USAID, Microsoft Work to Improve Education in Uganda | Voice of America - English
The United States is working with Microsoft to improve education management with computer technology. The U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, will provide $2 million to purchase equipment for the project. Microsoft will design software that will help gather data in the education ministry. The alliance is expected to provide educators and students with online resources.
Under the Universal Primary Education program, the number of children betweensix and 15-years-old tripled over the past decade. One of the remaining problems is the lack of a strong system of educationmanagement. Teachers and administrators need to share vital information, suchas changes in school courses and programs, especially in rural areas. Withno access to Information and Communication Technologies, known as ICT, it hasbecome harder for teachers to stay aware of decisions made by the educationministry. RichardOgwal is a teacher at a school in Bugiri District in southeastern Uganda. Hesays out of the 21 teachers that were assigned to the school, only six reportedfor duty. The others declined the offer because of the severe shortage ofadequate facilities like teaching supplies and living quarters For teachers. "Teacherswere here but some of them have refused to come," said Ogwal. "Some only report and look atthe situation and they don't come back. Living standards here are difficult. For example, water is the biggestproblem here. We get water almost six kilometers away from here." Twenty-seven schools mayhave to close because of the shortage of teachers in Bugiri District. Ogwal says the few teachers who do stay towork find themselves in overcrowded classrooms without enough information orteaching resources: "There is big workload among teachers because youwill find a teacher teaching about three or four subjects in more than twoclasses. In fact, a teacher cannot find sufficient material because of theworkload." Thelack of reliable data management systems in schools also makes it harder torecord, collect and access important information. Some teachers spend daystraveling to the headquarters to check whether or not their names are on thepayroll. Once teachers are hired, it takes years for them to get onto thegovernment payroll because of red tape. One example happened to Andrew Okumu. He was working as a teacher at Budallaprimary school and was later transferred to Mutumba primary school. But becauseof the poor flow of information, the transfer was not on the books at Mutumba,making it difficult for him to start earning a salary. He explains the dilemmas thatfaced him: "Ihave not been given an assignment because I have not met with my boss," said Okumu. "My bosswent to the district to rectify the situation of the teachers who are notreceiving their salaries. I had asked the headmaster of Budalla not to delete me because the staff ceiling atMutumba is almost full, meaning that I have no way to access the payroll ofMutumba primary school." Ministerfor Education Namirembe Bitamazire says a better system of informationtechnology ? and teaching education professionals how to use it - willhelp them deliver better education for students from primary school touniversity: "We need information," said Namirembe Bitamazire. "We need data to be able to make correctdecisions especially decisions on policy, planning budgeting and the rest. Butwhere you don't have correct data it is always difficult to arrive at correctdecisions. Right now we have expanded our school system. And we need to know asregularly as possible what numbers we are sponsoring in each school, districtand classroom." The mission director forUSAID in Uganda, David Eckerson, says the agreement between USAID and Microsoftis a milestone that will help the government of Uganda improve its educationalsystem: "What we want to see is aneducation management information system that is fully operational at thedistrict level," said David Eckerson. "So all districts will be running information management systemswhere they will have access to information to make decisions to improve theeducation system. And we will start in those districts that do have theelectricity to use the computers and then we will slowly but surely expandelsewhere." USAID has committed up to $2 million US to help implement the project. Microsoft will set up andmanage an interactive website with education resources and curriculum,including tools to help parents participate in their children's education.