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Every child has a right to learn and access quality services to fulfil their potential. Education enables gainful employment opportunities and empowers boys and girls to participate in decision-making to build a better future for themselves and their communities.
Uganda faces major challenges in providing quality and accessible basic education to children and adolescents. Today, around 4 out of 10 young children aged 3 to 5 years attend early childhood education, showing marked progress from 2011 that saw 2 out of 10 children enrolled. Similarly, 8 out of 10 children aged 6 to12 years attend primary school and more than 1 in 4 attend secondary school.
However, access remains inequitable: the enrolment of the richest 20 per cent of the population (43.1 per cent) is five times that of the poorest 20 per cent (8.2 per cent). In geographical terms, the highest Secondary Net Enrolment is seen in Kampala (52 per cent) and lowest in Acholi (7 per cent).
Child marriage, teenage pregnancy, abuse at schools and school fees keep many teens, especially girls, out of secondary schools. Costs associated with education account for 6 out of 10 people leaving school, and pregnancy accounts for 8 per cent of girls who left school. Similar challenges remain in the quality of education: only about 50 per cent of the children in Primary 3 were proficient in literacy and numeracy in a 2018 survey conducted by the Government.
Rotary Club of Acacia Sunset together with partners will work diligently towards this goal through a project that provide infrastructure renovation, stakeholder sensitization, teacher training, simplified curriculum kits, books, desks and much more.
Budde Primary School is a government of Uganda supported education facility in Budde sub county - Butambala District in Central Uganda. It has a total of 612 pupils and 19 staff (01 headmaster, 01 deputy headmaster, 12 teachers, 04 non-teaching staff, 01 security guard).
The project team at the Rotary Club of Acacia Sunset conducted a joint needs assessment with the staff and the following were identified key gaps affecting the quality of healthcare at this facility. These include:
• Obsolete and complex early childhood development curriculum
• Unskilled teachers
• Lack of a library section
• Inadequate classroom equipment
• Inadequate scholastic materials to support learning
It's against this background that the Rotary Club of Acacia Sunset Kampala has considered a strategic intervention to reduce on the above sad statistics in the communities of Budde sub county by supporting the school's infrastructure and capacity development to address the leading challenges that are impeding basic education and literacy enhancement fatalities.
Objectives
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• To carryout infrastructural rehabilitation of Budde primary school's library section to improve a basic education and literacy.
• To provide scholastic materials (books for the library)
• To provide classroom equipment (desks for classes)
• To improve basic education and literacy enhancement capacity at Budde primary school and equip staff with information that address the challenges faced in early childhood development.
Planned Activities
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• Rehabilitate the school library as part of infrastructure capacity building of the Budde Primary School
• Carry out community education using information, education and communication (IEC) tools to address early childhood development, targeted community dialogues with key influencers, village and district education teams
• Girl-child empowerment sensitization
• Work with Ministry of Education and other partners to provide more skills to teaching staff in early childhood development by upgrading certificate holders to diploma level
• Provide a simplified curriculum kits for early childhood development facilitators
• Provide basic education and literacy enhancement supplies - desks, textbooks, pencils, pens, exercise books, chalk etc.
• Conduct an D.E.A.R. Day (Drop-Everything-And-Read) and community education, using IEC tools.
Outcomes
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• A completed and rehabilitated Library at Budde Primary school
• Parents and Teachers Message Dissemination Seminar
• Skills training Forum for Teaching and non-teaching staff
• Diploma upgrade for teaching staff (from Grade III certificate)
• Distribution of Scholastic materials - Desks, Books.
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