Uganda Case Study | 91
TABLE 5.2 Government
responsibilities under the Education Act
FUNCTION
CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Policy
• Setting policy on all matters concerning education and training • Setting and maintaining the national goals and broad aims of education • Encouraging the development of a national language
n.a.
Teachers
• Registering and licensing of teachers (primary, secondary, postprimary) • Recruiting, deployment, and promotion of teaching and nonteaching staff (postprimary)
• Recruiting, deployment, and promotion of teaching and nonteaching staff (primary) • Management, monitoring, supervising, and disciplining of staff and students (primary) • Ensuring teachers’ welfare
Curriculum and instruction
• Providing learning and instructional materials • Developing and controlling the national curriculum • Determining the language of instruction
n.a.
Evaluation and supervision
• Evaluating academic standards through continuous assessment and national examinations • Developing management policies for all government and government-aided schools and private schools
• Ensuring the supervision of student performance in both public and private schools
Institutions
• Ensuring the equitable geographic distribution of education institutions • Regulating, establishing, and registering educational institutions • Providing buildings (de facto)
• Ensuring the equitable geographic distribution of education institutions • Providing and maintaining buildings (de jure and de facto)
Financing
• Restricting collection of fees by government schools and government-aided schools
• Passing on capitation grants to schools
Source: World Bank based on the Education Act, 2008. Note: n.a. = not applicable.
primary teachers and primary school inspectors within approved personnel budget limits, with the input of the District Education Officer (DEO).24 Two recent surveys have found serious shortcomings in some districts with teacher job vacancies and redeployment, noting that key stakeholders such as headmasters and DEOs are not fully involved in the process (Ernst & Young 2019; Lwanga, Munyambonera, and Guloba 2018). In addition, LGs are authorized to procure and supervise improvements in school infrastructure and to procure and supervise the construction of new schools. Schools themselves have only limited responsibilities, which include hiring contract teachers and nonteaching school staff, procuring instructional materials in addition to those provided by MoES (typically, the textbook budget is minimal and donor-dependent), and procuring small school improvements and administrative necessities (Najjumba, Habyarimana, and Bunjo 2013). Head teachers and school management committees (SMCs), which usually meet only once or twice a year, appear to have, relative to many countries, few mandated responsibilities with respect to teachers, curriculum, or finance (Najjumba, Habyarimana, and Bunjo 2013; Twaweza 2018a, 2018b). Headmasters perceive the DEO as the major decision-maker for teacher transfers or suspensions, as well as the person to whom they submit requests related to school improvements. Teachers are often paid allowances from the capitation grant resources, although this is officially discouraged (National Planning Authority 2018c).
Alignment of funding with responsibilities Virtually all funding for education originates from the central government. Local governments’ own revenues for supporting education are minimal,25 and LGs
