By Mulengera Reporters
School Managers have been urged to incorporate entrepreneurship as an innovative solution aimed at addressing the existing problems in Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools.
Studies indicate that in most UPE Schools in Uganda, learners still lack parental support, mid-day meals, scholastic materials, clean water, and are often unattended to by teachers, which undermines children’s desire to learn or stay in school because hunger impairs their ability to concentrate and learn effectively.
Constrained by resources, UPE schools are unable to offer decent feeding, sanitary facilities and clean water. The situation is perpetuated by the inability of the School management to optimize potential benefits of UPE schools such as the available land, space, human resources, public goodwill to experiment with innovative solutions to address existing problems.
“If UPE schools incorporate entrepreneurship, it can make a very big difference,” said Prof. Christopher Mugimu based at the College of Education and External Studies at Makerere University. Prof. Mugimu is the Project Principal Investigator, Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative for UPE schools.
The Project Principal Investigator, Prof. Christopher Mugimu. Research Dissemination of Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative for UPE schools to reboot, retool and re-orient school management by College of Education and External Studies (CEES)’ Prof. Christopher Mugimu, Dr. Badru Musisi, Dr. Victoria Tamale, Dr. Justine Namaganda and Dr. Joyce Bukirwa from Muni University, 20th March 2025, Funded by the Government of Uganda through Makerere University Research and Innovations Fund (Mak-RIF), Kampala, East Africa.
The Project Principal Investigator, Prof. Christopher Mugimu.
This proposal is informed by a one-year study conducted by the project research team consisting of staff from the College of Education and External Studies namely Prof. Christopher Mugimu, Dr. Badru Musisi, Dr. Victoria Tamale, Dr. Justine Namaganda and Dr. Joyce Bukirwa from Muni University
As an intervention, the project research team proposes an Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative for UPE schools to reboot, retool and re-orient school management. “This is a timely, strategic and innovative empowerment initiative purposively designed to transform UPE Schools managers’ mindset from a traditional managerial role to an enterprising leadership role,” said Prof. Mugimu.
The project aims at promoting entrepreneurial leadership in UPE schools by training and equipping school leaders and teachers with entrepreneurial skills.
He said: “With this project, we are confident that UPE schools can overcome the challenges that have held them back for so long and unlock a brighter future for their learners.”
Part of the audience at the research dissemination. Research Dissemination of Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative for UPE schools to reboot, retool and re-orient school management by College of Education and External Studies (CEES)’ Prof. Christopher Mugimu, Dr. Badru Musisi, Dr. Victoria Tamale, Dr. Justine Namaganda and Dr. Joyce Bukirwa from Muni University, 20th March 2025, Funded by the Government of Uganda through Makerere University Research and Innovations Fund (Mak-RIF), Kampala, East Africa.
Part of the audience at the research dissemination.
Funded by the Government of Uganda through Makerere University Research and Innovation Fund (MakRIF), the project seeks to address the perennial challenges of low learning outcomes in UPE schools.
During the dissemination workshop held on 20th March 2025 at the College of Education and External Studies, Prof. Mugimu informed the different stakeholders that in most UPE schools, the leaders are not free to take on new ideas.
Presenting the results of the baseline survey, Prof. Mugimu underscored that the findings proved very low entrepreneurial orientation levels with less than 20% of UPE school leadership in terms of autonomy, pro-activeness, innovativeness, competitiveness and risk-taking.
Prof. Mugimu emphasized that the Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative framework is ideal for UPE school leadership to identify and utilize opportunities to start-up and scale-up UPE School learning environment improvement initiatives.
On the issue of utilization of resources in UPE schools, the survey indicated that most UPE schools possess resources, most of which are unrecognized, unutilized and underutilized.
Participants pose for a group photo at CEES. Research Dissemination of Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative for UPE schools to reboot, retool and re-orient school management by College of Education and External Studies (CEES)’ Prof. Christopher Mugimu, Dr. Badru Musisi, Dr. Victoria Tamale, Dr. Justine Namaganda and Dr. Joyce Bukirwa from Muni University, 20th March 2025, Funded by the Government of Uganda through Makerere University Research and Innovations Fund (Mak-RIF), Kampala, East Africa.
Participants pose for a group photo at CEES.
“If the School managers implement the entrepreneurial leadership initiative, these resources could be leveraged to improve the quality of education and transform the lives of learners,” he said.
Prof. Mugimu stated that some UPE schools have 10 acres of land, which could be a valuable resource to undertake school gardening to produce food stuff for school meals or bee-keeping for production of honey. He suggested that Schools could utilize biogas material from waste to support cooking and lighting, talent clubs should be ‘re-awakened’ to train and empower learners gifted in Music, Dance and Drama to come up with performances that generate income. The schools should rejuvenate art and crafts so that materials produced by the learners are sold to generate income.
According to Prof. Kagimu, entrepreneurial leadership builds and promotes an entrepreneurial mindset and culture bringing on board both the teachers and learners. He explained that if the school leadership creates an entrepreneurial culture in UPE schools, this would not only involve the teachers and learners in the activities, but also contribute to the ultimate goal of empowering learners with skills and knowledge as well as making learning attractive and interesting.
The Acting Principal of the College of Education and External Studies, Prof. Ronald Bisaso commended the project team for coming up with an intervention aimed at integrating entrepreneurship in UPE schools. He added that the Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative in UPE schools would add value to learners in line with the new competence-based education curriculum.
Prof. Ronald Bisaso commended the research team. Research Dissemination of Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative for UPE schools to reboot, retool and re-orient school management by College of Education and External Studies (CEES)’ Prof. Christopher Mugimu, Dr. Badru Musisi, Dr. Victoria Tamale, Dr. Justine Namaganda and Dr. Joyce Bukirwa from Muni University, 20th March 2025, Funded by the Government of Uganda through Makerere University Research and Innovations Fund (Mak-RIF), Kampala, East Africa.
Prof. Ronald Bisaso commended the research team.
“This intervention (the Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative) is timely. Its implementation will contribute to the transformation of the education sector. It adds value to schools and significantly benefits the learners who are our focus. Teachers with an entrepreneurial mindset will train and equip learners with entrepreneurial skills,” said Prof. Bisaso, who is the substantive Deputy Principal.
He shared that the initiative will have a ripple effect on the entire education system, with benefits extending beyond the schools to the boarder community.
“By promoting entrepreneurial thinking and self-reliance amongst UPE teachers, we hope to create a new generation of educators and learners who are equipped to drive innovation and progress in the entire education sector,” he remarked.
Dr. Kulthum Nabunya, Officer Education Services at Kampala City Authority (KCCA) highlighted that the implementation of the Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative at the respective UPE schools would follow a committee approach to ensure continuity and sustainability.
Dr. Nabunya also acknowledged the project research team for the timely intervention. “With the ongoing implementation of the Competence-based education curriculum, schools have no option, but to embrace the innovative approaches such as the Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative,” she said.
KCCA’s Dr. Kulthum Nabunya. Research Dissemination of Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative for UPE schools to reboot, retool and re-orient school management by College of Education and External Studies (CEES)’ Prof. Christopher Mugimu, Dr. Badru Musisi, Dr. Victoria Tamale, Dr. Justine Namaganda and Dr. Joyce Bukirwa from Muni University, 20th March 2025, Funded by the Government of Uganda through Makerere University Research and Innovations Fund (Mak-RIF), Kampala, East Africa.
KCCA’s Dr. Kulthum Nabunya.
She was optimistic that if the Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative is effectively implemented, UPE learners would be in position to adapt to the secondary competence-based curriculum.
Contributing to the discussion, Dr. Nicholas Itaaga, an Associate Professor at the College of Education and External Studies said the implementation of the entrepreneurial leadership initiative would significantly benefit staff in UPE schools through skills acquisition, empowerment and involvement in school activities.
Wrapping up, the stakeholders who participated in the dissemination workshop stressed the need for mindset change programs in UPE schools, incorporating entrepreneurship into the curriculum, and undertaking community-school working strategies that bring on board politicians and community leaders.
Project Summary:
UPE was introduced in 1997 to cater for poor households in Uganda. Hence, UPE schools’ management was mandated to create inclusive and enabling learning environment for upward social mobility of deprived children. However, 23 years later, UPE schools are typified by a tangible state of teacher, parental and community detachment; which leads to learner letdown. As an intervention, we propose an Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative for UPE schools to reboot, retool and re-orient school management from mechanically implementing prescribed solutions; to encounter school management challenges and dilemmas in a sustainably creative, innovative and adaptive ways. The Initiative is consistent with the Ministry of Education and Sports’ mission to deliver quality education to all Ugandans and to SDG 4 Target 1, seeking all children to complete free, equitable and quality basic education by 2030-Mak News. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
