Africa-Press – Uganda. EDUCATION
Government has resolved to give 1,860 private schools a share of the 3.4 million books which are supposed to be sent to all secondary schools next year; aimed at promoting the new O’level curriculum.
The new curriculum is being rolled out in all O’level schools, starting with this academic year. Of the 3.5 million textbooks books to be printed, the private schools will take a lion’s share, because they do outnumber Government schools in the country. Of the total 3,126 schools to benefit from this arrangement, there are only 1,266 public schools and the rest are privately owned schools. The state minister for higher education, Dr John Muyingo, explained that this move is being taken, “To ensure that all children get to benefit from the new curriculum.” “We know that some private schools will not be able to access these books if we leave to the schools to purchase them,” he explained. He made the remarks on the sidelines, during the 27th education sector review virtual workshop which took place in Kampala. He also noted that schools, end up troubling parents, to buy these textbooks.
“I know of private schools which buy books and they end becoming the property of the school. They ask parents to bring textbooks, which is unfortunate. Schools should be stocked with all these scholastic materials before they begin admitting students.” “But to avoid all these situations, we have resolved to use the opportunity of the new curriculum, to ensure that every child in this country, has access to textbooks from the Government of Uganda,” he explained. Muyingo explained that much as we have private schools in the country, “There are no private students. All the students in the country, are under the protection and care of the Government. So, it is only right and fair that they take a share through getting the required scholastic materials.” “These books,” he added, “Will be labeled as Government of Uganda Books and should not in any way end in the Bookshops. Our inspectors will be tasked to always check if these books are still in those school libraries and are being used,” Muyingo explained. The education ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Alex Kakooza explained that the books will cover the Seven Core subjects.These will include the eight core subjects; Mathematics, English Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History/Political Education, and Geography.He also explained textbooks will also be printed for non-core subjects like Kiswahili, Christian Religious education, Islamic Religious Education, local languages, Agriculture, Food and Nutrition, Perfuming Arts, Art and Design, and Foreign Languages.
“All these books’ content; which is set for printing, was prepared by the National Curriculum Development Centre,” confirms the Centre’s Director, Grace Baguma. Baguma says that textbooks help pupils understand the totality of and progression in each area of their education, namely what they have done and what they will do. “The content we have already uploaded for students to revise, in Senior One, is based on these books. We hope when we sent the homeschooling materials, they will also be set from these books’ content,” she explained. What others saySchool headteachers and parents have welcomed the move from Government, to print books for all schools including privately owned ones. Most parents, with students in private schools, say that the cost of education has partly been high, as they argued in the Voters Manifesto, which New Vision did this year, “Arising from costs like textbooks and other scholastic materials.” Parents would buy textbooks in some schools, and many more others would pay cash to schools to purchase textbooks for schools. Josephine Namulindwa, a mother of four sons in different secondary schools in Kampala city says, “Schools have been troubling me with buying books. By the way, even some of the Government schools would ask us to buy textbooks. I hope this will end with the Government sending them books.” The proprietor of Naalya SS schools says, “This is a good gesture from Government. This will help all schools, including those which could not easily purchase textbooks, be on the same grounding in the country.” What is the new curriculum? A student is expected to study a maximum of 12 subjects at both Senior One and Two of which, 11 are compulsory.In Senior Three and Four, a student is expected to study a minimum of eight and a maximum of nine subjects with only seven compulsory ones.With the old setting, the student would take a maximum of 10 subjects.Under the new curriculum, classroom teaching time has been reduced to five hours a day. Lessons start at 8:30 am and end at 2:50 pm, including lunch breaks.The remaining time will be used by students for hands-on projects, research, project work, clubs, games, and sports and have time for revision lasting one hour and 40 minutes.The school day will end at 4:30 pm.On assessment, all classroom works, games, and sports will account for 20% of the marks at the end of the O’level cycle.The Uganda Certificate of Education will account for 80% of marks a student gets at O’level.
