Uganda’s First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Museveni has thanked Belgium for her support to Uganda especially the education sector.
Janet made the remarks as Belgium’s Ambassador Hugo Verbist paid her a courtesy farewell visit at her office last Friday.
Ambassador Verbist is putting final touches to his tour of duty in Uganda, following four professionally and personally, very enriching and inspirational years in the East African nation.
The First Lady thanked Belgium for its continuous support, the reliable partnership and relevant dialogue and cooperation in the sector. She added that the Ambassador will always be welcome, being a friend of Uganda forever.
As a farewell present, a beautiful painting of a Ugandan crane (The national bird), was generously offered by the First Lady to Ambassador Verbist, a gift that will remind him and his family about the unforgettable four years he spent here in the pearl of Africa, according to a statement on the Belgium Embassy Facebook page.
During his visit, the Ambassador took the opportunity to make a case for more adequate budget allocations for social sectors including education to support human capital development, making growth in Uganda more inclusive and generate jobs to keep up with Uganda’s growing and young population.
With regard to teacher training, the Ambassador reiterated the urgent need to review the curriculum to ensure the quality of education outcomes adapted to new market requirements. On TVET, the Ambassador commended the Government of Uganda for its newly adopted TVET policy and is looking forward to its implementation. He emphasized the need of a robust partnership between private and public sector to enable training and a diversified spectrum of skilling opportunities that respond to the job market demand.
The European nation also supports the cooperation between universities and scholarships, and recently a new actor in Uganda, VVOB vzw education for development, came on board to complete the Belgian landscape in the sector.
Belgium, through its direct bilateral cooperation program implemented by Enabel in Uganda, is active in two key areas of the education sector, secondary teacher training on the one hand and Technical and Vocational Training (#TVET) on the other.
The ambassador was accompanied by the Deputy Head of Mission and Head of Cooperation Mr. Erwin De Wandel.
