Atekyereza/EDUCATING GIRLS AND WOMEN IN UGANDA 
The education of girls and women in Uganda 
PETER R. ATEKYEREZA1 
ABSTRACT 
This paper analyses the contextual reasons for low enrolment and 
high dropout figures in Ugandan schools, particularly for women. It 
explains the extent to which sociocultural, economic, policy, and 
political factors are obstacles to the education of women in particular. 
It is partly based on the findings of study carried out in Uganda's 
Eastern District ofKamuli in 1996 by UNICEF/ACTIONAID2 Uganda 
in which the author was the team leader. Bothprimary and secondary 
comparative data show that sociocultural, economic and ideological 
factors greatly influence parents' or guardians' decisions on which of 
their children should receive education. Political factors and 
traditional customs pertaining to the social status of women which 
have been integrated, consciously or unconsciously, into the economic 
and political policy framework, further aggravate the precarious 
position of women. A clear explanation of the factors responsible for 
lack of accessibility and retention of girls in schools is needed if policies 
are to address the causes rather than symptoms of the problem. 
Introduction 
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT for girls to have the same (or, logically, even greater) 
access to education as boys. Women fend for the family in both good 
times and in bad. They are often responsible for the economic wellbeing 
of their families and for primary health care. A woman is a manager 
and decision-maker of the home. She needs all the skills necessary to 
make a successful and happy "home enterprise". A household with an 
educated woman is better off than one with an uneducated wife and 
mother. 
1 Department of Sociology, Makerere University, Kampala, 
Uganda. 
2 My acknowledgements are hereby registered. 
VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 115
Uganda now has an average literacy rate of 64 per cent, up from 54 per 
cent in 1991 (Population Reference Bureau, 2000). Though the enrolment 
of both boys and girls in Primary One is often equal, from Primary Four 
the dropout rate for girls is higher than that of boys. Thus a very small 
fraction of girls have access to higher education and skills training. 
Because of the AIDS epidemic and the subsequent number of orphans 
created through the disease, many children have no one to finance their 
education. Due to discrimination girls find themselves in a worse situation 
than boys. 
By 1996, the proportion of children between seven and 13 years of 
age in school in Uganda was 70 per cent nationally. The net urban 
enrolment was 78 per cent of the age cohort and the rural enrolment was 
69 per cent. The net enrolment for girls was 67 per cent and that of boys 
was 73 per cent (World Bank, 1996:65). Dropout rates are high (UNICEF, 
1989) and evidence from the 1992/93 Integrated Household Survey (IHS) 
shows that they have increased over time. The 1996 census conducted 
by Ministry of Education shows that 60 per cent of the children who are 
of school age get access to education, 34 per cent reach primary seven, 
9 per cent complete secondary and only 4.4 per cent go through tertiary 
institutions. More specifically, girls account for about 26 per cent of the 
pupils enrolled in Primary One, 18 per cent in Primary Two, 16 per cent in 
Primary Three, 14 per cent in Primary Four, 11 per cent in Primary Five, 9 
per cent in Primary Six and 6 per cent in Primary Seven (Ministry of 
Education and Sports, 1997b). The causes for such dropout rates are 
mainly the lack of school fees, pregnancies and early marriages. Lack of 
school fees accounts for about 61 per cent of the dropout of girls at 
primary and secondary school level, while early pregnancies and 
marriages are responsible for 13 per cent of girls who drop out at primary 
level (Ministry of Education and Sports, 1997b; Kayita and Kyakulaga, 
1997). 
While the main reason for existing literacy and enrolment levels and 
disparities is attributed to the failure of the education system to respond 
to the needs or demands of the society at the individual, household and 
community levels, its accessibility by children of different sexes is 
influenced by many more factors than the nature of education per se. It 
116 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001
Atekyereza/EDUCATING GIRLS AND WOMEN IN UGANDA 
is against this background that the paper has been written. For the 
education of women to be realized, the causes of existing gender 
disparities must be addressed (Ministry of Finance and Economic 
Planning, 1992:43). 
2. Challenges to the education of women 
MY DISCUSSION OF the challenges to women education in Uganda is 
categorized under the headings, sociocultural, economic, policy-related 
and administrative and political and security challenges. 
2.1 The sociocultural challenges 
SOCIOCULTURAL VALUES arise from patriarchal cultural traditions that 
uphold the interests and needs of men over those of women. They 
mainly relate to ignorance, the inadequate or mis-socialization of 
children, traditional perceptions of the social status of women and their 
subsequent vulnerability and the undervaluing or generally negative 
attitudes of the population to education and, particularly, to 
girls'education. Such attitudes tend to vary with the parents' education 
background, among other factors. In analysing the 1989/90 Household 
Budget Survey (HBS), it was found that poverty was not significant in 
determining school attendance once other variables, including the 
educational attainment of the household head, were included (World 
Bank, 1996:66), though it is not by that fact excluded as unimportant. 
It is in enrolment and retention that the strong gender disparity in 
Uganda's education system becomes, clear. Of the pupils who enter 
primary school, 48 per cent of boys and 29 per cent of girls complete the 
cycle. Firstly, parents have different aspirations for boys and girls. Girls 
are educated so they know how to read and write or be better mothers, 
rather than for employment. Secondly, married daughters are believed 
to be less likely than married sons to remit cash income to their parents. 
Despite the fact the educated and employed women repay their parents 
in kind and even more, by caring for the sick or the old, education is not 
seen to be particularly useful for the latter purpose. 
To rural people, literacy implies no more than the ability to count, 
read and write. Their general perception is that the skill is simply 
functional and children are socialized on this basis. During early 
VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 117
Table 1: Education attainment for Kamuli in 1991 
Level Male Female Total 
66,075 
39,810 
55,576 
167,479 
73,725 
101,064 
2,404 
23,083 
1,679 
305 
1,240 
101,404 
33,915 
45,488 
287 
8,270 
278 
23 
532 
None 
P1-P3 
P4-P7 
J1-^J3 
S1-S4 
S5-S6 
University 
Age not stated 
2,117 
14,813 
1,401 
282 
708 
TOTAL 180,782 190,197 370,979 
(SOURCE: THE 1991 POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS, KAMULI DISTRICT) 
socialization, mothers and aunts discourage their daughters from 
studying since ultimately they are to come back, marry, cook for their 
husbands, comfort them in bed and produce children. Williams (1972), 
however, sees socialization as a means by which the human race adapts 
to the changing ecology. Socialization is about child training and 
personality development: this differs from family to family, community 
to community and so on. Bardwick and Douvan (1977) note that 
socialization, the process of learning what is socioculturally accepted 
and unacceptable, is responsible for the differences in personality 
attributes among boys and girls. The authors see socialization as 
referring to the pressures—rewarding, punishing, ignoring and 
anticipating—that push the child towards evoking certain acceptable 
responses. Children are taught that men have to work to secure their 
status as adult men. The equivalent for women is maternity, which is 
necessary for a woman's fulfillment as an individual and to secure her 
status as an adult (Rossi 1977). 
In Kamuli rural district literacy levels are below the national average 
and manifest the gender inequalities described above. The district's 
overall literacy rate in 1992 was 40.8 per cent compared to the national 
average of 54 per cent; the male literacy rate was 49 per cent compared 
to 65 per cent and female literacy rate was within the limits of national 
rates i.e., 34 per cent compared to 35 per cent (Ministry of Finance and 
118 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001
Atekyereza/EDUCATING GIRLS AND WOMEN IN UGANDA 
Fig 1: Percentage distribution of population aged 6 years and 
over by educational arrainment and »ex, 1991 
S5-6 S6+ None P1-3 P4-6 P7 J1-3 S1-3 
(SOURCE: REPUBLIC OF UGANDA, 1995, THE 1991 POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS, 
VOL. II, P.26) 
Economic Planning, 1992). Of the literate population of ten years old 
and above, only 42.2 per cent are women and women comprise 59 per 
cent of the illiterates. 
Table 1 indicates that women constitute about 61 per cent of the 
people who have never had any education at all. The proportion of 
women decreases the higher the level of education. The figures show 
particularly steep falls at almost all levels but most especially after Senior 
Four (a fall from 8,276 to 278 persons). There were only 23 women 
compared with 282 men university graduates from the District by 1991. 
Figure 1 shows comparative national education attainment levels. In 
1991 45 per cent had had no education at all. The higher the levels of 
education, the lower the numbers of people attaining that level. The 
proportion of people who attained post-S.6 education was 0.25 per cent 
with sex differentials of 0.41 for men and 0.10 per cent for women. 
The current national enrolments continue to depict this gender 
disparity. The National Strategic Plan for Girls' Education (Republic of 
119 VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
Fig 2: Educational attainment of girls and women as % of 
total at each level, in Kamuli District 
80 
60 
40 
20 
Uganda, 2000a:3) shows that at primary level girls constitute 47 per cent 
of the total enrolment, at secondary level they constitute 32 per cent. In 
primary teacher training institutions women constitute 34 per cent, in 
secondary teacher training institutions only 18 per cent are women and 
in polytechnic institutions women comprise only 13 per cent of the 
student body. It is only at the higher institutions of learning that the 
proportion of women rises, but to no more than 35 per cent of the 
student body. This information is shown in Figure 2. 
The sociocultural factors that are partly responsible for such wide 
gender disparities in education often relate to decisions that must be 
made during times of financial hardship. Some parents have a preference 
based on sex as to which child goes to school. Figure 3 shows the 
decision-making patterns during the study in Kamuli District. 
Education priority is given to boys for various reasons. First, some 
parents do not send girls to school during times of hardship since their 
educational benefits are enjoyed by the family into which she marries 
and not by the family of origin. The husbands' families similarly do not 
hold the education of their sons' wives as very important since they are 
2
s 
120 
11 n nui 
JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001
Atekyereza/EDUCATING GIRLS AND WOMEN IN UGANDA 
Fig 3: Selection of children to go 
to school, by gender 
Both Boy and Girl 
policy that does not allow pregnant girls in school or their reregistration 
after delivery. 
Undecided 
Boy 
expected to be no more than "toiling donkeys, sex- and child producingmachines". 
An educated boy can assist when the parents grow old; 
he is the heir and the pride of the clan and he will continue the lineage. 
The fruits of the boy's education will therefore trickle down through 
the entire lineage, unlike that of a girl. Thirdly, some parents argue that 
a boy naturally has many future problems as a head of the household 
to prepare for. He needs to be educated so that he can cope with them. 
It is argued that when a girl gets married the husband must look after 
her.
It is also believed that girls cannot be relied upon; that they are 
easily lured into sex and, after becoming pregnant, drop out of school 
to contract early marriages.3 
3 Though such people remain silent on why such girls get pregnant 
and, most importantly, on the fate of the men or boys that make 
them pregnant. This silence emanates from the government 
121 VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
Those who have no preference with regard to education believe that 
children of both sexes require knowledge if they are to be employed and 
later on assist their family and community. Ignorance has no sex; all 
children need education. Secondly, in contemporary society children 
are equal since employment is no longer based on ascribed but achieved 
roles. Hence, some parents believe that each child needs a chance, so 
that the brighter ones may continue with school and the dull ones drop 
out. They argue that one cannot determine whether a child is dull by its 
gender and it is better to educate a clever child since a dull child is 
costly to educate. 
This kind of attitude receives support, though not very strongly, by 
the current performance indicators for girls and boys. In the last five 
years individual girls have performed outstandingly well, though the 
overall performance of all girls is poorer than that of boys and serious 
gender inequalities are shown to exist in the northern and eastern regions 
of the country (Republic of Uganda, 2000a:3). The overall gender 
imbalance in performance can be explained by the factors that penalize 
girls while the regional imbalance could be explained by the persistence 
of rebels, war and cattle-rustling. It is also believed that both boys and 
girls are one's children should be loved equally. One respondent in 
Kamuli said, "I gave birth to all my children and I love them equally. So 
when they are at school or finish their schooling successfully, it makes 
me feel good." (A 28-year old woman from Namisambya 1, Bugabula, 
who was married and had three sons). 
In addition, it is argued that when both children are sent to school, 
the one who finishes first can help the younger children. In polygamous 
marriages, many children are valued but this is detrimental to girls' 
education due to the lack of resources to look after and educate them. 
In addition, the lack of living examples of educated people within the 
community to act as role models and parents' ignorance of the value of 
education affect children's access to and retention in school. 
Superstition is another cause and is correlated with ignorance. There 
is a belief, for example, that an educated person who is developmentoriented 
dies quickly. As such people tend to be isolated and they 
prefer to go and live in other regions. This partly explains absence of 
122 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001
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Table 2: Reasons For School Dropout Rates in Kamuli 
91.0 
94.0 
99.0 
Reasons for Frequency Per cent Cumulative 
School Drop-out Per cent 
65 
80.0 
86.0 
90.0 
65.0 
15.0 
6.0 
4.0 
1.0 
65 
15
6
4
1
3
5 
Poverty 
High school fees 
Lack of interest 
Early pregnancy 
Early marriage 
Orphanhood 
Others 
Missing 100 1 
3.0 
5.0 
1.0 
TOPL 100 100.0 
role models. The main sociocultural factors responsible for high female 
school dropout4 rates presented in Table 2. 
Barton and Wamai (1994) and Ministry of Finance and Economic 
Planning (1992:42) observe that the dropout rate for the girls is higher 
than that of the boys though both sexes drop out. National indicators 
show girls drop out in upper primary classes by 9.4 per cent compared 
to 8.2 per cent for boys, with widening gaps among disadvantaged 
districts (Ministry of Education and Sports, 1995). This is attributed to 
many reasons, most of which are cultural and contextual. As the results 
indicate, poverty is a very serious barrier to the equitable participation 
of girls in education. 
Poverty exacerbates sociocultural problems since it constrains the 
choices available to parents, even if they are willing to educate their 
daughters. If parents were well educated and employed so they could 
afford their family daily and developmental needs, gender discrimination 
would be less likely, as shown by indicators in urban areas where income 
levels are comparatively higher. The gain of 53 per cent made in access 
to primary educatipn by girls in Kampala and major urban areas is offset 
4 Some people refer to a school dropout as a person who goes to 
school but does not get either a certificate or a job and an office. 
VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 123
by the low numbers in the rural districts such as Kotido and Kitgum in 
northern Uganda. Even with positive discrimination practices aimed at 
registering more girls under the Universal Primary Education policy the 
gap still remains, with boys exceeding the number of girls by 16.6 per 
cent (Republic of Uganda, 2000a:3). 
Another reason why children drop out at in upper primary is the way 
parents bring up their children and the value they see in education, as 
the following responses show: 
Children often drop out of school at the level of Primary Four. 
Although both girls and boys drop out, more girls than boys do 
because girls are generally reaching adolescence then. Girls 
have more problems because their parents leave them at home to 
help with the domestic work and to avoid wasting their money 
in school fees, due to the high rates of pregnancy among 
schoolgirls. Others are taken as housemaids by the people from 
the urban areas while the rest are married off. (Participatory 
Rural Appraisal Workshop, Namwiwa Sub-county). 
Parents often refuse to pay school fees after Primary four out of 
ignorance, because they say that after that children can fend for 
themselves since they are able to read and write. (Participatory 
Rural Appraisal Workshop, Kiyunga Parish) 
Premarital pregnancies are a serious problem. In Luwero District alone, 
for example, 60 girls got pregnant and dropped out of school in 1998 
academic year (Mulindwa 1998). This defeats one of the objectives of 
UPE, namely, to increase the enrolment and literacy levels of girls and 
women. Fathers often refuse to acknowledge paternity in such cases 
and the child-mothers are unable to care for their "Chiums".5 As a result, 
these children live with their grandparents. The study revealed that 
12.4 per cent of the children in a household are the grandchildren of the 
household head. Furthermore, adolescents tend to involve themselves 
5 CHIUMs are Children of Irresponsible and Uncaring Men. The 
term was coined by Kathleen Cravero, UNICEF Country 
Representative in March 1996, during a Workshop of Research 
Findings. 
124 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001
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in early sexual relations though this could also be attributed to other 
contextual factors. It was, for example, observed that there is a 
widespread housing problem in Kamuli district. In some families, a small 
temporary house is both a sitting room and bedroom for all family 
members. A curtain or an incomplete wall may separate rooms. Sometimes, 
parents have sexual intercourse when their children are listening. As 
girls enter puberty, they also try to test their sexuality. Such girls may 
get pregnant or decide to marry early to have their own husbands. The 
problem of AIDS has aggravated the problem by turning the attention of 
older men towards school-aged girls who are believed to be a risk-free 
alternative (Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, 1992). 
The stability or instability of families is another important factor 
mainly caused by divorce or the desertion of the children by one parent. 
In Kamuli, for instance, when the wife deserts, divorces or dies, a man 
marries another wife. It is then highly probable that the children of the 
previous wife will stop attending school, if they go to school at all in the 
first place. Their fathers, without their knowledge or consent, marry off 
their daughters in bars in exchange for money to buy alcohol. Pons 
(1996:70) found that in Kamwokya (a suburb of Kampala) girls as young 
as eight or nine years old are sent to town to work as maids. He also 
notes that the proportion of girls at school aged 15 to 19 years falls 
more sharply than that of boys and the net result is there are many girls 
who have either left school or never attended it. Some children lose 
interest in studying. This sometimes arises from copying bad habits 
from classmates or from unsuitable movies and disco dances at night. 
School dropouts without adequate or employable skills are forced 
to engage in activities which require litle training (UNICEF, 1989a). In 
Kamuli district it was found that 33.3 per cent of the school dropouts 
turn to domestic work; 18.7 per cent to fishing, 16.7 per cent marry, 11.6 
per cent engage in petty business, 12.1 per cent become casual labourers 
while 7.6 per cent get whatever work they can find. Their education 
determines their final level of income. This is shown in Figure 4. It is 
disheartening to note that even those women who achieve higher 
education levels are confined to their homes once they are married. As 
a result, there are fewer women than men upgrading their education 
VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 125
120 
Fig. 4: Occupations after school: Kamuli, 1996 
| | Other 
[ Labour 
80 IIIIIIIH Trade 
Marriage 
Fishing 
40 III! Domestic Work 
standards. It is, for example, culturally forbidden for a woman to leave 
her husband and children for further studies especially if it is far away 
from home, even if her job requires such skill upgrading. 
Other sociocultural factors which pose a challenge for the education of 
women in Uganda, though not identified in Kamuli district, include the 
harmful traditional practices and attitudes that inflict physical and 
psychological damage, with particular reference to the initiation ritual 
of circumcision of girls. 
Although the National Strategic Plan for Girls' Education also 
mentions the payment of bridewealth as a harmful traditional practice, 
the community at large does not hold this view. According to the 
preliminary findings from a study conducted among three ethnic groups 
of Bakiga, Baganda and Langi in both urban and rural contexts between 
October 1999 and March 2000, 82.6 per cent of the population still 
strongly support bridewealth payment, 17.0 per cent oppose it and 0.4 
per cent say it depends on the motive and mode of payment. The location 
of the family is significant in this matter. More rural than urban families 
support bridewealth. According to the study, the tradition of bridewealth 
payment is not bad in itself but it has been abused due to the extreme 
poverty of a large section of the population. (Atekyereza, 2001:161). 
In summary, sociocultural challenges can be grouped into seven 
categories, which include discriminatory cultural practices, harmful 
JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 126
Atekyereza/EDUCATING GIRLS AND WOMEN IN UGANDA 
traditional practices and attitudes, the traditional division of labour 
according to sex that exerts greater demands on girls, family instability, 
certain religious beliefs that reinforce negative cultural practices, an 
insecure environment in and outside school that interfaces with the 
physical, social and psychological conditioning of girls, and, lastly, the 
differential motivational force for boys and girls that is reinforced by 
parental, societal and school expectations. However, though some 
challenges can be located at the community or societal levels, the point 
of interjection of much gender-biased practices is at family or household 
level with particular reference to the parents of the child. This is 
aggravated by conditions of poverty that set the decision parameters 
in the family. 
2.2 The economic challenges 
SCHOOL FEES 
THE ECONOMIC CHALLENGES revolve around widespread poverty due to 
limited sources of income amidst the harsh economy, and poorly 
motivated or trained teachers (Ministry of Finance and Economic 
Planning, 1992). Ugandan families find the cost of education, including 
primary education, prohibitive (World Bank, 1996). Pons (1996) explains 
how schools are one of the most pressing financial demands on family 
budgets and are a constant source of anxiety at all social levels6. The 
costs of education includes government tuition (which is relatively 
low), PTA funds (which are comparatively high and a major problem), 
the building fund, coaching,7 costs of uniforms, books (both text and 
notes), sports and manual work equipment, and so on. These constitute 
a large part of the total family expenditure as Table 3 indicates. 
Though actual expenditure patterns do not necessarily reflect the 
reported expenditure prioritization shown in Table 3, the cost of education 
6 A parent in Kanungu village in South-Western Uganda commented, 
"The thieves have come back", referring to the schoolchildren coming 
home for the school holidays. 
7 Though PTA and coaching fees have been banned, the latter form a 
lucrative source of extra income for teachers in primary and 
secondary schools, so it has continued unabated though silently and/ 
or informally. 
VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 127
T a b i e 3: Expenditure Ranking Among Kamull Households 
05 10 
Expenditure Item Score (as %) Rank 
98 
94 
80 
58 
43 
35 
27 
18 
09 
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 
Medical care 
Clothing 
Essential household commodities 
Education 
Food 
Shelter 
Tax 
Alcohol/drinking 
Tobacco/smoking 
Others (burials, land rentals, 
entertaining visitors and remittances 
to parents) 
for all the children poses a huge financial and budgetary constraint for 
the household. In some families where a parent or parents are drunkards, 
alcohol takes a great portion of family income. Generally, educational 
needs follow after basic survival needs: medicine, clothing, and essential 
household commodities (salt, paraffin, soap, bedding and food have 
been met. Though food takes the fifth position in Table 4, the vagueness 
of the general term "essential household items" may have suppressed 
its position. This implies that there are few parents who can afford to 
pay all or most of the expenses of education. They may thus delay 
payment, pay in instalments or totally fail to pay. Sometimes, when only 
partial fees are paid, usually for tuition, after a week or two a child is 
sent away from school to collect the remaining money. If she cannot 
secure the money, she misses school for rest of the term or the year. If 
the money is found, the child will still find it difficult to catch up with the 
rest of the class. This is responsible for great frustration among children 
and affects their performance and length of stay in school. 
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WORKING FOR SCHOOL FEES 
WHILE WAITING FOR THE money, the child may be tempted to leave school 
altogether. At such times girls may decide to marry or may be forced to 
marry, however young they are, while others leave home for the towns 
and cities in search for employment as housemaids, in informal sector 
activities like food-processing or as waitresses in bars and restaurants. 
While some girls may work in those places during the day many work as 
prostitutes at night. 
Sometimes children start working when they are young to earn their 
school fees in the hope of going back to school but this may take longer 
than anticipated and they may subsequently fail to catch up when they 
go back. Such situations are the result of widespread poverty. One boy 
in Kamuli, for example, left school during the first term to earn his school 
fees through fishing. By the time he had earned the money it was already 
the third term and the other children were sitting their end-of-year 
examinations. His name had already been deleted from the register and 
he could not be re-enrolled for the year. Similar situations happen to 
girls who may be forced into early marriage instead of finding work. 
Although it is claimed that hardcore poverty has been reduced in 
Uganda, relative poverty continues to exist under increasing 
socioeconomic inequality and the limited sources of income available 
(World Bank, 1996). This affects the ability of parents or guardians to 
pay school fees, forcing them to take hard decisions on which child 
should go to or remain at school. Furthermore, whereas education is 
intended to facilitate the improvement and expansion of economic 
activities, the latter sometimes hinder the processes of education 
acquisition. The fishing industry in the counties of Budiope and parts 
of Bulamogi which border Lake Kyoga in Kamuli district, for example, 
attracts young boys who prefer to make quick money rather than go to 
school. This, coupled with the way in which some parents allocate 
inheritance or property rights to children quite early, sometimes results 
in the early acquisition of wealth by teenagers. They use the wealth to 
marry and establish their own families, further contributing to the high 
prevalence of early marriages and school dropout rates in the district. 
VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 129
In addition, while at school, girls with financial problems who cannot 
adequately maintain themselves may turn to prostitution, either by 
getting a boyfriend or a sugar-daddy, or by going directly to well-known 
areas frequented by prostitutes such as nightclubs or big hotels in 
neighbouring towns. The prostitution industry is reported to have 
attracted even working women, secondary school teachers and women 
students from tertiary institutions (The Monitor, November 1996). 
ALCOHOLISM 
THE CRISIS OF DRUNKENNESS by the parents and their subsequent failure 
to pay school fees cripples the whole household's economically. 
Alcoholism results in the waste of time and money at the expense of 
productive work. Most parents are actually not so poor that they cannot 
send children to school but some drink away the family income. 
Sometimes the money intended for school fees is spent on drink or 
used pay bridewealth for a new wife. Some parents are economic liabilities 
rather than assets. Existing evidence also suggests that children who 
lose their mothers tend to drop out of school more frequently than 
those who lose their fathers (Atekyereza and Ezati 1996) and this justifies 
improving the education of girls and women in a patriarchal system 
which allows a widower to remarry, but not a widow. 
LARGE FAMILIES 
POVERTY HAS A GREAT influence on the sociocultural considerations 
surrounding education. There is, for example,a strong correlation 
between large families and poverty, although some men disagree. A 
male workshop participant, for instance, commented: 
I have three wives and all my children are at school and I know 
some men who are here and have one wife but their children are 
at home. So it is not the number of wives or children that are a 
problem but the resources or sources of income to look after the 
family numbers. (Participatory Rural Appraisal Workshop, 
Kiyunga Parish) 
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With poor or inadequate education, women secure poorly paid or 
temporary jobs. Many kinds of formal and informal employment 
available to women are very insecure. 
STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT 
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF structural adjustment programmes has meant 
more strain on the already limited number of survival mechanisms of 
most people. Though policies of privatization and liberalization have 
brought economic progress in Uganda, there is growth without 
development. Even this growth may not be sustainable since it is not 
self-induced. This has meant deepening poverty among a great section 
of population, especially rural people, though the Population Reference 
Bureau (2000) reports a decline in poverty levels from 56 per cent in 
1991 to 55 in 1995 and 44 per cent in 2000. Retrenchment in Uganda 
under the Economic Structural Adjustment Program has been severe, 
especially for those in low-paying work and their dependants. As women 
are educated to lower levels than men they constitute a greater 
percentage of those who were retrenched and have sought survival in 
nonformal activities such as cooking food, hawking, occasional 
waitressing in bars and so on. Evidence of this can be directly seen 
from responses from prostitutes to The Crusader reporter: 
... it is hypocritical that the very government that sent us on to 
the streets is showing belated concern. It is surprising....they 
are the ones who retrenched us from our jobs. What else do they 
want from us?...They cannot ban us. Men will continue to want 
sex and we can provide it. So let them not waste time by talking 
about what they don't understand (A Senior Five school dropout 
prostitute who came on to the streets in 1994 after her former 
husband married a fifth wife and neglected her).8 
8 The article was about the negative reaction to a suggestion by the 
Minister of Gender and Community Development that 
prostitution should be legalized to protect women from 
harassment. 
VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 131
In summary, poverty and other economic factors limit the accessibility 
to education of girls and make them vulnerable in terms of opportunities 
for gainful employment. Indeed, due to the lack of a clear government 
employment policy and to the negative consequences arising from the 
World Bank and IMF-backed economic reforms, even those who are 
educated cannot easily get gainful and secure employment. Unless 
there is radical change and women are trained in skills that can lead 
them to acquire better and secure employment and thus become 
economically emancipated, they will remain vulnerable. 
2.3 Policy-related and administrative challenges 
THE CHALLENGES RELATED to policies derive from politico-ideological 
perspectives that influence the formulation and implementation of 
women-focused projects, including education, the quality of education 
and how it is acquired by different sections of the population. Such 
policies tend to be aimed at capturing the vote of women rather than 
solving the causes of their oppression. Low value is still attached to 
education. One response in Kamuli District explains the underlying 
causes: 
How can somebody value education, pay so much money inform 
of school fees and other scholastic requirements for his child, 
and then afterwards this young boy9 also puts on patched trouser? 
Others whom we thought were very well educated have also 
been retrenched. So why should we send our children to school 
when they are not going to get jobs, work for money and live a 
more decent life? How can we send our children to school 
knowing that afterwards they will be retrenched? (Focus Group 
Discussion, Namwiwa Sub-county) 
and: 
The current primary education syllabus is almost useless apart 
from teaching a person how to read and write. Otherwise, in 
practical terms, a child who finishes primary education is 
9 Note the emphasis on the gender of the child. 
132 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001
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sometimes even worse off than one who did not go to school at 
all. (Participatory Rural Appraisal Workshop, Namisambya I Parish) 
Parents do not send their children to learn skills but to enable them 
know how to read and write or as they put it "to enable children read 
signposts so that they do not get lost". This also explains why children 
drop out of school mainly at Primary Four. 
INADEQUACIES OF INFRASTRUCTURAL PROVISION 
THOUGH THE UGANDAN education system is well developed and most 
children have access to a primary school within two kilometres of their 
home(UNICEF, 1989a:46;UNICEF, 1996:50 and Ministry of Finance and 
Economic Planning, 1992), these institutions have a poor physical and 
material infrastructure. Some education institutions were started with 
political and religious backing that could not be sustained later. A 
number of schools have no permanent structures or inadequate ones. 
Most, especially secondary and post-secondary institutions, even more 
importantly, lack teaching aids including laboratory chemicals and books. 
The teacher-pupil ratio is very high as there are more pupil enrolments 
and fewer trained teachers. The level of teacher qualification is low. In 
Kamuli District, the situation was alleviated by the implementation of 
the PAPSCA project by ACTIONAID Uganda financed by the World 
Bank between 1991 and 1995. The project rehabilitated many primary 
schools and before this most schools conducted lessons under trees. 
However, relevant teaching materials, aids, uniform and poor latrines 
are still a serious problem (Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, 
1992; Ministry of Education and Sports, 1997a). Poor latrines have, for 
example, been identified as a cause of girls dropping out of school 
especially for those who are starting menstruation and want privacy. 
INADEQUACIES OF TEACHER PROVISION 
IN 1992 NEARLY HALF of all teachers were untrained (Ministry of Finance 
and Economic Planning, 1992:42). According to the Education Census 
(1997), there are 81,564 primary teachers in Uganda. Of these, 59,747 (73 
per cent) are trained. The highest qualification for 88 per cent of the 
VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 133
untrained primary school teachers is the Uganda Certificate of Education 
(UCE). Such instructors cannot be thought competent to impart 
educational and life skills to the young. These teachers, although 
licensed, have no background in how to handle children (especially 
girl), given that most of them are young and even not married. They do 
not understand teaching ethics: this explains why many male teachers 
seduce their pupils. Some even blackmail girl students with the threat of 
failure. Over 63 per cent (37,996) of trained teachers and over 74 per cent 
(16,014) of untrained teachers are male. In Kamuli district, very few 
headteachers are women. There is a dearth of women role models for 
girls, especially in rural areas. According to 1995 statistics, out of 215 
headteachers, only 7 (3.3 per cent) were women. This is a clear indication 
that gender disparities that start with access to education continue and 
spread to other life opportunities like employment. 
Though the government has tried to encourage the training of the 
untrained teachers through the in-service training programmes,10 the 
situation has improved little. Current admission qualifications to teacher 
training colleges (TTCs), unlike in the far past, are undesirable. In the 
colonial period and immediately following independence, teacher 
training colleges aimed to admit the best students, who were thereafter 
well-paid. Today, TTCs largely admit poor students who have failed to 
get admission to high school education, apart from a few bright ones 
who opt for teacher training simply because they cannot afford the 
school fees required to continue with high school. Failure to attract 
better students is also attributed to the poor payment of teachers. 
Discriminatory policies have strong implications for the future 
employment of women and universal free and compulsory primary 
education is illogical when there are not enough buildings to 
accommodate all the children to be enrolled and -not enough trained 
teachers to teach the enrolled pupils effectively (UNICEF, 1996; Ministry 
of Finance and Economic Planning, 1992; Ministry of Education and 
1 ° Teachers are trained during the holidays and teach during term 
time. The programme is called Teacher Development and 
Management System (TDMS). 
134 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001
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Sports, 1997a). Already, teacher-pupil ratios accepted in 1982 no longer 
obtain. The salaries for teachers are very low. The government has 
scrapped the PTA fund and the coaching fees that were a source of 
livelihood for teachers. It is unlikely that teachers will be motivated to 
teach a crowd of pupils under the tree when the least-paid teacher earns 
only 72,000/- (about US $40) per month. This is equivalent to about 2.1 
per cent of what a member of parliament earns (i.e. 3,500,000/- about 
US$ 1934, going by the average exchange rate in the year 2000. 
Teachers have, or plan to have families, and need to maintain a 
minimum standard of living in terms of nutrition, clothing, accommodation, 
and meeting their social obligations such as giving Mabugo". 
Their poor remuneration has sometimes resulted in the degeneration of 
teachers' ethics and some teachers top up their wages by getting money 
directly from students they teach. The underfunding of education 
negatively affects education standards. In all situations, as has always 
been the case, the first victim is the girl, whose future continues to be 
unpredictable but certainly vulnerable. Most of issues discussed under 
this category would fall under what the National Strategic Plan for Girls' 
Education calls the school-related factors. These are summarized as 
inadequate school facilities, lack of comfortable or appropriate clothing, 
negative gender stereotyping in the curriculum, factors related to school 
and college personnel, shortage of alternative quality education 
opportunities and facilities for girls who remain outside school and the 
critical bottleneck that makes access to secondary and higher education 
by girls difficult (Republic of Uganda, 2000a:5-6). Unless education 
policies and instruments are re-oriented to address these realities, the 
results and effects on women may not change. 
In rural areas the government appears to have abandoned its 
obligation of investing in human resource development and left most of 
1' Mabugo, literary "bark-cloth", refers to contributions given towards 
burial functions. The rationale of olubugo is its high cultural value. 
The more bark-cloth one is buried with, the more prestige is accorded 
to the dead and his/her family. It is also a sign of social solidarity 
with the bereaved. The mourner expects also to be buried decently 
after death. With AIDS, this is the most respected cultural norm today. 
VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 135
the burden of education to the parents. Some children are given school 
fees by their mothers who work as casual labourers.12 Most children go 
to school hungry, with no packed lunch. It is very hard for them to 
concentrate in class. Some girls end up being attracted to small amounts 
of money and gifts from boys and men to get something to eat. 
PREGNANT SCHOOLGIRLS 
THE GOVERNMENT EDUCATION policy of expelling pregnant girls and not 
allowing them to reregister after delivery while the men responsible 
(who are often teachers, fellow students, businessmen and politicians) 
go scot-free is discriminatory, sexist and contrary to the general effort 
to educate women. Teenage pregnancy is now a reality: world wide 
teenage pregnancy rates are high and continue to rise and Uganda is 
leading sub Saharan African in teenage pregnancy at 43 per cent. At 
the end of November 1996, for example, 15 pregnant girls at St. 
Katherine's Secondary School, Boroboro in Lira District were expelled 
and a girl from Arua Public Secondary School was not allowed to sit O 
Level examinations because she was pregnant, after she had studied 
for four years and paid all school expenses there (Mugeere 1996). 
Teenage pregnancy is responsible for 60-90 per cent of girls who 
drop out of school (Kabatende 1998). So, though the White Paper (1992) 
proposed free and compulsory primary school attendance for all children 
of the relevant age starting by the year 2010 and free education for 
every four children in every family with effect from February 1997, this 
will not work without the co-operation and participation of parents and 
guardians and flexibility in the enrolment policy. 
UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION 
OTHER POLICIES THAT would be effective in the education of girls are 
rendered ineffective by the barriers described above. The UPE policy of 
12 Casual labourers earn less than US$ 1 per day, working from 8.00 
am in the morning to 2.30 p.m. or sometimes to 4.30 p.m. in the 
evening. The minimum fees per child per term are approximately 
US$12.5 at primary school level. 
136 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001
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January 1997 made primary education free for four children in every 
family. No doubt, UPE has registered success by increasing primary 
education enrolment levels by 93.8 per cent (Republic of Uganda 1998) 
though great challenges were acknowledged (Mushega 1997 and 
Republic of Uganda 2000b). The implementation of the policy preceded 
conceptual clarity. The operational definition of a family has been taken 
to refer to monogamous, polygamous and single parent families. This 
definition, however, leaves out families headed by children, which are 
common especially in areas thafhave been hard-hit by war and the AIDS 
epidemic such as Luwero, Gulu, Arua and Rakai districts. In addition, 
the policy guidelines on how the four children would be selected (i.e., 
two girls and two boys) do not take into account the strategies and 
responses of the parents and guardians. Many policies that fail in 
developing countries do so through the passive resistance of the people 
and from sabotage by the bureaucracy implementing the policies. As 
longer as these factors prevail, girls will be considered last or not at all. 
Apart from selection of children to study free, fees are still generally 
very high. The tuition fees that the government pays constitute a small 
fraction of what the parents or guardians have to pay. This includes 
additional fees for the PTA and the building fund and buying uniforms, 
books and all the other equipment. The government promises to cover 
the costs of building, teaching and other teaching-related materials but 
experience has shown that, if parents do not do the work themselves, 
their schools collapse (UNICEF1989a). In most progressive private and 
government schools, additional payments have not been removed. Some 
have even been secretly retained with the mutual agreement of the 
school authorities and parents. Thus, the policy looks more political 
than practical. 
ADMISSION TO UNIVERSITY 
ANOTHER IMPORTANT POINT is related to the admission of women students 
to institutions of higher learning. Makerere University, for example, 
started admitting female students in first year from 1989 on 1.5 points 
less than those used to admit male students. This was intended to 
increase the enrolment of women students in the university across all 
VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 137
courses. However, the policy appears to have been ill-conceived, given 
the facts on the ground. As noted earlier, most girls drop out of school. 
The enrolment figures of 1993/94 indicate that only 8,310 students 
enrolled in the University. These constituted 0.3 per cent of the original 
cohort that entered primary school (World Bank, 1996:171). With 
affirmative action, the percentage of women at universities has recently 
risen to 35 per cent. The implication is that the 1.5 points policy is 
helping only those families that are capable and care about the education 
of both sexes. The vast majority is not helped in any way by this policy. 
The policy is not bad but it is ill-focused. It assists the female e"lite 
rather than solving the root of gender disparity in the education system; 
it treats the symptoms rather than the source or causes. It would be 
more effective to implement policies that can bring up more women to 
the level where they can earn the 1.5 points. 
2.4 Political and security challenges 
WAR AND CIVIL DISTURBANCE affects the education system as a whole, 
with specific consequences for girls. Since independence, Uganda has 
passed through several crises such as the Kabaka Crisis of 1966; the 
Constitutional crisis of 1967; the coup d'Stat by Idi Amin in 1971 that 
institutionalized state terrorism and economic war and the rigged general 
elections of 1980 that sparked off the guerrilla warfare in 1981 to 1986. 
Since 1986 the government has been fighting rebel groups in the 
country, cleaning up the remnants of the Uganda National Liberation 
Army troops that supported the Obote II regime; the Holy Spirit 
Movement led by Princess Lakwena; the Iteso insurrection and, at 
present, the Northern War by the Lord's Resistance Army under Joseph 
Kony. It is now involved in war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 
During wars women are systematically raped and held hostage; 
kidnapped from schools and from homes and forced to work for the 
warring parties and to give favours in many different ways. Abducted 
girls and women may get pregnant and are often contract sexually 
transmitted diseases including of course HIV/AIDS. AS McFadden states, 
Tens of thousands of women died at the hands of soldiers often 
following rape. These were not acts of sexually starved men but 
expressions of violence, aggression, anger, hatred, and revenge 
138 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001
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in an army being defeated (GADU Newspack, No. 13,1991, cited 
inMeena,1992). 
Apart from these effects of the war on women, who subsequently may 
not go to school again, the general effect of war and/or insecurity is the 
destruction of schools and property (especially buildings and teaching 
materials), the death of pupils, teachers and parents. Schools are closed 
for months or even years. Refugee populations develop. All this has an 
effect on the attitudes of pupils and parents towards education. 
When the Allied Democratic Forces invaded Kasese (Western Uganda) 
in 1997, primary school children in the area could not sit their primary 
leaving examination and many people fled the war zone with all their 
families. In April 1998, the Allied Democratic Force rebels invaded 
Kichwamba Technical Institute, abducted some students and burnt 
almost 100 others with petrol while they slept. Wars increase the chances 
of children dropping out of school and deeply affect women who have 
to care for and keep the family together such a time. 
Children who have been abducted suffer psychological damage. 
The impact of seeing dead bodies is very traumatic, as one girl narrates. 
Janet was forced to become the commander's wife but went back to 
school briefly after escaping. Her life could never return to normal after 
having witnessed death. She always feared that the rebels would come 
again. Thus traumatized and unable to concentrate on her studies she 
dropped out of school, saying, 
/ thought of running away. I found a man willing to hide me in a 
village far from home where the rebels would not catch me. 
Though I did not want to get married yet, and moreover to a man 
with anotherwife, Ididnothave an alternative (Mirembe, 1996:7). 
Insecurity, as explained above, is responsible for reduced school 
enrolments or the dropping out of school by many children, particularly 
girls. During insecurity or war families spend without earning and 
consume without producing, resulting in mass deprivation and 
starvation. In short, women are more vulnerable than men in periods of 
war and insecurity and this seriously affects their education, just as 
their survival strategies are affected by their education. 
VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 139
3. Education and status of women 
DESPITE GOOD WILL, international, regional, national and civil efforts to 
raise the social status of women and bring women into powerful 
leadership roles, Uganda still falls far short of gender fairness in 
education. Of the 146 developing countries rated on the Gender Human 
Development Index Uganda takes the 132nd place. The position of 
women in the country, and Kamuli District in particular, remains low. 
Economic status and employment 
THE DROPOUT RATE of girls at school affects the economic empowerment 
of women through gainful employment (UNICEF 1996). Culturally, 
women do not own property. Their property rights are enshrined in 
their husbands (as wives) or fathers (as daughters). The study in Kamuli, 
for example, found that very few women own property. In the study, 
less than 5 out of every 10 respondents acknowledged that women may 
own land or cattle. Not only is the ownership and control of productive 
resources vested in men, women are often not consulted on important 
household matters including education, most particularly on 
expenditure. On the question of who is involved in decision-making, 
only 63 per cent consult their spouses. The rest consult their children; 
their relatives; their friends or no one. In the pre-test study, one 
respondent who said he consults the son, also said he did not consult 
his wife: "No, no. I consult my son because he is my heir. I cannot 
consult the wife. What does she know?" (A 70 year-old man from 
Nawansaso Parish, Kitayunjwa Sub-County). This confirms the 
"Districts Speak Out" study (1993) findings (cited in Barton and Wamai, 
1994) ranking the lack of a voice in family affairs as third among women's 
leading problems. 
The effect of AIDS 
WITH AIDS, FAMILY EXPENDITURE rises to include nursing the patients. 
Girls are removed from school to nurse the sick. The AIDS infection rate 
was projected to be 1.9 million people in 1998 (Republic of Uganda, 
1998). Though AIDS affects the more educated occupational groups 
aged between 35 and 45 years, a large section of uneducated or less 
educated women are very prone to HIV/AIDS infection due to high levels 
of unemployment and the lucrative prostitution industry fuelled by the 
140 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001
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economically powerful. These are often the breadwinners in their families. 
Reduced labour in all the family's economic activities implies reduction 
in family incomes, leading to the need to select which child will go to 
school on limited family resources. Such chronic poverty is increasingly 
being concentrated in single-parent households particularly those 
headed by the never-married women (Wu and Martinson, 1993), a social 
group that is increasing in numbers but highly perceived as social 
deviants from the norm (Stuart, 1996). 
4. Conclusions and recommendations 
4.1 Conclusions 
To EMANCIPATE WOMEN so that they can realise their full potential, they 
need to be educated and trained in appropriate development-oriented 
knowledge and skills. However, literacy levels in Uganda are still 
relatively low and manifest serious gender disparities. The relatively 
high enrolment levels in the first years of primary school are eroded 
later by high dropout rates, especially of girls and the lack of an adequate 
education affects the employment opportunities for women. 
The reasons why girls may not go to school and why they drop out 
have been categorized as sociocultural, economic, policy-related and, 
political. These factors are not mutually exclusive. However, though 
the processes may differ in different regions, contexts and time, the 
ultimate effect is the marginalization of women. 
The major factors affecting school attendance include poverty and 
the high cost of education. This is compounded by ignorance and 
sociocultural beliefs and traditions in a male-dominated society. 
As far as policy is concerned, the primary school curriculum is not 
responsive to the needs of the community in general and women in 
particular. Education institutions are inadequate and teachers are badly 
paid. Girls are excluded from school when they become pregnant. The 
UPE fails to addresses the problem since the decision on which child 
should benefit from "free" education still lies with guardians who have 
to pay the remaining expenses involved. There has been no coherent 
employment policy that can address the unemployment that still puts 
poor families and uneducated women at risk. 
VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 141
As far as politics and security are concerned, countries are often at war 
internally or with each other. This creates political insecurity, with 
negative effects on the education of women. The paper acknowledges 
the efforts of the government that culminated in the formulation of the 
National Strategic Plan for Girls' Education (2000) but still argues that 
unless first things are handled first with the meaningful involvement of 
parents, little can be achieved by the targeted year of 2003. 
4.2 Recommendations 
THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM should determine or, at least, influence the 
decisions on the nature of the solution. Though the solution to an 
equitable gender balance in education lies at another level, the final 
point of intersection is the family, where poverty and sociocultural factors 
meet. If the achievements of UPE are to be maintained and improved, 
government must continue on the same radical path as UPE and change 
its economic and, particularly, employment policies. The new policies 
must be aimed at enabling all people to earn at least a basic wage. The 
World Bank and IMF backed-economic reforms must be reconsidered 
in light of their microlevel consequences. The government cannot expect 
people with very unequal resources to endure the same socioeconomic 
conditions. As a result, parents must take their place as decisionmakers 
among the donors, international bodies, non-governmental organizations 
and the bureaucracy. It is they and only they who are the ultimate 
actors who can influence the success or failure of programmes. 
Secondly, for an effective, full implementation of universal and 
compulsory primary education by the year 2003, there is need to gather 
relevant data on the reasons firstly, for low levels of school attendance; 
secondly, for high dropout rates; and, thirdly for the gender disparities 
in school attendance levels for each district. The specific peculiarities 
of each district must be addressed. The UPE programme should target 
the most vulnerable children; girls, the disabled, the "Chiums" and 
orphans. Government policy on school funding should be reviewed to 
reconcile the current ban on PTA funds with school and teachers' 
requirements. Similarly, the policy of expelling pregnant schoolgirls and 
leaving the men responsible needs to be revised. The government's 
affirmative drive must seriously address curriculum change, the 
142 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001
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construction and maintenance of educational buildings, and the training, 
motivation and adequate remuneration of teachers, together with a code 
of conduct for them. 
Due to the real and perceived widespread poverty throughout the 
country, the government needs to design microlevel programmes to 
assist the most vulnerable sections of the population, whose 
vulnerability has increased with implementation of the structural 
adjustment programmes (see Simon etal, 1995, Onimode 1992, Khan 
and Sonko 1994, UNICEF 1989b). There must be a fundamental shift 
from political rhetoric to a clear political will and effort to alleviate poverty 
and unemployment. The government must make a realistic policy to 
readjust the wages of all working people and promote rural economic 
investment to alleviate rural unemployment. 
Together with the economic emancipation of families, there is need 
for a well-planned civic education policy on the value of education for 
both sexes. The public needs sensiti2ation about alcohol abuse, child 
labour and the protection of the environment for fruitful and sustainable 
agriculture, which is a major source of income for rural families 
(Atekyereza 2001:204). 
The government also needs to improve health facilities especially in 
rural areas and near schools and improve their accessibility to the poor, 
to women and to the young. Diseases negatively affect the productivity 
and retention in schools of children, especially girls, since they are the 
main caregivers. In order to maintain its own level of performance, the 
government should provide free diagnosis and treatment for malaria, 
which is a leading but controllable killer disease. This will allow girls 
more educational opportunity. 
Lastly, on the political challenges, there is little that individuals can 
do if the government does not take the full responsibility for looking 
after its citizens. To avoid wars and rebel activities a culture of political 
and ideological tolerance must be developed. The standards of education 
of girls cannot improve when the general standards are worsening. In 
addition to wars, the government must contain the cattle rustling by the 
Karimojong. Children, especially girls, cannot go to school when they 
are always on the run for fear of being killed or raped. 
VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 143
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