukasa says the ministry is now fighting all vices making the education expensive among them graduation fees demanded by nursery schools.
The Uwezo Uganda Country Coordinator, Mary Goretti Nakabugo has also advised political leaders to stop politicizing education if the country is to achieve the quality learning system that it has worked for since independence.
UPE stands for Universal Primary Education. It was launched in 1997 and fully funded by donors.
The Universal bit of it was that all students would get elementary education without paying for it.
We also have USE which was introduced later and funded by donors. Universal Secondary school Education. However, USE is not yet on the chopping block.
