I. THE ACHOLI SUB-REGION – A SHORT SURVEY
Gulu Archdiocese predominantly comprises the people of Acholi (Luo) tribe, who live in eight districts of northern Uganda- Gulu, Nwoya, Omoro, Amuru, Agago, Pader, Kitgum, Lamwo, and the metropolitan area of Gulu City. Except for the Gulu area, the Acholi sub-region is rural in nature, except for a few smaller towns such as Kitgum and Pader. Most of the districts are rural districts and improvised in service delivery. The Acholi population could be close to two millions, though the population statistics are being contested.
In the past decades, especially before the insurgency caused by Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) the population was scattered and thinly populated. Though a small percentage of people were well educated and held high positions in the civil society, the vast majority of people did not acquire higher education or trained in skills. In a way the period of insurgency pushed people to go to school in the Internally Displaced People/Camps (IDP). Education of girls was always at stake.
During the LRA insurgency people lost their land, livelihood, cattle, properties and dear ones. Many people also took shelter in other areas outside the Acholi land including Kampala. A significant population did not return to their fatherland. The conflict that lasted for more than two decades, substantially destroyed the culture and tradition, making people lose their roots. The effects and scars of the war are very much seen to this day. The loss of culture, livelihood and belongings pushed people to other vices and iniquities.
II. STATUS OF EDUCATION IN ACHOLI SUB-REGION
War having destroyed the physical and social structures of the local community, education and morality were the first casualty. Today along with the people of Karamoja, Acholi sub-region leads in school dropouts, which further leads to unemployment, exploitation of youth, trafficking of vulnerable young people, abandonment of children and school going youth.
School dropout rate in Acholi sub-region is next only to the Karamoja region. According to the various findings, less than 30% of children finish primary education, only 20% complete Secondary education and only about 5% go to the university or acquire a skill from a tertiary institution. Following reasons are cited for this situation:
i. Situation of extreme poverty in Acholi households, especially in the homes led by single mothers, homes with many children due to polygamy and other family issues.
ii. Grave psychosocial and spiritual trauma with all its complications in all areas of life on the part of the learners causing homelessness, helplessness and hopelessness
iii. Lack of availability, affordability and accessibility of quality education particularly for those living in rural areas, causing children to drop out in the lower primary school or lower secondary school.
iv. Very low number admitted on merit (Government Sponsorship) to universities, due to the fact that students from the northern districts are unable to compete with those from other regions of the country.
III. SCHOOL DROP OUTS IN NORTHERN UGANDA: Causes and Consequences
Uganda stands within the first 12 countries in Africa where children do not enrol or fail to complete basic education. This situation prevails when Uganda has a long history of established educational institutions and where the Churches have invested heavily in education.
As per Catholic Church’s statistics, after India, thanks to the early missionaries Uganda has the largest number of Catholic institutions in the universal Church. The Anglican Church too has many educational establishments. After privatisation of education, the private partners too have come in large numbers in establishing schools.
It is needless to say that the country lacks educational policies and policy implementation in this sector. Unfortunately, the situation is getting worse rather than improving. There are also glaring disparities among regions in the number of schools, education quality provided and the financial implications. Though Uganda is a small country compared to many large countries of Africa, the problems of one region seem to be quite different from another and they do not share the same aspirations or resources.
Leadership and animation and governance within the Church needs serious revision. There is an urgent need to discuss as one family, appoint qualified and experienced Religious and Lay people in our central and local educational offices.
In the year 2020 UNICEF gives the following statistics of school dropouts from northern Uganda:
· 34% of children aged 6 -12 are out of school.
· 45% adolescents aged 13 -15 are out of school.
· 63% of youth aged 16 -18 are out of school.
Since 2019 UNICEF enumerates the following causes for the school dropout:
· Poverty (71%)
· Lack of interest (14%)
· Early marriage (12%)
· Pregnancy (8%)
· Conflict and displacement (6%)
· Lack of access to education facilities (5%)
In 2020 Uganda Bureau Of Statistics (UBOS) gives the following data as regional disparities:
· Acholi sub-region: 41% dropout rate
· Lango sub-region: 35% dropout rate
· West Nile sub-region: 32% dropout rate (UBOS)
As given by UNICEF in 2020 the gender disparities girls are more likely to drop out (38%) than boys (29%) and girls’ dropout rate increases with age: 25% (13-15 years), 45% (16-18 years)
School dropouts cause a vicious cycle of poverty as, reduced economic opportunities, increased poverty, limited access to healthcare, education and other social services, and increased vulnerability to exploitation and abuse, especially among girls and young women.
Government and the civil society is well aware of these appalling statistics and have initiated various initiatives, but by and large many of them have not given desired results. Some of the initiatives are:
· Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE) policies offering free education for primary and secondary schools
· School feeding programs
· Various girls’ education strategies such as re-entry programmes for pregnant girls.
These and other programmes fail due to gaps/causes in implementation such as:
1. Leadership, Administrative and Government Level
· High level of corruption in the education sector, lack of right priority given to education.
· Poor implementation of Universal Primary Education, politicisation of the programme
· Poor facilitation of schools implementing Universal Secondary Education
· Lack of funds and misuse of funds at all levels of government
· Foundation bodies, such as Church and other faith-based organisation are rightly engaged in running the school, church has largely given up on schools originally founded by them
· Lack of guidance, leadership and monitoring from the foundation body in promoting the schools
· teachers’ absenteeism especially those on government payroll
· leaders in education such as Headteachers lack capacity to lead cannot supervise and be a role model to junior staff
· nepotism and bribery in appointing officials in all levels of education who in turn offer poor services and lack morale in executing their services
· Teachers who are failures in their own education join the teaching profession and lack interest in teaching and do not have capacity to teach and care for children.
· Teachers especially in government school are not supervised, teachers fail to make lesson plan, scheme of work
2. Social and Cultural Level
· people’s low attitude towards education, as education is a waste of time and parents do not value education
· Children from homes with domestic violence and unstable condition are not in a position to stay in school
· Parents do not encourage children to go to school, engage them in domestic, agricultural and economic activities
· High level of child abuse and child neglect does not engage children to be in school
· Defilement, teenage pregnancy, child marriage lead children to leave school and often crimes against children are compromised through bribery and monetary benefits.
3. Children/Learners Level
· Children in lower primary classes (P1 to P4) fail read and know numeracy that makes them dropout
· The prioritising of P6 and P7 classes as the most important, and high negligence of the lower classes
· Children lack character, a child in P5 is reported to take alcohol
Causes from many other sections of various stakeholders can be listed.
IV. URGENT CALL FOR REVITALIZATION OF EDUCATION SECTOR
There are numerous schools that have failed to score even one pupil in Division 1 in Primary Leaving Examination for a number of years; they are government schools and Church founded schools. Often with little resources private schools owned by private individuals work hard and show success and progress, especially in the primary schools.
I observe that in the whole nation, less than 50 government schools—both the government founded and government supported Church schools have maintained their long-standing quality and continue to progress. There is a growing trend that Church founded but privately managed schools are progressing steadily, but unfortunately the poor are excluded in these schools. Like other private schools, they are also profit-oriented, involving many ‘politics’. The Church has largely given up or is unable to manage and supervise its foundation schools. It is sad and scandalous to see them deteriorating year after year in structure and quality of service.
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V. WAY FORWARD
These suggestions and remarks are not exhaustive. With the concerned stakeholders many more practical matters can be discussed and more scientific resolutions can be formulated for immediate action.
1. Build a sense of belonging to our Church-owned schools; this feeling ought to be expressed by all the stakeholders including the leaders of a given particular school and the lay Faithful who ought to benefit from them.
2. This sense of belonging should arise from Christian faith and the Catholic education principles we employ in them, or like to see in them.
3. Have clear memorandum with the government bodies and renew them and revise them where necessary, so as to maximize our involvement in our schools.
4. We can improve our schools only if we put Christian Faith and Morals in our schools; every effort should be made to prepare teachers and leaders to live according to our teaching, and be in sacraments.
5. Prepare faithful and practicing Catholics to lead our school; supervise them through the parish structures.
6. Legal matters, such as land title, ownership of the buildings, etc should be in order. This makes us the real owners of the school.
7. Encourage the Catholic Faithful to study in our school and make it a priority to admit our Faithful in our schools and assist them where possible.
8. Dioceses should coordinate the resources of the Religious congregations in running our schools, invite them and facilitate them to open more institutions.
9. Every district should have at least one excellent Catholic Secondary and Vocational school. This can be easily worked out through Religious societies.
10. Our schools should be financially viable and sustainable. In today’s context it is very possible to make our school economically profitable. Diocesan authority should make matters transparent and accountable.
11. Periodic training should be facilitated by the diocese and episcopal conference, because we Educate through Evangelization and Evangelize through Education.
We, as the Church and her ministers, have enormous resources at hand which can be better utilized and help to achieve the goal that our missionaries envisioned over a century ago in Uganda. Let us take the God given mandate of educating God’s people to our heart and mind.
Thank you and God bless you.
Fraternally in the Lord,
Fr. Lazar Arasu SDB – Headmaster, Don Bosco SS, Atede-Gulu.arasuafrica@gmail.com – 0