Keep all the school going children in school

 

By Yoweri Kaguta Museveni:

UNFPA File Photo

I would like to thank the people of Alebtong for hosting this year’s World Population Day.

The WPD2023 theme is in line with the priorities of the NRM government: to guarantee education for all children, good health for all people, and jobs and wealth for all the homesteads in Uganda. These are the conditions for achieving the goal of social economic transformation of society.

The population must be educated and highly skilled, healthy i.e. free of diseases in order to increase their life expectancy and embrace the modality of working for money in the four sectors of commercial agriculture, industries, services and ICT. Therefore, it is on the account of the NRM’s early interventions to improve access to maternal health and immunizing the children against the killer diseases that Uganda’s population had managed to grow from 14 million people in 1986 to 48 million people now.

Life expectancy has also risen from 43 years in 1986 to 64 years now.

The youth under the NRM are fully vaccinated. They are no longer dying of preventable diseases.

In relation to education, we are now reaping dividends from the universal primary education and the universal secondary education programs which were introduced earlier.

Uganda’s adult literacy rate now stands at 75%, a rise from 43% in 1986. This is a phenomenal achievement; however, there is need to bridge the skills gap in our educational system which is largely oriented towards white-collar jobs.

Teachers, parents and guardians should help the young people to select course in the science fields e.g. medicine, engineering, nursing, computer science, computing and science teaching.

The mismatch between the education system and the job market in the private sector accounts for the high rate of unemployment among the young people.

Therefore, there is need to align the university and tertiary courses with the requirements of the private sector. This is because the private sector is the biggest employer. Its capacity to create employment opportunities is vast and unlimited especially in a country like Uganda which boasts of the right policies and infrastructure to guarantee profitability on investment for business enterprises in commercial agriculture, industry, services and ICT.

Public service jobs are very few and limited. The thinking that everyone must have a public service job is misplaced today. It was valid in the past when Uganda had only one university; Makerere University with an enrollment of on 5000 students.

Since the NRM liberalized the education sector, private entities e.g. religious groups, individuals etc. have helped to expand access to education at all levels.

The large numbers of graduates from both the public and private universities can only be absorbed by the private sector.

Therefore, once we solve the skills gap, the problem of youth unemployment will be greatly minimized.

The phenomenon of school dropouts is preventable. It is caused by the extra fees that school authorities have illegally introduced in the UPE and USE programs.

The NRM introduced these programs to help the poor families to educate their children. It is therefore unacceptable for school authorities to continue charging extra fees. This is keeping children out of school and jeopardizing their future.

Uganda’s peace dividends are evident, from border to border, in the form of rapid economic growth and development i.e. the tarmacked roads, electricity, schools, hospitals etc.

However, in order for development to be meaningful, it must be translated into jobs and wealth for the households. For instance, a good tarmac road becomes meaning to a household if you use it to transport farm products e.g. crops, milk etc. to the market. The road is a public good, it belongs to everyone, however, the incomes generated from the sale of your farm produce belong to the individual or the family. Therefore, it is important for all household to join the wealth creation campaign in order to guarantee prosperity.

The NRM government is mobilizing the remaining 39% of the Ugandan households that are still trapped in subsistence farming, i.e. working only for food; to join the money economy.

Subsistence farming fosters poverty because besides food, there are other human needs that must be satisfied; such as shelter, medicine, clothes, education, transport etc. this can only be obtained with money.

The Parish development model and the wealth funds is aimed at increasing the number of wealth creators engaged in production in the four sectors of commercial agriculture, industry, service and ICT.

Finally, I call upon all Ugandans to stay healthy, keep all the school going children in school and embrace the government wealth creation programs to improve livelihoods.

The author is the President of the Republic of Uganda

This is an abridged version of his speech read for him by the Vice President Jessica Alupo during the commemoration of the World Population Day 2023 in Alebtong District on 11^th July.