In 1997, the Ugandan government made the decision to provide free primary education for four children from every family. This is part of a strategy aimed at achieving universal primary education (UPE) in Uganda. Ambitious goals include the construction of thousands of classrooms, the provision of textbooks for all children, training and hiring of thousands of primary school teachers and providing them with professional support. Government spending on education has risen considerably to 30% of the budget (516 billion Ush for financial year 2001/02). However there is still a lack of qualified teachers, textbooks and classrooms.
The Netherlands Embassy has been involved from the start in UPE. The representative of the Netherlands Embassy, together with other stakeholders, is involved in policy dialogues at all key stages of the process.
When the first UPE graduates came out of school in 2003, it was discovered that a big percentage of pupils had not completed the primary school cycle. The most important challenge for the future therefore is to ensure higher completion rates while at the same time keeping in view the challenges associated with the transition from primary to secondary school where currently, only 40 per cent of primary school leavers are absorbed. Other challenges are that the government retains education at the heart of its strategies to eradicate poverty and that budgeting and monitoring processes continue to improve. Currently the embassy is about to start implementing a bursary scheme for the Northern Region in order to promote reconciliation and to ensure meaningful engagement of beneficiaries in development activities.