The Uganda National Teachers' Union (UNATU) has urged the government to increase funding for education to save parents from the exorbitant fees charged by private schools.
UNATU says if the government increases funding for education and revamps public schools, parents will be saved from the exorbitant fees paid in private schools on top of the unrealistic school requirements.
The back to school period had consistently become a pain for many parents who wish to have their children attain better education, which has become very expensive.
Despite having free public education in place, a number of parents opt for private education given the poor performance in Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE) public schools.
It's upon this that the UNTAU has asked the government to adequately fund public education if the country is to progress in achieving quality education.
"The option of public education through the UPE and USE programmes remains the best way to ensure increased access to education for all Ugandan children, but this sector remains underfunded, grappling with under resourced teaching and learning environments which affects the quality of education offered," says UNATU secretary-general Filbert Baguma.
Baguma says there is a lot that need to be done among which include enhancing teachers' salaries without discrimination, addressing the learner to teacher ratio among others.
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Baguma says although the government opened up the sector to private individuals to invest in education, it remains within its mandate to regulate the sector.
UNATU emphasises that the government should recruit more teachers, improve their salaries, activate scheme of service, support continuous professional development, financial support to teachers' SACCOs and invest more in teaching and learning materials.
The teachers union also says increasing access to mental health, raising capitation grant, investing in research, and revamping public schools would balance the bridge the gap that has been widened by the commercialisation of the education sector.
The Ministry of Education is one of the largest recipients of the national budget, but UNATU says the funds are still too low for the current needs.
In the 2023/2024 financial year, education was allocated Shs4.02 trillion, but this was reduced from Shs4.11 trillion in the previous financial year.
Last week during the release of the 2023 UCE results, the Minister for Education assured the public that government is committed to investing in quality education in all schools including those implementing Universal education.
