Pupils learning under a tree:learning facilities in most parts of Uganda are in bad state according to the report.

The Equal opportunities commission has released a report that assessed 17 government sectors’ performance calling for interventions for government to enable the poor, orphans, learners in hard to reach areas   to access the best education in their respective locations regardless of their economic status.

The commission report handed over to the deputy speaker of parliament Jacob Oulanyah indicates best education has turned out to be for those in better economic class.

One of  commissioner’s on the Equal opportunity commission Jeol Ojuko  noted that over the years the worst performing sub regions in PLE, UCE, UACE examinations are located in the Eastern region and of 30 districts  poor performing districts six are from busoga which include Bugiri ,mayuge Luuka .kaliro ,iganga and Buyende.

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The commission  also the health sector budget for the financial year 2018/19 is reduced by 136.6 billion shillings from 1.8 trillion shillings budgeted for this sector amid the health challenges Ugandans are facing which include drug stock outs, maternal mortality, lack of housing for health workers, inadequate hospitals among others.

The commission reported in the findings that they received complaints of unfair taxation which result into collapse of various businesses with over 50% failing to reach their first birth day.

The deputy speaker of parliament Jacob Oulanyah asked the Equal opportunity commission to get interested in pushing for government to have more focus on working on rural roads which are not under UNRA and are in poor state.

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The findings are contained in a 2015/16 report that was handed over to Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga at the Parliamentary building by the Chairperson Equal Opportunities Commission, Sylivia Muwebwa Ntambi on Wednesday.

Hon. Rebecca Kadaga the Speaker of Parliament.

Kadaga later lamented that the report was a total embarrassment to the eastern region where she also hails from.

“This is the reason I have started giving text books to schools in Busoga to narrow the gap. We need to bring on board all stakeholders so that we reverse this trend. Children need to get quality education throughout Uganda and we need to see good results,”Kadaga said.

According to the report, the worst performing sub region primary education include Busoga, Teso and Bukedi and these are followed by West Nile, Lango and Acholi. The report mentions the best performing regions in Primary Education as those in Buganda, Ankole, Kigezi, Toro and Bunyoro.
The report further shows that the Eastern region contributes 73% of the poor performing districts of which six are in Busoga  and these include kaliro,Iganga,,Luuka ,Bugiri ,mayuge and Buyende.

It indicates that schools in municipalities perform better than those in main district local governments with performance disparity of 21% for male against 22% of female students.

The findings also reveal that districts within the northern, eastern and West Nile regions are trailing in terms of primary education performance as the chairperson Equal opportunities explains

Ntambi attributed the performance disparities in schools to  poor school inspections by districts education officials, lack of head teacher commitment ,high pupil text book ratio ,poor relationship between the school and the community and refusal of parents and the community to execute their roles in the process of educating a child.

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Youth with disabilities. Photo credit: Gulu disabled persons union

The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) has recommended that 3% of the youth livelihoods program fund be reserved for female and male youth with disabilities. The chairperson of the commission, Rita Matovu, disclosed this while presenting to the Speaker of parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, the annual report on the state of equal opportunities in Uganda 2014.

Matovu said that youth groups accessing youth livelihood fund do not want to accommodate youth with disabilities hence calling for special treatment. The report contains findings garnered by the commission through on site visits and public dialogues with communities in 23 of the 112 districts. She disclosed that the recent challenges affecting societies include the poor education services, widow inheritance of property after husband’s death and the need to fund social protection for Senior Citizens that they say is selective.

The Equal Opportunities Commission annual report to Parliament indicated that widows and children are the most section of people who are deprived of privileges to inherit the properties of the deceased.

The speaker appealed to the commission to lobby for remand homes for children to be constructed in areas especially in the north where they are now put together with adults in prisons like Kampiringisa after committing crimes. She also gave hope to the commission that parliament has taken note of the issue of the social protection grant that’s still in a few districts.

The Minister of the elderly and disabled under the Ministry of gender was asked to embrace all districts for equity. Currently the elderly programme is reaching 113,000 beneficiaries, each receiving 25,000 shs per month. To date 32 billion shs has been paid out to beneficiaries since September 2011

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