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Over 20,000 illegal kindergartens face closure, govt says
State minister for primary education Joyce Moriku Kaducu gestures as she addresses a gahering during the 2nd National Early Childhood Care and Education symposium in Kampala on March 28, 2023. PHOTO/PETER SSERUGO
What you need to know:
- Unicef data indicates that about 2.2m children voluntarily enroll in primary one level education annually but more than half of these kids drop out before completing grade seven.
Government has ordered all District Education Officers (DEOs) and inspectors of schools to take action against illegal pre-primary learning centres across the country.
According to the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), Uganda has around 28, 208 kindergartens with only 4, 123 registered.
“Many of the early childhood education centres are not registered or licensed, over 80 per cent of these centres are operating illegally,” state minister for primary education Joyce Moriku Kaducu said on Tuesday.
“Some of these schools have a boarding section which is not allowed. Others pick children for schools as early as 5am. This is not right and such centres must be closed,” she emphasized.
Delivering her speech at the opening of the 2nd National Early Childhood Care and Education symposium, Kaducu urged education authorities and the public to work together to ensure apprehension of illegal school proprietors.
“Why should a nursery baby be picked for school at 5am? These children need enough rest. Parents and the media help us expose the illegally operating child learning centres for the good of Uganda’s children,” she said at the event in Kampala.
Speaking at the same ceremony, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) country representative Munir Safieldin asked government to streamline operations of early childhood education centres.
“This will reduce the number of children who drop out of school before completing the primary level education,” he noted.
Unicef data indicates that about 2.2m children voluntarily enroll in primary one level education annually but more than half of these kids dropout before completing grade seven.
According to Safieldin, “the first cause of the dropouts is the repetition of classes.”
“Good early childhood centres give a good foundation to the learners, reducing their chances of repeating classes,” he remarked on March 28.
Meantime, the MoES and its partners seek to amend the education law to ensure that government is directly involved in the proprietorship of early childhood education centres as opposed to playing a supervisory role over private sector institutions of learning.
