Future Schooling in Uganda

For the past decade, most countries have been striving to achieve universal primary education consistent with the United Nations Millennium Development Goal on education. Indeed the recent Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report (UNESCO 2006) shows that most countries are on the way to achieving EFA by the year 2015. Perhaps this is what has forced the academia to shift the debate to what future classrooms would look like, for example, the role of Information Communications Technology (ICT) and possible future virtual learning environments. This paper examines schooling in Uganda at all levels of education, and highlights the changes that will take place in the next two decades thereof. The analysis is based on a study of key policy documents including the Poverty Eradication Action Plan, the Government White Paper on Education, the report of the Ministry of Education's comprehensive analysis of basic education in Uganda, the Education Sector Strategic Plan, as well as empirical data generated from the study of schooling in one of Uganda's disadvantaged communities. The paper describes the changes that will take place including the focus on non-formal education, the dual centralisation and decentralisation system, curriculum review embracing skills training, homeschooling as a complementary mode of primary and secondary education delivery, and distance online learning at the tertiary level.