Education for All: Reflections on the Schooling Status for the Girl Child in Uganda

Abstract

In this chapter, we argue that international declarations, global agendas and national agendas, including programs geared at “Education For All,” have made substantial contributions in improving the education status of girls and boys in general. In the context of Uganda, while these measures cannot be discounted, the girl child still faces enormous social structure and cultural barriers, not only in accessing education and surviving through the primary education level, but also in transitioning to lower secondary education. This is illustrated with evidence based on the analysis of enrollment and survival rates of girls in primary education for more than one decade. The gender based inequalities perpetuated by social structure and cultural barriers within a patriarchal society are partly to blame for the challenges the girl child faces, but more so, a failure of the educational planners to tailor interventions to meet the critical needs of the girls in the education system are to blame. Factors such as teenage pregnancy and early marriages, and the long term consequences they manifest, further undermine the girl child education. Other factors, including the quality of education as implied by the inadequate infrastructure, understaffing, teacher absenteeism, lack of access to food and a general loss of interest in the education, generally affect the education of girls and boys. This chapter highlights, among other issues, the opportunity to tap into modern forms of technology to break down barriers to girls’ education, designing social protection packages that meet the needs of girls while schooling and generally targeting mass sensitization to change the way the girl child is socially constructed in order to build positive attitudes among parents and community persons to support the education of the girl child.