The United States isworking with Microsoft to improve education management with computertechnology. The U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, will providetwo million dollars to purchase equipment for the project. Microsoft willdesign software that will help gather data in the education ministry. Thealliance is expected to provide educators and students with online resources.
Tenyears ago Uganda introduced free primary education for all children, openingdoors for millions who would have been too poor to go to school. Under theUniversal Primary Education program, the number of children between six and 15years tripled over the past decade.
One of the remaining problems is the lack of a strong system of educationmanagement. Teachers and administrators need to share vital information, suchas changes in school courses and programs, especially in rural areas.
Withno access to Information and Communication Technologies, known as ICT, it hasbecome harder for teachers to stay aware of decisions made by the educationministry.
RichardOgwal is a teacher at a school in Bugiri District in southeastern Uganda. Hesays out of the 21 teachers that were assigned to the school, only six reportedfor duty. The others declined the offer because of the severe shortage ofadequate facilities like teaching supplies and living quarters for teachers.Ogwal says: "Teachers were here but some of them have refused to come. Someonly report and look at the situation and they don't come back. Livingstandards here are difficult. For example, water is the biggest problem here.We get water almost six kilometers away from here."
Twenty-seven schools mayhave to close because of the shortage of teachers in Bugiri District.
Ogwalsays the few teachers who do stay to work find themselves in overcrowdedclassrooms without enough information or teaching resources:
"There is [a] big workload among teachers becauseyou will find a teacher teaching about three or four subjects in more than twoclasses. In fact, a teacher cannot find sufficient material because of theworkload."
Thelack of reliable data management systems in schools also makes it harder torecord, collect and access important information. Some teachers spend daystraveling to the headquarters to check whether or not their names are on thepayroll. Once teachers are hired, it takes years for them to get onto thegovernment payroll because of red tape.
One example is what happened to Andrew Okumu. He was working as a teacher atBudalla primary school and was later transferred to Mutumba primary school. But because of the poor flow of information,the transfer was not on the books at Mutumba, making it difficult for him tostart earning a salary. He explained the dilemmafacing him:
"Ihave not been given an assignment because I have not met with my boss. My bosswent to the district to rectify the situation of the teachers who are notreceiving their salaries. I had asked the headmaster of Budallanot not to delete me because the staff ceiling atMutumba is almost full, meaning that I have no way to access the payroll ofMutumba primary school."
Ministerfor Education Namirembe Bitamazire says a better system of informationtechnology ? and teaching education professionals how to use itwillhelp them deliver better education for students from primary school touniversity:
"We need information. Weneed data to be able to make correct decisions especially decisions on policy,planning, budgeting and the rest. But where you don't have correct data it isalways difficult to arrive at correct decisions. Right now we have expanded ourschool system and we need to know as regularly as possible what numbers we aresponsoring in each school, district and classroom."
The mission director forUSAID in Uganda, David Eckerson, says the agreement between USAID and Microsoftis a milestone that will help the government of Uganda improve its educationalsystem:
"Whatwe want to see is an education management information system that is fullyoperational at the district level. So all districts will be running informationmanagement systems where they will have access to information to make decisionsto improve the education system. And we will start in those districts that dohave the electricity to use the computers and then we will slowly but surelyexpand elsewhere."
USAID has committed up totwo million US dollars to help implement the project. Microsoft will set up andmanage an interactive website with education resources and curriculum,including tools to help parents participate in their children's education.