Basic Education

ACCELERATING CHILD SURVIVAL AND DEVELOPMENT 2009 Uganda’s Battle Against the Top Childhood Threats © UNICEF Uganda/Roger Le Moyne

PRIMARY EDUCATION THE KEY TO A SUSTAINABLE REDUCTION IN CHILD MORTALITY SITUATION SUMMARY Education is the key component of poverty eradication and development. Primary schools not only provide stability, normalcy and empowerment, but they are also the best place for reaching future mothers and fathers with essential services and life-skills training. The 2006 UDHS found that women with education are more likely to utilise health facilities for delivery; fully immunize their infants and have well-nourished children. In fact, the infant morality rate for children whose mothers had primary education is 20% less than that of infants whose mothers had no education (see chart below) Meeting MDG2 for Universal Primary Education, therefore, is key to the survival and healthy development of the next generation. Despite this, approximately 20% of the population 15 years and above in Uganda have had no formal schooling. Since the introduction of Universal Primary Education, enrolment has increased, but 15-20% of primary school-aged children are not currently enrolled in school and approximately 7% of 6-12 year olds have never attended school at all. Furthermore, of those that do attend, only 40% actually complete their studies. The majority of children missing out on school are in the Karamoja sub-region. While attendance at primary school is approximately 83% in the rest of Uganda, only 43% of school-aged children in this semi-arid region attend class and only 11% register for final Primary Leaving Exams. However, access to education facilities and relevance of the curriculum for communities living in remote and semi-nomadic pastoralist communities is currently limited.

deaths per 1,000 live births

At the national level, the most common reason why children drop out of primary school is cost. Although UPE should be free, there are hidden costs which can be prohibitive for families. A significant portion may also drop out due to the risk of various forms of abuse prevalent in the school system. Raising Voices and Save the Children in Uganda conducted a study in UDHS 2006: Influence of a Mother's Education Attainm ent on Early Childhood Mortality Neonatal MR Infant MR U5 MR

Meeting MDG2 for Universal Primary Education is key to the survival and healthy development of the next generation

2005 which indicated that more than 98% of children reported experiencing physical or emotional violence and 75.8 reported experiencing sexual violence. In this latter category, “forced sex”, “touching” and “exposure” were more prevalent in school than outside school. Also potentially explaining absenteeism is that only 1 in 5 primary schools sampled by the Ministry of Education in 2005 provided at least 5 liters of safe water per day, per pupil, while the pupil per stance ratio of 61:1 is still above the standard 40:1. Gender segregated toilets are provided in only 72% of schools and only 39% had hand-washing facilities. Lack of privacy (16%) and unsanitary toilets (51%) were the main reasons cited by girls for missing school during menstruation.

THE RIGHT OF ALL CHILDREN TO EDUCATION INDICATIVE BUDGET FOR 2009 UNICEF works at the national level and in 23 focus districts to ensure all children progressively realize their right to primary education. In 2009, UNICEF will: • Advocate for allocation of adequate resources for expansion of facilities to absorb all 6 yr olds in P1 and sustain the Go-to-School, Back-to-School, Stayin- School Campaign to boost enrollment; • Support the development of appropriate approaches to education for pastoralist children, expanding the scale and relevance of the system in Karamoja; • Improve completion rates by ensuring implementation of the “Safer Schools Initiative” and dropping the pupil to stance ratio from pupil 61:1 to 40:1 and increasing school safe water access from 58% to 70%. Budgetary Requirements: 15 million USD • USD2.5 million for national level technical assistance, advocacy, leveraging and partnerships. • USD 12.5 for interventions in 23 districts.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION No education

Primary

Secondary

Sheila Wamahiu Chief, Education [email protected]

Karen Allen Deputy Representative [email protected]