SEMAS FOR NGOs

UGANDA’S
DIRE EDUCATION STATUS

Uganda’s
population is one of the youngest in the world, with nearly 20 million children
under the age of 15. This has birthed intense competition for limited education
and training, high rates of teenage pregnancy, child labor and violence against
children.

Uganda faces major challenges in
providing quality and accessible basic education to children. Today, around 6 out of 10 young children
aged 3 to 5 years don’t attend early childhood education, showing marked progress from 2011. Similarly, 1 out of 5 children aged 6 to12 years don’t
attend primary school.

Educating children is a
challenge in Uganda as Uganda is prone to infectious diseases, gender
inequality, conflict environments, injustices in
the education policy, climate-induced disasters such as floods
plus
landslides and
rising poverty.

There is a high level of teacher and
student absenteeism, weak school level management structures, inadequate
availability of learning materials, and large class sizes. There
is also inavailability of teachers in
disadvantaged areas and a lack of accommodation for teachers in rural, hard to
reach areas. Sometimes parents don’t
think education is important.

Furthermore, Uganda hosts more refugees than any other
country in Africa with some of the world’s largest refugee settlements.  It hosts over 1.5 million refugees and asylum-seekers mainly
from South Sudan, the ‘Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and
Burundi.

Over 80%
of refugees are hosted in 13 districts in the North and South-Western regions
and in the capital Kampala where they co-exist with communities that
host them.

 Educating children is a challenge in these settlements.
Sometimes parents cannot afford tuition fees yet others don’t think education
is important. They would rather children stay home to do chores or find jobs
that support the family financially. Most children have experienced emotional
hardships like physical or sexual abuse, loss of a family member to conflict or
illness and trauma from war. Others that have managed to enroll leave school
once they perform poorly or are not treated well in school.

There is
tremendous need for programs that provide activities and services for these
vulnerable children in both formal and
non-formal education settings to improve their academic achievement
and unlock their potential despite their
age, inabilities or past experiences.

For the
past few years, Uganda has made efforts to keep children learning ranging from
community home schooling, virtual learning and coaching but this has been hard
to achieve in most parts of the country as some children are now young mothers
and fathers while others are now ‘business men’.

Over the
years, SEMAS has gained positive reputation for providing learning and play content and equipment like tablets
that empower learners, in and out of school to study and perform thus improving
their 21^st century skills and increasing their competitive advantage
for secondary school curriculum-based learning and jobs and in the long run ensuring
success in the same’s community and life.

WHAT CAN YOUR NGO DO TO
HELP?

We trust
that if Education NGOs partnered with SEMAS, this would
help to improve the quality of life of Ugandans by
providing quality education through ICT trainings and providing
curriculum-based learning materials for teachers and learners,
empower
communities through
inclusive and diverse educational initiatives
and bridge the digital divide among people in more communities.