By Our Reporters
On 17th August 2018, the World Bank Kampala officials converged at the Ministry of Finance Boardroom. They were here for the WB Portfolio Review Meeting during which it was announced three WB-funded projects being implemented in Janet Museveni’s education ministry were the best for the year. The Portfolio Review Meeting is held annually and reflects on all the different GoU sectors that have interventions implemented with funding from WB. The World Bank funds projects in sectors like health, roads, agriculture and accountability sector among others. The WB team announcement that Uganda Teacher & School Effectiveness Project (UTSEP), Uganda Skills Development Project (USDP) & Albertine Region Sustainable Development Project (ARSDP) had emerged among the most satisfactorily-implemented projects was remarkable given that only a few years earlier, WB officials had become furious and temporarily halted funding the education sector because of the inept leadership there. This was late 2016 when Minister Janet had just taken charge at Embassy House. Before Janet came, the two projects (USDP & ARSDP) were rated category three (3) implying poor unsatisfactory implementation. Enthused by the latest ranking by WB, testifying to improvements at the education ministry, Muhakanizi told the August meeting (in the presence of World Bank Uganda Country Manager Christina Malmberg) that he was finally going to find the money for the recruitment of more College Instructors to support effective training & learning in the Colleges that have since been designated as centers of excellence. This recruitment had stalled because the ministry of education lacked funding for the wage bill. Muhakanizi’s offer excited USDP Deputy Project Coordinator Hajji Abdul Nsubuga who described this intervention as timely and one that will strengthen training and learning at the Colleges and turn them into Centers of Excellence they are destined to be. To consolidate the gains made so far on the two projects, a decision has since been taken that performance review meetings will now be held as often as weekly. Hajji Nsubuga says this will enable the fast-tracking of project implementation and pave way for better ranking at the next WB portfolio review.
UTSEP SHINES;
Besides USDP & ARSDP, there is yet another WB-funded project called Uganda Teacher & School Effectiveness Project (UTSEP). At the same Finance Ministry meeting, UTSEP was ranked the very best performing GoU project under the WB Country Portfolio for Uganda. Thanking the team from the MOES, Muhakanizi who was chairing the meeting said he couldn’t believe that the UTSEP $100m (Shs370bn) grant, which the disappointed WB bosses were on the verge of cancelling for inept implementation, had rapidly been turned round in such a short time. Thanking Global Partnership for Education (GPE) for the funding, Muhakanizi urged accounting officers from other MDAs where WB supports projects to emulate the team at education (UTSEP). Whereas the funding is from GPE, the implementing agency is World Bank which works through the project team at the MOES to ensure full implementation. The WB has since upgraded the GPE Uganda intervention to become their flagship program for Africa on which other countries will be benchmarking to implement WB-funded projects in education sector. UTSEP broad objective was to improve teacher and school effectiveness to strengthen training and learning processes in public schools. Through re-training and capacity building programs, UTSEP seeks to improve the quality of teachers in public schools. The program also seeks to ensure the teacher is present at school and teach properly to achieve many learning outcomes including Early Grade Reading (EGR). The EGR intervention has improved the speed and eloquence with which pre-P4 learners can read. That is to say currently (3 years into implementation which began March 2015), the number of pre-P4 pupils that can read 21 words per minute has increased to 8%; up from the 1% at inception. The target is 20% by June 2019, an ideal Project Technical Advisor Ambrose Ruyonka says will be accomplished in the designated time. Other targets include delivering 8.1m textbooks in the project beneficiary schools in selected districts; enhance reading capabilities of at least 1m pupils; train over 20,800 primary school teachers under the EGR intervention and train 8,000 primary schools management committee members and head teachers in best school management and accountability practices. As of February 2018, pupil access to textbooks had improved to 10 pupils sharing a textbook in the targeted remote districts as opposed to 14 pupils in 2014. The number of primary schools without permanent classrooms too has been diminished from 962 to 908 between 2015 and February 2018. Training of head teachers is meant to improve on the way schools are managed and enforcement of accountability.
THE INFRASTRUCTURE;
Under UTSEP, learning conditions have also been addressed in order to reduce dropout rates while boosting completion rates. To improve learning conditions, facilities like new class rooms, administrative offices, staff houses, water and sanitation facilities have been constructed at the 138 beneficiary primary schools. Originally over 220 schools were to benefit but WB furiously cut them to 138 protesting the ineptness of the MOES leadership before Janet took charge. For every output reported to have been delivered by the MOES/GPE project teams, there is a WB-hired Independent Verification Firm (IRF) to certify if what has been delivered is satisfactory. UTSEP, which WB considers the best implemented project for 2018 from the many GoU interventions that they support, also has a component on schools inspection (making it digitalized & IT-enabled) and utilization of monies sent to schools under School Facilities Grant (SFG).
LEARNING ENVIRONMENT;
This is being improved under the UTSEP intervention through construction of infrastructure including the 54 schools in 6 beneficiary districts. This 54 newly constructed schools package has delivered a total 356 new classrooms and 53 administration blocks. Yet that isn’t all. 108 five-stance VIP Latrines have in total been delivered for the pupils as well as 63 two-stance VIP Latrines for teachers. The package also came with 9 teacher houses as well as 63 water harvesting tanks. Whereas the 54 schools were all commissioned last year, Education Ministry PS Alex Kakooza recently told this news website that the remaining 84, whose construction has finally been completed, will also be commissioned between now and end of the year. MOES officials confirm that 30 schools (existed but had no infrastructure) will be commissioned next month (October) and the remaining 54 will be commissioned in November, according to WB/MOES Communication specialist Judith Grace Auma. Ambrose Ruyonka says the UTSEP package covering the 84 schools comprises of 528 new classrooms, 84 administration blocks, 168 five-stance VIP Latrines for pupils and 69 two-stance VIP Latrines for teachers. Each of the 84 primary schools has also been supported with one water harvesting tank (bringing the total to 84). Ruyonka explains that priority went to those primary schools in rural remote districts that didn’t have any permanent class room structure. NB: all the 138 schools existed but had no basic infrastructure like classrooms hence the essentiality of the UTSEP intervention. Officials say absence of infrastructure has been one of the causes for low retention and completion rates because pupils studying under trees or very dilapidated structures lose the incentive to stay in school.
MOES GETS NEW $100M
(370BN) WB PROJECT;
The NTV recently reported that the satisfactory way the Janet teams have turned round the UTSEP project (that was on the verge of being cancelled) has since prompted WB to offer another $100m to support another 5 year project. Things had become so bad, reported NTV, that the WB was considering halting all funding to education as a sector. The new funding will bring to 6 the MOES projects being supported by WB. The latest funding still is coming from GPE with WB being the implementing agent (through the MOES teams). The new project, whose funding has already been approved, will fund interventions aimed at strengthening the transfer and management of education-related grants from the center to the schools upcountry through district local governments. Examples include capitalization, development and inspection grants. Besides not being properly accounted for and managed by the local governments, the funds allocated and sent under these grants have perennially been inadequate. Focus will be on strengthening inspection of education activities by the DEOs in secondary schools unlike UTSEP which put emphasis mostly on primary schools. The schools and districts to benefit will be selected basing on the number of learners they have, size of the district and the number of school-going children that are out of school. The PS Alex Kakooza explained in the NTV interview that this latest support by the WB will result into more adequate amounts of money being sent to schools (to cater for inspection, capitation and development grants) than has been the case. After the 5 years of the project, the WB will gradually pull out and the assumption is by that time the GoU will have built capacity to increase the amounts it allocates to LGs under these grants. This WB support will also have infrastructure construction component whereby new secondary schools will be built in sub counties where none currently exists. It’s also presumed that by the time the project comes to an end, the local governments (LGs) and leadership of the schools will have enhanced their management and accountability capabilities. For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
