Prime
A case for increasing capitation grants for UPE, USE
Susanne Kaguta
What you need to know:
As schools struggle to make ends meet with insufficient funding, they are forced to pass on additional costs to parents and guardians.
Acquisition of appropriate knowledge and skills is a cornerstone of development in any society. Currently, Uganda faces a threat to undermine the foundation of its educational system and consequently its development agenda. This is largely attributed to limited financing of education., particularly the meagre school capitation grants provided by the government to schools implementing the universal primary and secondary education programme.
On Tuesday, August 8, 2023, the World Bank issued a statement halting approval of new funding for Uganda following the enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023. In response, Henry Musaasizi, the minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development in-charge of General Duties, informed Parliament that the government will revise the budget to fill the void that will be left by the World Bank’s halting of its financing.
Whenever the government undertakes austerity measures, it resorts to cutting recurrent expenditure, in most cases categorised as consumptive items such as capitation grants.
Currently, Shs20,000 is allocated for each learner in primary school, Shs58,300 for each learner at the Ordinary Level and Shs90,000 for Advanced Level students.
The inadequacy of the capitation grants has implications for the school administration, parents and learners. It places a huge burden on schools, forcing them to cut corners that compromise the quality of education they provide to their students. As schools struggle to make ends meet with insufficient funding, they are forced to pass on additional costs to parents and guardians. In a situation where a family is already struggling financially, it becomes difficult to send their children to school and they end up borrowing (30 percent of the households in Uganda have to borrow to pay school fees, Global Education Monitoring Report 2021/22).
The impact of low capitation grants for public schools is most acutely felt by the students, especially girls. For those who come from poor households and cannot afford the extra costs, there are limited options available and this often leads to dropouts as found by the Uganda National Household Survey 2019/ 20.
ISER’s research, Getting Children Back to School, found that following Covid-19 there has been an influx of learners from private to public schools reiterating more than ever the need to increase funding to public schools. Any attempt to cut financing for education, particularly the capitation grants that are already insufficient will lead us into catastrophe.
In light of the above, the highly anticipated revisions of the national budget for FY2023/24 should be geared towards increasing capitation grants with transparent and accountable systems to ensure money reaches intended beneficiaries.
Inadequate financing of education has both short and long-term implications. In the short-term, it will widen inequality and heighten the poverty levels in the country.
In the long-term, Uganda’s ability to produce skilled and competent individuals capable of contributing to its socioeconomic growth will be severely compromised as the effects will continue to manifest in sectors of healthcare, technology and governance.
Inequality in education and income levels will persist and undermine progress on the SDGs if government does not prioritise financing public education.
Ms Susanne Kaguta, student of Law at Makerere University.
