Advancing
Universal Primary Education, Reproductive Health and Teacher
Effectiveness
Uganda
October 2002- October 2003
 Uganda
has made extraordinary progress towards achieving universal
primary education -- pupil enrollment increased from 2.7 million
children in 1996 to nearly 7 million in 2002. Formidable challenges
remain. Many children are still not in school and for those
who are enrolled, overcrowded classrooms, lack of trained teachers,
and traditional teaching practices jeopardize the quality of
education. Further, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is placing strain
on the system. As many as 2 million child orphans may be forced
to forego attending school as a result of family and financial
responsibilities brought on by the death of family members.
The BEPS team was asked to
carry out a three-tier response: informing the development
of Uganda’s
universal primary education policy, developing an advocacy
plan to encourage
reproductive health, and improving teacher effectiveness.
USAID
is working with the Government of Uganda to strengthen educational
quality while communicating
the universal primary
education policy and its objectives to a broader group of stakeholders,
especially to isolated communities. To promote the acceptance
of universal primary education, BEPS was asked to research
the impact of the policy since its inception in 1997, informing
the national committee’s subsequent dissemination and
mobilization activities. BEPS reworked the campaign’s
existing advocacy materials to better communicate to the target
audience which was made up of teachers and parents. BEPS led
the development of additional content, materials, and activities
for the government’s Universal Primary Education campaign
advocacy campaign, focusing on early childhood development.
In
response to a policy directive by the President of Uganda,
the BEPS team partnered with stakeholders to increase the awareness
and knowledge of reproductive health by both lower and upper
primary students, particularly that of girls. The team established
a network of partners to share knowledge and design effective
messages to integrate reproductive health issues into the school
curriculum. Messages and materials advocating for the health
and well-being of younger children were developed for mothers,
children, and teachers. A modified national curriculum and
systems adapted to reproductive health education were developed.
The BEPS team is working with several local NGOs: Business
Synergies, Mango Tree, and the Straight Talk Foundation.
Teacher
effectiveness was addressed by training teachers in Integrated
Participatory Approaches
for Quality Learning, a
new approach that incorporates participatory learning methodologies.
With this pilot initiative, BEPS partner GroundWork trained
in-service coordinating center tutors, part of the country’s
decentralized teacher development and management system to
facilitate workshops with classroom teachers on the use of
participatory learning methods and tools in their school and
classroom settings.
The BEPS project aims to achieve the following
targets:
- A core of educators in Uganda’s
existing education system trained to instruct others on
how to actualize
participatory learning methodologies and tools
- Over 200
teachers and head teachers in 92 schools trained in participatory
teaching practices
- Supporting training manuals and guides,
adapted to the Ugandan context, on participatory teaching
practices
- Teacher guides and locally-developed materials
to support early childhood development
- Parent/community-oriented
advocacy materials on universal primary education, including
a revised booklet, posters,
and a mass
media campaign
- Increased knowledge, awareness,
and demand for reproductive health rights and quality services
within the key
age cohort
- Several youth-oriented newsletters
addressing reproductive health and HIV/AIDS concerns developed
and widely
disseminated
- Reproductive health and sexuality
integrated into the national curriculum
- A national stakeholder
workshop at the close of the pilot activity to share lessons
learned
and
put forth
recommendations
for
future activities to support reproductive
health education in primary schooling.
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