Universal primary education under decentralization: An asset or liability to quality education in rural Uganda?

Since the early 1960s, the structure of Uganda‟s current education system has been in force consisting of seven years of primary education, four years of lower secondary cycle, two years of upper secondary cycle and three to five years of university studies. In January 1997, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) introduced Universal Primary Education (UPE) with a main goal of providing the minimum necessary facilities and resources to enable Ugandan children of school-going age to join, remain in school and successfully complete the primary cycle of education. This led to an increase in the provision of free primary education for four children in every family, and later to all children of school going age. School enrolment increased from 2 million pupils in 1986, over 6.8 million pupils by 2000 (MoES 2001: 6-11), and 8.3 million in 2012 according to Ministry of Education and Sports factsheet (2000-2012), with the majority of children being enrolled in rural Uganda. At the same time, the government decentralized UPE by devolving powers from central government to district councils and to lower local councils with the main aim of involving local communities in implementing UPE, democratization, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness in accordance with quality education. Sector Budgetary constraints between what is planned and provided is a common occurrence in primary education in Uganda today, hence leading to a cutback in the way education services are provided coupled with Insufficient teaching and learning materials that affect quality and equitable education (MoES 2012: 69). The rampant power struggles under decentralization has made many primary schools lag behind with a lot of time spent between the drawing of budgets, their approval and provision of funds, let alone some budgets being reduced at district level based on political interests. The quality of primary education provided therefore illuminates a divide between urban and rural schools. The standard of education is questionable especially in rural primary schools of Uganda under a decentralized UPE system, with a concern of whether it offers useful Education for disadvantaged groups especially in rural areas, let alone its impact towards provision of quality education (MoES 2001: 11). As such, my paper presents how a decentralized UPE system has impacted on quality education in rural Uganda today with the realities versus fallacies of a decentralised UPE system.