By Sunday Amandi

Arua

Despite the achievements of universal primary education in Ugandan for the last 25 years of its implementation, various stakeholders are advocate for improvements to make it work better.
In January 1997, the government of Uganda under the leadership of Yoweri Kaguta Museveni introduced Universal Primary Education, UPE, with the aim of taking off the cost of learning, so as to relieve the burden on the poor parents in educating their children.
But according to some education stakeholders in Arua city, a lot still needs to be done to enable the program to achieve its intended purpose.

According to Kennedy Dramani, the PTA chairperson of Ediofe boys primary school, universal primary education realized a lot of achievements at the beginning, but blames the new policies brought afterwards for its downfall, “In the early days of UPE, it was very good, but a lot of policies have been brought to the UPE setting and they make it hard to improve the performance of the learners…………”Dramani said
In a study contacted by Uganda Debt. Network in June 2020 in the areas of Acholi and Karamoja sub-regions, there was an increase in enrolment of pupils in UPE schools from 3 million in 1997 to 8 million in 2020.

Joel Dralumani, the deputy head teacher incharge of academics in St Kizito orphans primary school admits that, though a lot needs to be done to improve quality of education under the program, it improved the literacy level in the country to a great extent, “UPE increased access to education and this increased the literacy rate in the country, but a lot still needs to be done in order to make it achieve its intended purpose, “said Dralumani
Similarly, Primo Onama, the deputy head teacher of sacred hearts nursery school calls upon the government to come to the aid of UPE, for it to achieve its purpose,
Many governments aided primary schools face the challenge of inadequate infrastructural facilities and staff, though so many projects targeting the infrastructure have been rolled out in schools in some parts of the country.