CSOs join hands to reduce school dropout rate in Uganda

Civil society organisations (CSO) focused on children’s wellbeing and their education have launched a national coalition to resolve the soaring-dropout rates in the country.

The drive, championed by the Initiative for Mtoto Wa Shule (IMS), a local non-governmental organisation, comprises more than 25 CSOs drawn from the five major regions of the country to focus on preventing future school dropouts and also enable victims resume school, besides guiding them through a recovery process from the effect of the dropout.

Early this month, a report by the National Planning Authority (NPA) showed that at least 30 percent of the 15 million learners who were sent home after President imposed a nationwide lockdown in March 2020, may no return to school.

The report indicates that the problem may worsen illiteracy levels in the country, and hence recommends an immediate implementation of multi-sectoral approach to address the challenge.

Finding a solution

This has since seen various stakeholder combine efforts to address the problem.

At the launch of the campaign in Kampala on Tuesday, the chief convener of the coalition, who also doubles as the IMS executive director, Mr Fredrick Kayira, said this will be done in three core strategies aimed at addressing the crisis that has since been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent measures introduced to contain it.

“From our experience, we have come to learn that the cause of the school dropouts are many and go beyond school and homes of the learners. These stem from all sectors directly or indirectly involved in education and learners’ welfare in the country,” Mr Kayira explained.

The three multi-faceted-layer approach will aim at drawing a comprehensive long-term plan whose strategy will appreciate and capitalise on the roles and strengths of all stakeholders within the education sector and child upbringing on the country.

The three strategies comprise the coalition stage, the convention stage and the implementation of the ‘catchup with school model’ that was piloted in June last year.

The pilot project that was launched by IMS engaged at least 300 learners that have since been encouraged to get back to school.

“We piloted the model in June last year and implemented it for six months. From that, we learnt that the problem is too big and we need to convene and get other stakeholders on board so that a comprehensive solution is found to counter the crisis,” Mr Kayira said.

The campaign

For the start, major focus on the campaign will be put on learners in primary and lower secondary schools in slums and rural-urban areas. These were found to be least privileged and most vulnerable to the factors that occasion dropouts. This will later be rolled out to tertiary institutions and universities.

In so doing, the primary focus will be placed on learners in Universal Primary Education (UPE) and later roll to the Universal Secondary Education (USE) through which government provides free education to learners from less privileged families.

Mr Jonan Nduhuura, the head of programming at the IMS, revealed that the absence of statistical data about the dropout rates in schools is one of the major challenges that they are facing in the campaign so far.

“Covid-19 exposed the weakness in Uganda’s education system and we are likely to see more children dropping out of school, especially in primary and lower secondary schools,” Mr Nduhuura, who is also a lecturer at the Kyambogo University’s Department of Community and Disability Studies, said.

The CSOs under the coalition are cognizant of the task that comes with tackling the crisis and have since set out to invite other stakeholders in the education sector to handle the matter.

They intend to reach out and combine efforts with fellow academic enthusiasts, including the Ministry of Education, policy makers, parents, teachers and colleagues in non-government organisations. They also intend to work with the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.

How it will work

Drawn from the east, north, west, south and central regions in Uganda, the CSOs will use a three-core-centred approach to address the crisis of reducing the rate of school dropouts in the country.

The first phase involves identifying key players, who will agree and combine efforts to combat the challenge through the launch of the coalition. Thereafter, these will go for a fact-finding mission, with each CSO extracting the necessary data and also research on key factors that lead to school dropouts.

This is to be done in all sectors involved in the upbringing and academic journey of the learners. This, Mr Kayira said, will be done throughout the current academic term, which is expected to run for at least three months before the leaners break off for holidays.

Premising on the data drawn, the stakeholders will then stage a convention within which strategies will be drawn to counter the crisis.

At the convention, each cluster of stakeholders will be expected to decide on the role to be played in containing the crisis, premising on the stopgap measures that will be generated after understanding the triggers of the crisis.

The third stage will involve the rollout of the model, with the officials from IMS as the lead implementors.