ACCELERATING CHILD SURVIVAL AND DEVELOPMENT 2009
Uganda’s Battle Against the Top Childhood Threats
PRIMARY EDUCATION
THE KEY TO A SUSTAINABLE
REDUCTION IN CHILD MORTALITY
SITUATION SUMMARY
Education is the key component of poverty eradication
and development. Primary schools not only provide
stability, normalcy and empowerment, but they are
also the best place for reaching future mothers and
fathers with essential services and life-skills training.
The 2006 UDHS found that women with education are
more likely to utilise health facilities for delivery; fully
immunize their infants and have well-nourished chil-
dren. In fact, the infant morality rate for children whose
mothers had primary education is 20% less than that of
infants whose mothers had no education (see chart
below) Meeting MDG2 for Universal Primary Educa-
tion, therefore, is key to the survival and healthy devel-
opment of the next generation.
Despite this, approximately 20% of the population 15
years and above in Uganda have had no formal
schooling. Since the introduction of Universal Primary
Education, enrolment has increased, but 15-20% of
primary school-aged children are not currently enrolled
in school and approximately 7% of 6-12 year olds have
never attended school at all. Furthermore, of those that
do attend, only 40% actually complete their studies.
The majority of children missing out on school are in
the Karamoja sub-region. While attendance at primary
school is approximately 83% in the rest of Uganda,
only 43% of school-aged children in this semi-arid re-
gion attend class and only 11% register for final Pri-
mary Leaving Exams. However, access to education
facilities and relevance of the curriculum for communi-
ties living in remote and semi-nomadic pastoralist com-
munities is currently limited.
At the national level, the most common reason why
children drop out of primary school is cost. Although
UPE should be free, there are hidden costs which can
be prohibitive for families. A significant portion may
also drop out due to the risk of various forms of abuse
prevalent in the school system. Raising Voices and
Save the Children in Uganda conducted a study in
UDHS 2006: Influence of a Mother's Education
Attainm ent on Early Childhood Mortality
Neonatal MR Infant MR U5 MR
deaths per 1,000 live births
180
150
120
90
60
30
0
No education Primary Secondary
© UNICEF Uganda/Roger Le Moyne
Meeting MDG2 for Universal Primary Education is key to the
survival and healthy development of the next generation
2005 which indicated that more than 98% of children
reported experiencing physical or emotional violence
and 75.8 reported experiencing sexual violence. In this
latter category, “forced sex”, “touching” and “exposure”
were more prevalent in school than outside school.
Also potentially explaining absenteeism is that only 1 in
5 primary schools sampled by the Ministry of Education
in 2005 provided at least 5 liters of safe water per day,
per pupil, while the pupil per stance ratio of 61:1 is still
above the standard 40:1. Gender segregated toilets are
provided in only 72% of schools and only 39% had
hand-washing facilities. Lack of privacy (16%) and un-
sanitary toilets (51%) were the main reasons cited by
girls for missing school during menstruation.
THE RIGHT OF ALL CHILDREN TO EDUCATION
INDICATIVE BUDGET FOR 2009
UNICEF works at the national level and in 23 focus
districts to ensure all children progressively realize their
right to primary education. In 2009, UNICEF will:
• Advocate for allocation of adequate resources for
expansion of facilities to absorb all 6 yr olds in P1
and sustain the Go-to-School, Back-to-School, Stay-
in- School Campaign to boost enrollment;
• Support the development of appropriate approaches
to education for pastoralist children, expanding the
scale and relevance of the system in Karamoja;
• Improve completion rates by ensuring implementa-
tion of the “Safer Schools Initiative” and dropping the
pupil to stance ratio from pupil 61:1 to 40:1 and in-
creasing school safe water access from 58% to 70%.
Budgetary Requirements: 15 million USD
• USD2.5 million for national level technical assis-
tance, advocacy, leveraging and partnerships.
• USD 12.5 for interventions in 23 districts.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Sheila Wamahiu Karen Allen
Chief, Education Deputy Representative
swamahiu@unicef.org kallen@unicef.org