Prime
Govt releases Shs175b to education sector
Ministry of Education public relations officer Dr Dennis Mugimba (left) with UPSTU general secretary Aron Mugaiga (right) and other science teachers at the media centre in Kampala recently. PHOTO / JANE NAFULA
What you need to know:
- According to the document that the Ministry of Education shared with this publication, Universal Secondary Schools took a lion’s share, with a Shs61.8b allocation.
The government has released Shs175b to finance the budgets of different education institutions during the first quarter of the 2023/24 financial year, an official from the Ministry of Education and Sports has revealed.
Dr Dennis Mugimba, the ministry’s Spokesperson told this publication in a telephone interview Monday that the Ministry of Finance, released funds for the first quarter mid-last week and that the money would reach the accounts of respective local governments by Monday next week.
According to the document that the Ministry of Education shared with this publication, Universal Secondary Schools took a lion’s share, with a Shs61.8b allocation.
Shs4.9b was allocated to Technical Institutions, Shs930.5m for inspection and capacity building, Shs788.2m for Community Polytechnics, and Shs5.58b for Primary Teachers’ Training Colleges among others
Dr Mugimba said the quarterly percentage released to institutions during the first quarter had increased from 30 per cent to 43 per cent.
He said the Ministry of Education will be sending out guidelines to all local governments on how to spend the excess percentage of funds that they have received.
“We shall be giving guidelines on what the excess funds should be covering because if they misuse it, they will be eating into their future and when they get into another term, they will not find money there,” Dr Mugimba said.
He also tasked institutions and local governments to ensure that the funds received are spent on priority interventions.
“Some of the priorities are, instructional materials for the teachers, focusing on inspection of institutions,” he said.
Dr Mugimba urged the institutions to cut down consumptive expenditures in terms of workshops among other activities.
