Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga has said that until government ensures every sub-county has a secondary school, there will be continued inequality in the education sector.
Kadaga says it’s unfortunate that there some districts that up to now don’t have any secondary school and this has seen many girls who finish primary education in such districts go into early marriages as they don’t have where to continue with their education.
“There are districts, I think about seven that have no secondary schools, if the district has no school, where will the children go? That is why after Primary Seven; girls go and get married because they have nowhere to go. So it is our responsibility to ensure that there is a secondary school in at least each sub-county,” Kadaga said.
The Speaker made the remarks while opening a parliamentary debate for youth today as part of the Legislature’s efforts to commemorate the International Youth Day slated for 12th August 2019 in Jinja.
The debate brought together over 400 youths to debate on how to improve Uganda’s education sector under the theme; ‘Transforming Education for Responsible Citizenship and Employment creation.’
Kadaga also described as discriminatory the current policy that has put emphasis on having children in rural areas taught in local language compared to those in urban settings who learn in English, saying this has created a gap in quality hence calls for a change in this to cause for equal opportunities in this sector.
“Indeed I am not satisfied with many things in the education sector. For instance, educating children in their local language. It is discriminatory to have children studying in Namayingo from Primary One to compete with children here (Kampala) in Primary Leaving Education,” she said.
The youth used this opportunity to petition the speaker of parliament on the needs for political and social economic inclusion of the youth in Uganda given their biggest percentage that stands at 70%.
A number of motions were tabled including urging Government to reform the education sector, legislation on sexual offences, motion calling on Government to increase youth participation in politics and governance among others.
In a related development, the reigning Miss Uganda, Olivia Nakakande caused a stir in Parliament when she called out youth for making noise instead of debating pertinent issues affecting youths in Uganda, something the young people didn’t take lightly and earned her boos and protest.
“Since I sat there, I haven’t heard any point other than noise. If we are to represent the youths, we must be respectful. You are doing the same thing I am talking about. Please be respectful and share our ideas in order,” Nakakande said.
Her remarks followed the rowdy mock debate characterized by shouting and interruptions.
