Nakaseke South Member of Parliament Paulson Lutamaguzi Ssemakula says the Shs 1.4 Trillion in funding education is too much money, while other sectors are ministry of Agriculture stuck due to inadequate funds.
It should be remembered that, Cabinet has given its approval for the allocation of more than Shs1.4 trillion in additional funding to the Universal Primary Education (UPE) program.
This decision was presented by First Lady Janet Kataha, also the Education Minister, to address various challenges within the UPE program, including a shortage of teachers.
As per the Ministry of Education’s records, there are currently 12,433 UPE schools in Uganda, accommodating 136,819 teachers and 8,624,264 students. The proposed funding aims to recruit an additional 70,000 teachers, which would reduce the teacher-learner ratio from 1 teacher per 53 learners to a more manageable 1 teacher per 40 learners.
Lutamaguzi says he would expect these funds to also cater for the teacher’s welfare but he is doubtful whether the teachers’ welfare will also improve with his huge funds coupled with the huge numbers of leaners under the UPE program that has been in existence for this long period of time.
He alleges that these funds may be abused, used for political activities as we approach 2026 elections adding that this wouldn’t have been the right time to disburse these funds.
He says the teachers’ motivation and the quality of education has been compromised yet there is a large sum of money being poured into this sector.
