Uganda

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Uganda today is a largely stable and prosperous country with a growing economy. However, the country

faces many challenges in its efforts to continue its development. The north of the country has been home

to a long running and fierce civil conflict involving the Lord’s Resistance Army and Government Forces,

which has cost hundreds and thousands of lives. Despite recent growth, Uganda is classified as a Highly

Indebted Poor Country. Like many countries in Africa, HIV/AIDS threatens to undermine progress, though

Uganda won international praise in the 1990’s for its’ success in tackling the disease and dramatically

reducing prevalence.

Why we work in Uganda

The Ugandan Government has made a concerted effort to open up access to education for all children,

making primary education free in 1997 and extending this to the first two years of secondary education in

2007. This has had a huge impact on the numbers of children going to school, increasing from 3.1 million in

1996 to 8.2 million children by 2009. This is a great achievement, but the rapid rise in numbers has put a

huge strain on the system. Class sizes have shot up and quality has suffered. The challenge now is to make

sure that all children get a decent quality of teaching and learning once in the classroom, to ensure the

government’s investment is not wasted, and all children get the decent start in life that school should

provide.

“Why does quality matter?”

In Uganda 84% of school age children start primary school, but only about half of these will finish their

primary education. Of those that finish primary school, only about a third pass their basic literacy and

numeracy tests. In other words for every 100 children of primary school age only 15 will end up being able

to read and write.

PICTURE: KIZIBA PRIMARY, NAKASEKE, UGANDA

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Link’s Team in Uganda

Link has been working in Uganda since 2000. We began in Masindi in the north-west of Uganda and now

operate programmes in 4 districts: Masindi, Kiryandongo, Buliisa and Kamwenge. Link’s offices in each

district work with schools and district officials on a daily basis. Link also have an office in the capital,

Kampala, which works closely with the senior staff at the Ministry of Education and Sports’ Directorate of

Education Standards (DES), the body responsible for monitoring and supporting the quality of education in

the country. Our team of 14 Ugandan education specialists is led by Programme Director, Derek Nkata.

PICTURE: AFRICA

A message from Derek Nkata

Link Uganda Programme Director

“I have been with Link for the last 10 years, first as a partner serving as a District

Education Officer in Masindi where Link’s work in Uganda started and then as Chair of

the Link Uganda Board until 2006, and currently as Programme Director.

Link has built a good reputation in Uganda through its work in supporting school

improvement. Our innovative model has continued to attract a lot of interest from

Government, other NGOs and international organisations working in the country. We

are grateful to all our partners for their support. We continue to innovate with the

recent introduction of the Healthy Schools Programme to increase the ability of

schools to promote children’s health and wellbeing. Without funding, Link’s work in

Uganda is not possible. In Uganda we say ‘The shy mouth made its owner sleep

hungry’. I welcome all those who speak out and can support and contribute to our

work in the country.”

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Link’s Uganda School Improvement Programme is focused on the rural and poor districts of Masindi, Buliisa,

Kiryandongo and Kamwenge. These districts were chosen with the help of the Ugandan Government who

advised where our support was needed most.

Masindi

Less than a quarter of pupils who start their primary education will complete it. It is estimated that in 2010, the population of the district was approximately 285,200.

Buliisa

The district has just one teacher for every 77 pupils. It was estimated that the population of Buliisa District in 2010 was approximately 88,700 and the annual population growth rate is estimated at 4.0%.

Kiryandongo

The exact population of Kiryandongo is not known. However, it is estimated that for a radius of 7 kilometres (4.3 mi), from the centre of town, the total population is approximately 13,400, as of January 2011.

Kamwenge

In this district, there is a lack of awareness of the right to education, leading to a low level of community involvement with schools. It is estimated that in 2010, the population of the district was approximately 363,200.

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Our work in Uganda is focused at district level on building the capacity of schools, their communities and

their supporting structures. We do this through:

School Performance Review (SPR) A unique approach, developed by Link, to provide schools and districts with the tools to measure and

understand a school’s performance, and to use this information to make improvements through School

Improvement Planning.

Community involvement

As part of the SPR process, we support community members to get involved with how their school is

performing and encourage them to become members of their schools’ governing bodies. Through School

Performance Appraisal Meetings we help them discuss and agree on what action for improvement is

necessary, and how the community can actively support it.

Training and capacity building Link’s local teams offer sustainable training and ongoing support at a number of levels for district and school

leaders, teachers, and communities. Along with teacher training, we focus on building skills in literacy and

numeracy, leadership and financial and curriculum management.

Sharing knowledge and experience Link supports the schools we work with to engage in international teacher exchange and school partnership

programmes through our Link Schools Programme and our Global Teachers Programme.

We facilitate international school partnerships with schools in England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland,

bringing schools together to learn from one another and to support quality education –as partners in

development. The Link Schools Programme enables the schools to regularly exchange packages and access to

our themed Partnership Projects, curriculum based projects on key development issues.

Partnerships are complimented by the Global Teachers Programme which supports teachers from Ireland

and Scotland to undertake placements in African schools. The purpose of these is to support the

development of the placement school and gain a valuable insight into development education to use in

their own schools.

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PICTURE: BWEYALE SCHOOL, KIRIYANDONGO, UGANDA

National Take-up of School Programme Review Since 2000, Link's partnerships with District Departments of Education have impacted directly on 362

schools improving the quality of teaching and learning for 180,942 children and 3,511 head teachers and

teachers. Link’s impact has been wider still - recently our SPR model has been incorporated into the

National Ministry of Education and Sports’ project, UNITY (Uganda Initiative for TDMS1 and PIASCY1),

focusing on 2,100 primary schools in the 17 districts within the Uganda sub-regions of Acholi, Lango and

Teso.

Tullow Oil and Link Uganda Corporate Social Responsibility Award

In 2010 we were a major partner in a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative with Tullow Oil

Uganda, which won a coveted East African Corporate Social Responsibility Sustainability Project Award

for good CSR practice in developing countries. The education element of the project was delivered

through the Tullow Oil Link Community Development Schools Improvement Project (TOLSIP), a

partnership between Tullow Oil Uganda and Link Uganda. The project aims to improve the quality of

education provided to pupils attending eight selected schools in the Tullow Oil area of operation in

Hoima and Buliisa Districts, providing a model for CSR in support of Universal Primary Education (UPE) in

Uganda. The project directly benefited 5,000 pupils, more than 60 community School Management

Committee members, 16 head teachers and deputy head teachers, 16 Lower Primary school teachers

and District officials.

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Jeeja Primary School, Masindi District

The situation

Jeeja Primary School in Masindi District had low levels of learner attainment in Literacy. Learners progressed

through primary school without adequate skills for reading and writing and as a result many failed to

achieve the required competency levels to pass examinations in many subjects. Link, in partnership with

local education authorities, identified literacy as a key factor to improving learners’ performance across the

board.

The intervention

Link staff in Uganda have developed a training curriculum in partnership with the Ministry of Education and

Sports, aimed at enabling primary school teachers to better teach literacy skills in the lower primary

classrooms. Link has implemented literacy training for all Primary 1 and Primary 2 teachers in the Districts of

Masindi, Bullisa, Kamwenge and Katakwi, reaching a total of 292 teachers. Link’s training approach aimed to

develop the capacity of the local education authority to deliver similar training in the future. This made the

intervention more sustainable.

The impact

Lower Primary teacher Helen has seen the benefits of Link’s training: ‘My approach to teaching literacy has

improved a lot. Teaching and learning is now more interactive, students enjoy it and are eager to come to

school early each day. Pupils are now able to demonstrate improvement in reading and writing’. Helen’s

teaching success in the classroom has earned her a promotion to acting head teacher of neighbouring

Masindi Port Primary school.

PICTURE: JEEJA PRIMARY SCHOOL, MASINDI, UGANDA