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African Wisdom has remained on the verge of collapse arising from Western knowledge dominance. In the global knowledge revolution however, all knowledge is critical in social transformation. This study examines the value of African wisdom in modern education. It interrogates the role of African wisdom in developing modern competence-education. Thus, the article documents the philosophical scope of African wisdom as naturalized epistemology. It explores the status of African wisdom in the wake of colonialism, painting the hegemonic character of Western knowledge production. It empirically examines the value of African Wisdom in development of competence-based education. Using qualitative research on Uganda, the paper analyzes the hidden educational treasure embedded in two African wisdom sources. Researchers used quantitative research to document the benefits and challenges of integration of African wisdom in modern education. Finally, the paper recommends transformative education in the social reconstruction of African education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Up to 1.45 billion people currently suffer from soil transmitted helminth infection, with the largest burden occurring in Africa and Asia. Safe and cost effective deworming treatment exists, but there is a debate about mass distribution of this treatment in high prevalence settings. While the World Health Organization recommends mass administration of anthelmintic drugs for preschool and school-aged children in high (>20%) prevalence settings, and several long run follow up studies of an influential trial have suggested large benefits that persist over time, recent systematic reviews have called this recommendation into question. Methods and findings: This paper analyzes the long-term impact of a cluster-randomized trial in eastern Uganda that provided mass deworming treatment to preschool aged children from 2000 to 2003 on the numeracy and literacy skills of children and young adults living in those villages in 2010-2015. This study uses numeracy and literacy data collected seven to twelve years after the end of the deworming trial in a randomly selected subset of communities from the original trial, by an education-focused survey that had no relationship to the deworming study. Building on an earlier working paper which used data from 2010 and 2011 survey rounds, this paper uses an additional four years of numeracy and literacy data (2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015). Aggregating data from all survey rounds, the difference between numeracy scores in treatment versus control communities is 0.07 standard deviations (SD) (95% CI -0.10, 0.24, p = 0.40), the difference in literacy scores is 0.05 SD (95% CI -0.16, 0.27, p = 0.62), and the difference in total scores is 0.07 SD (95% CI -0.11, 0.25, p = 0.44). There are significant differences in program impact by gender, with numeracy and literacy differentially positively affected for girls, and by age, with treatment effects larger for the primary school aged subsample. There are also significant treatment interactions for those living in households with more treatment-eligible children. There is no evidence of differential treatment effects on age at program eligibility or number of years of program eligibility. Conclusions: Mass deworming of preschool aged children in high prevalence communities in Uganda resulted in no statistically significant gains in numeracy or literacy 7-12 years after program completion. Point estimates were positive but imprecise; the study lacked sufficient power to rule out substantial positive effects or more modest negative effects. However, there is suggestive evidence that deworming was relatively more beneficial for girls, primary school aged children, and children living in households with other treated children. Research approval: As this analysis was conducted on secondary data which is publicly available, no research approval was sought or received. All individual records were anonymized by the data provider prior to public release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to climate change and increased urbanisation, the current level of freshwater withdrawals and corresponding water usage in Uganda has increased, affecting the availability of these resources and becoming a concern. Education can play a crucial role in providing support to and training students on sustainable water use, both at home and in relation to school activities. Therefore, it is imperative that the education system develops actions, approaches and materials to achieve this goal. The paper assesses the current state of existing Ugandan education on this subject, by identifying the water-related topics currently featured in the curriculum at different class levels, with the aid of questionnaires conducted in four schools in Uganda. Three questionnaires (one for primary school pupils, one for secondary school pupils and one for teachers) were designed for collecting targeted data, and thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the data collected. The results revealed important insights regarding students' behaviours towards water usage at home. They also revealed that water sustainability topics are delivered in the science curriculum at the primary level, as opposed to geography at the secondary level, confirming that overall, there is a lack of integrated practical teaching incorporated within the courses currently taught in Ugandan schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For children to know how to fully participate in and most effectively lead the world they will inherit, they must learn how to critically engage with it and be knowledgeable about foundational rights and instruments that support such engagement. Together, critical literacy, which encourages the examination and interrogation of the underlying assumptions of dominant narratives and 'legitimate' knowledge, and children's rights education, which involves children in learning how to express their ideas and fully participate in society (as appropriate to their age and ability), offer a powerful approach—theoretical and pedagogical—to engage children in active engagement of the world, especially with respect to the promotion of social justice. However, the layers of complexity and risks associated with deep consideration of challenging topics require expert guidance and compassionate role modelling from teachers of young children. Our paper considers the intersections between critical literacy and global child rights with reference to a study conducted with young school children in Canada and Uganda to discuss how teachers can support meaningful learning experiences in the classroom that can promote children's agency and social justice commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed largely by Affect theory (2004), this paper takes up ‘reflexivities of discomfort’ to reflexively engage with my affective struggles as a Christian, heterosexual, mother, educator, undertaking a study on homosexuality, which is a thorny issue in Uganda. It a methodological prologue, reflecting my thoughts and struggles before I undertake the study. My purpose is not to find solutions, but to lay bare some anxieties and ambivalences, also suggesting the limits of reflexivity. The paper begins with an autobiographical narrative about school in relation to (homo)sexuality. This is followed by an exposition of Uganda’s Anti-homosexuality Bill; my use of reflexivity and affect to inform my affective struggles; my background as it relates to sexuality, providing insights into my researcher positionality. I then engage with moments imbued with high affective/emotive intensity in my preparation to undertake the study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the role of educational attainment in being employed in Uganda. Using household panel data for four waves; 2005/06, 2009/10, 2010/11 and 2011/12, the study estimates correlated random effects models and analyses the education-employment relationship. We find a positive association between educational attainments and "not-working" in the static model but when state dependence is accounted for, the association disappears for all education levels except degree education which is not significant at conventional levels. Therefore, it can be concluded that the observed positive association between education and "not-working" is a short term effect for individuals with less than degree education, but may persist for individuals with degree education. With reference to informal sector employment, the results are mixed. They depict a heterogeneous sector which is hierarchical, whereby more educated individuals are observed in informal salaried work and less educated individuals are observed working in household enterprises. Further, there is a positive association between education and employment status which is strongest in the formal sector. All results vary by age group, gender and residence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The role of increased schooling on teenage childbirth has been expansively studied especially in developed countries. However, caveats remain in the case of low-income countries especially Sub-Saharan Africa. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the impact of increased schooling on the probability of first childbirth at 15 years or younger, 16-17, 18-19, and 20 years or older, in the important context of Uganda – a country with one of the highest adolescent fertility rates in Africa.Design/methodology/approach The empirical analysis uses recent data from the nationally representative Demographic and Health Survey for Uganda conducted in 2011. The authors then adopt a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, estimated using instrumental variables techniques that exploit the exogenous change in schooling impelled by the universal primary education policy enacted in 1997 in Uganda. The empirical approach compares the fertility outcomes for women born in 1984-1992 (i.e. exposed to the policy) to those born in 1973-1981 (i.e. non-exposed).Findings The authors find that a one-year increase in schooling lowers the probability of first childbirth at age the age of 15 years or younger, 16-17, 18-19, and 20 years or older by nearly 8.2, 9.2, 9.4, and 9.5 percentage points, respectively. Also, pathways through which education impacts teenage motherhood included information access through the media, increased literacy, prenatal care utilization, marital status, and unhealthy sexual behavior.Originality/value The paper uses nationally representative survey data to scrutinize the causal influence of schooling on the probability of first childbirth using the 1997 universal primary education in Uganda as a natural experiment to identify the impact of schooling. The study recommends that expanding primary schooling opportunities for girls may be an effective strategy toward accelerated reductions in teenage fertility in Uganda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses multilevel analysis procedures to examine individual- and group-level learning barriers that have the greatest impact on pupil achievement in Uganda. The data for this study were collected in 2014 among 2711 Grade 6 pupils attending 82 schools in two rural districts of Iganga and Mayuge in Uganda. Data used in this paper are part of a larger study which sought to examine the schooling patterns, as well as the quality of education received by children living in rural settlements in Uganda. Among the learning barriers with the greatest impact on pupil achievement at the individual-level were lack of parental involvement, lack of pre-primary school attendance, grade repetition, and lack of basic learning resources such as writing materials. At the school-level, the barriers with the most impact on pupil achievement were lack of teacher lesson preparedness, lack of teacher-classroom support by subject advisors, distance between school and teachers' place of residence, lack of basic classroom resources, and whether or not the teacher kept pupil learning progress records. Implications of the findings for policy and practice are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores opportunities for integrating formal and non-formal education in Uganda in ways that help learners acquire, build and maintain productive skills for sustainable livelihoods. Using an interpretive paradigm, the authors draw on the capability approach and social practices theory of literacy to guide their qualitative analysis. The authors describe good practices in non-formal education in Uganda and Africa which diversify learning options for learners. Integration of formal and non-formal education is shown as capable of promoting practice-oriented skills learning which can significantly improve Uganda's education system which is currently too theoretical for addressing people's real needs. Such integration can maximize rural people's participation levels in government's poverty reduction interventions and enhance their chances for creating wealth and attaining sustainable livelihoods. Challenges to be faced in bridging the gap between the two forms of education in Uganda are highlighted and the way forward suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines ways in which privatisation of education is affecting the search for gender justice through education focusing on Uganda's higher education institutions (HEIs). Since 1988 when the first private university was opened, the winds of change have swept Uganda's higher education sector to change how it is financed and managed. The shift has been from the state as the sole player to fully private HEIs operated as commercial enterprises alongside state-owned ones. Even institutions that are still owned by the state are being run on the basis of free market principles. How then is the process of privatisation/liberalisation of higher education affecting establishment and/or sustainability of programmes that promote social justice, particularly gender justice in higher education and ultimately the education system? What are the implications for future efforts to promote and sustain gender justice in higher education? This paper, based on gender-focused semi-ethnographic research in Uganda's HEIs, is an attempt to answer these questions within the context of current political, economic and social changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the concept of community involvement in education, which Uganda Programme for Human and Holistic Development (UPHOLD) is experimenting in selected districts in Uganda, with specific emphasis on Aroi Sub County, Arua district. The initiative was introduced for communities surrounding a particular primary school get involved in issues that adversely affect children's learning, especially the deterioration in performance and declining quality of education under the universal primary education (UPE). The paper highlights some of the achievements the initiative has realised so far, and argues that although UPE has more than doubled primary school enrollment levels, it has been characterised by high dropout rates, inadequate attention to pupils, overcrowded and unmanageable classes, lack of physical/instructional infrastructure and trained teachers, and minimal community involvement in managing the schools. The initiative, which empowers communities to make regular visits to their nearest school to observe lessons, check availability of toilets facilities for boys and girls, assess the cleanliness of compound and sanitary provisions for adolescent girls, examine whether the classrooms have appropriate learning aids, minimize child abuse such as defilement, mistreatment and unfair punishment; and assess whether children have something to eat at school or not, not only encourages free interaction between communities, schools and pupils, but also creates strategic linkages for participatorily monitoring pupils' learning and performance and opens avenues for communities to contribute towards addressing some of the factors responsible for deterioration in performance and quality of education . It also offers an excellent opportunity for building a learning society and promoting the spirit of lifelong learning. The author highlights some of the obstacles encountered while involving communities in monitoring issues that positively contribute to the improvement of the learning environment of their children in primary schools, and ends the paper with some concluding remarks regarding the way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on an international literature review, two international workshops and primary qualitative research in Uganda this paper reviews experiences of mainstreaming HIV/AIDS in development sectors (such as education, health and agriculture) in developing countries. The extent to which HIV/AIDS mainstreaming strategies and associated challenges are similar to or different from those of mainstreaming gender in the health sector is also explored. The paper details the rationale for HIV/AIDS mainstreaming through illustrating the wide reaching effects of the pandemic. Despite the increasing interest in mainstreaming HIV/AIDS there is little clarity on what it actually means in theory or practice. This paper presents a working definition of HIV/AIDS mainstreaming. It is argued that all too often processes of ‘mainstreaming’ emerge as too narrow and reductionist to be effective. The paper then considers four key challenges for mainstreaming HIV/AIDS and explores how and to what extent they have also been faced in gender mainstreaming and what can be learnt from these experiences. These are: (1) the limited evidence base upon which to build mainstreaming strategies in different country contexts; (2) the role of donors in mainstreaming and implications for sustainability; (3) who should take responsibility for mainstreaming; and (4) how to develop capacity for mainstreaming. The conclusion argues for more joined up thinking and sustainable approaches to mainstreaming both HIV/AIDS and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This biographical dialogue with Timothy Wangusa explores the interface between indigenous culture, Christianity and education in Uganda, how this disrupted the indigenous cultural base and practice and continued to inform and impact lives and culture in Uganda. It interrogates the binary colonial–cultural contestation and disorientation of indigenous identities from an existential base rooted in the body, the spirit and the land. It acknowledges tensions of identity for the African writer as a product of multiple heritages and the challenge of emboldening it in contestation of manifold historical and structural peripherisations in education and national development policies and interventions. In response to the general national emphasis on science in education and development, Wangusa highlights, through his example, the function of language in education and the value of an inclusive curriculum. He decolonises the definitional scope of science to a more inclusive and relational application as a function of civilisation and education. The word, 'language', remains central as an enabler in the understanding and pursuit of development and human civilisation. This interview, conducted on 6 July 2022, was a commemoration of Professor Timothy Wangusa at 80 years and part of the Department of Literature's activities during Makerere University Centennial celebrations, 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we combine a unique large scale field experimental data on preferences and longitudinal household survey data from rural Uganda to estimate the impact of parental risk aversion, time preferences and loss aversion on educational investment. Our results show that parental risk aversion is increasing in wealth. On a whole, we find that risk aversion is positively correlated with educational investment measured in per school age child educational expenditure. Further analysis revealed that parental risk aversion is negatively associated with educational investment for poorer households. Pathway analysis suggests that risk averse households are less credit constrained. The hypothesis that parental risk aversion depresses educational investment may only be tenable for poor households' in rural Uganda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protestant missionaries have recently been praised for their comparatively benign features concerning their support of women's education in Africa. Using a novel dataset of 5,202 Protestant brides born between 1880 and 1945 from urban and rural Uganda, this paper offers a first pass at analysing empirically the role of mission education on African women's socio-economic position within the household. The paper finds that although mission education raised the sampled brides' literacy skills way above female national levels, they were largely excluded from participating in the colonial wage labour market. In this context, the missionary society presented an almost exclusive source of female wage labour in areas of religious service, schooling and medical care. While literacy per se did not affect women's marriage behaviour, women who worked for the missionaries married significantly later in life and married men closer to their own age, signalling a shift in the power balance between parents and daughters and between husband and wife. On average, daughters of fathers deeply entrenched in the missionary movement had the highest chances to access wage employment, emphasizing the importance of paternal mission networks for Protestant women's work outside the household during colonial times. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sex education is a politically contentious issue in many countries, and there are numerous, competing ideologies relating to the most appropriate methods to teach young people about sexual and reproductive health. This paper examines policy and practice in Uganda in light of two contrasting ideologies, namely morally conservative and comprehensive rights-based approaches to sex education. After a brief description of these approaches, findings from a preliminary qualitative study among teachers working in a non-governmental organisation-run secondary school in Uganda are discussed. Teachers’ responses are analysed against the background of current Ugandan sex education policies. The paper considers the implications of the conservative morality informing both Ugandan government policy and teachers’ implementation of sex education at the focus school. It is argued that, in the light of young Ugandans’ attitudes towards and often varied experiences of sexuality, a comprehensive rights-based approach to sex education may be more appropriate in the described setting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Within a context where relatively few girls complete secondary education, 18 women were interviewed in Uganda with the objective of ascertaining how they were able to overcome the challenges they encountered to become well-qualified and successful career-women. An important finding from this research was that although parental involvement in Uganda is a much less formal process than that reported in literature from the Global North, it is nevertheless crucially important, with parents and other key figures enabling, supporting and encouraging the young women's education, and acting as role models. The paper highlights, however, the gendered nature of such involvement, with some fathers having the advantages of authority, education, money and time to enable them to stand apart from their communities in supporting their daughters' education. In contrast, mothers frequently struggled through lack of resources, yet their unstinting hard work and persistence offered inspiration and role modelling of a different kind. Interviewees growing up without one or both biological parents meanwhile relied on a network of people who in effect became surrogate parents, in various ways assisting them to complete their schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction: legislation and ethics as one of the top five themes that preoccupied LIS scholars and practitioners in the first decade of the 21st century. This is true for Library and Information Science and its related disciplines such as Records, information and archives, archeology and museum study. Objective: This paper attempts to discuss the various trends in legislations relating to the Library and Information Science discipline and profession. Methodology: In this research, reviewing literature was used to define the main concepts of this research. Findings: There is a noticeable attribute that more legislations are likely to be drafted and passed. Indeed, there are noticeable trends in the nature of legislation relating to LIS which include the shift from a more right based form of legislations to legislations concerned with social order; a shift towards embracing changing technologies with in the legislations; thirdly, there is a shift towards the internationalisation; a shift towards open access to LIS material from closed access; the adoption of the Western values of LIS values; and adoption of LIS perspectives in other legislations. Conclusion: Professionals cannot afford the comfort of waiting for new developments to be handed down to them but rather equip themselves with competences to; locate and evaluate primary and secondary material, understanding its value as a professional decision-making resource; apply existing legal tenets to various library environments and develop practical compliance; and express professional responsibility, views concerning the legal problems in the library and information sciences in which one is situated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household resilience to food insecurity can be considered as the capacity that ensures stressors and shocks do not have long-lasting adverse development consequences; it is, nowadays, one of the key words in the policy debate on development. Measuring resilience capacity and how it varies over time is extremely significant for policy makers and people living in risk-prone environments. More specifically, there is a gap of empirical evidence about what drives changes in resilience capacity status (i.e. moving from a low resilience profile to a high one, and viceversa). This paper applies econometric techniques for estimating household resilience and adopts transition matrices to estimate how it changes over time. Finally, multinomial logit and bivariate probit models are estimated to identify the main drivers of change. Our study finds that female headed households are less likely to become the most resilient; also this paper demonstrates that education and participation to household enterprises are positively associated with increased resilience capacity. This paper innovates the resilience literature by providing an evidence based analysis of the main drivers of resilience; it brings this evidence in the Uganda’s context, focusing the attention of the policy makers on sub-sample of population which are worse off. More generally, our study suggests that resilience enhancing policies can bridge humanitarian and development interventions by demonstrating how long-term perspectives (i.e. those investing in education) can lead to an immediate increase of resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports on a participatory action research study conducted in six rural primary schools in Uganda in 2013 to establish why children taught in the local language had difficulties in reading and writing. Findings through interviews, focus group discussions, reviews of exercise books and lesson observations indicated that though it was easier for pupils to learn the concepts in the local language; challenges ranging from poor translation, inadequate teachers’ language proficiency, lack of instructional materials, high pupils’ enrolment, lack of administrative support and teacher-centred approach of teaching, affected pupils’ learning to read and write. Participants recommended adopting the child-centred pedagogy, incorporating instructional materials, conducting continuous assessment and recording pupils’ competencies attained in reading and writing. Teachers need to engage more in Participatory action research in order to reflect on their practices and pupils’ learning, and collaboratively decide what works best and what needs improvement in their classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ugandan government has been criticised on several grounds for its abstinence-only policies on sexuality education directed towards young people. These grounds include the failure to recognise the multiple realities faced by young people, some of whom may already be sexually active. In the study reported on this paper, students’ perceptions of relationships and sexual practices were analysed to obtain an understanding of how young people construct and negotiate their sexual agency in the context of abstinence-only messages provided in Ugandan secondary schools and at the wider community level. Ten in-depth interviews and six focus group discussions were conducted with students aged 15–19 years (N = 55) at an urban co-educational secondary school. Data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using grounded theory. Findings show that students engage in sexual activity despite their belief that contraception is ineffective and their fears for the consequences. Students’ age, gender, financial capital and perceived sexual desire further increase risk and vulnerability. To improve their effectiveness, school-based sexuality education programmes should support students to challenge and negotiate structural factors such as gender roles and sociocultural norms that influence sexual practices and increase vulnerability and risk. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research paper discusses current efforts and programs designed to address the issues of peace and conflict resolution, post-war recovery and education in northern Uganda. Through the collection of stories of life after war, I examine the experiences of children and youth and pilot peace education programs in secondary and primary schools. Northern Uganda was the site of a brutal civil war waged between the rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army, and the government's Uganda People's Defense Force. The war resulted in the mass abduction of children and the forced displacement of the northern population into internally displaced persons' camps. Although active combat ended in a 2006 cease-fire, there are still challenges and lessons to be learned that could aid in understanding the conditions that give rise to violent uprisings and movements and in turn mitigate those conditions for a healthier society. In addition, a decade of displacement has birthed various tensions between the youth and adults in the face of changing customs and the return of abducted children. The young people of northern Uganda occupy a unique position in their communities given the role they played in the war, their potential part in reconstruction process, and their national calling as "the pillars of tomorrow's Uganda." The government and international organizations, recognizing a need to remedy factors that could lead to a relapse into conflict, developed peace education programs with the goal of creating a "culture of peace" in the region. My fieldwork focuses on two such programs and this paper explores early attempts and outcomes to implementing these programs in schools. With conceptual issues surrounding peace education philosophy, practice and policy, I argue that these programs encourage, rather, a "culture of complacency" in the face of a harsh economic and sociopolitical reality for Ugandan children and youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the need for Kyambogo to pay special attention to students' vocational choices, university based training and employability. Design/methodology/approach - The sample of 46 final year students, 90 graduates and 50 supervisors using cross sectional survey design was used to collect data. Findings - The paper reveals that factors such as government policies and regulations, people we interact and relate with for instance, parents, teachers, peers and other factors like our aspirations, interests, subjects studied at school have a significant bearing on our vocational choices. Practical training, curriculum followed in teaching and industrial training are relevant for electrical graduates in their preparation for employment challenges. Practical implications - This paper calls for involvement of stakeholders in design, implementation and evaluation of the university curriculum. That there should be vigorous and rigorous regular evaluation of training of electrical engineers to meet the ever-changing needs of employers. Originality/value - This paper presents a new approach to critical thinking young adulthood vocational choices, university based-training and employability of electrical engineering graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the concept of cooperative learning in a Universal Primary Education (UPE) system in Uganda. Using the social interdependence theory as the theoretical framework, the author makes an attempt to describe the practice of cooperative learning and analyses its importance and challenges based on the experiences of Aroi primary school in Arua district of Uganda. The author argues that although cooperative learning in Uganda's UPE was theoretically intended to enhance pupil participation and minimise teacher monopoly of knowledge in the learning processes, in practice it has not achieved much. He cites the overwhelming number of pupils under UPE system, practical pedagogical difficulties teachers encounter while using the method at infant classes, lack of skills among the teachers, lack of funds to meet the requirements of the method; and the unwillingness on the part of the teachers to switch roles in the learning process, such that they become facilitators of learning instead of depositors and transmitters of knowledge to passive recipients. The author recommends that for cooperative learning to be effective at primary level, the above critical factors have to be seriously addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to electronic information requires a well-developed information infrastructure currently lacking in the developing countries. To compound the problem, prospects of achieving lifelong learning are increasingly dependent on access to information held across electronic networks. Uganda's population, similar to much of Sub-Saharan Africa, never had the opportunity to attend formal school, rendering lifelong-learning prospects as the last resort to meaningful integration into the knowledge society. To many iii developing countries, universal access to Id-based information, as a social justice, is a feasible remedy to society's lifelong learning challenges. This paper reports on a case study of the school-based telecenter (SBT) model to assess appropriateness of the school-centered approach to universal access, currently under implementation by SchoolNet Uganda. The SBTs, established on a pilot basis, utilize VSAT-based technology to connect schools and neighbouring communities to the internet This paper documents the appropriateness of school-based access points for neighbouring communities at two selected SchoolNet-Uganda site schools. School-based access has policy implications for developing countries' approach to universal access and lifelong learning in the emerging knowledge society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Due to a limited health workforce, many health care providers in Africa must take on health leadership roles with minimal formal training in leadership. Hence, the need to equip health care providers with practical skills required to lead high-impact health care programs. In Uganda, the Afya Bora Global Health Leadership Fellowship is implemented through the Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MakCHS) and her partner institutions. Lessons learned from the program, presented in this paper, may guide development of in-service training opportunities to enhance leadership skills of health workers in resource-limited settings., Methods: The Afya Bora Consortium, a consortium of four African and four U.S. academic institutions, offers 1-year global health leadership-training opportunities for nurses and doctors. Applications are received and vetted internationally by members of the consortium institutions in Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and the USA. Fellows have 3 months of didactic modules and 9 months of mentored field attachment with 80% time dedicated to fellowship activities. Fellows' projects and experiences, documented during weekly mentor-fellow meetings and monthly mentoring team meetings, were compiled and analyzed manually using pre-determined themes to assess the effect of the program on fellows' daily leadership opportunities., Results: Between January 2011 and January 2015, 15 Ugandan fellows (nine doctors and six nurses) participated in the program. Each fellow received 8 weeks of didactic modules held at one of the African partner institutions and three online modules to enhance fellows' foundation in leadership, communication, monitoring and evaluation, health informatics, research methodology, grant writing, implementation science, and responsible conduct of research. In addition, fellows embarked on innovative projects that covered a wide spectrum of global health challenges including critical analysis of policy formulation and review processes, bottlenecks in implementation of national HIV early infant diagnosis and prevention of mother-to-child HIV-transmission programs, and use of routine laboratory data about antibiotic resistance to guide updates of essential drug lists., Conclusion: In-service leadership training was feasible, with ensured protected time for fellows to generate evidence-based solutions to challenges within their work environment. With structured mentorship, collaborative activities at academic institutions and local health care programs equipped health care providers with leadership skills.

but with greater attention to students’ computer literacy than teachers. At the same time, previous studies on digital literacy of teachers are unsustainable and mainly skewed on pre-service teachers than in-service teachers. These realities point to the need to investigate and implement effective and sustainable initiatives for improving digital literacy and online life-long learning for in-service teachers in Africa. This paper therefore presents a specialised MOOC platform known as TEP (Teachers’ E-learning Portal) for digital literacy and online life-long learning for in-service teachers in Uganda. TEP is built for environments with inadequate access to computers, internet and technical assistance. As such, TEP is accessible online or offline, managed by accredited local universities in collaboration with beneficiary secondary schools, and runs on existing resources in schools (technical personnel, computers and internet). Results from initial implementation of a computer literacy MOOC through TEP indicate that irrespective of age, when teachers are adequately supported internally by their schools and externally by a university, can improve their digital literacy and subsequently engage in online life-long learning. In addition, the results both in terms of high percentage of teacher participants’ completions (89%) and high volume of educational e-content generated, confirm TEP as an effective, attractive, and self-sustainable MOOC platform for in-service teachers’ in resource constraint environments. The paper finishes with an analysis of the relevance of TEP to Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Poor menstrual knowledge and access to sanitary products have been proposed as barriers to menstrual health and school attendance. In response, interventions targeting these needs have seen increasing implementation in public and private sectors. However, there has been limited assessment of their effectiveness. Objectives: Assess the impact of providing reusable sanitary pads and puberty education on girls’ school attendance and psychosocial wellbeing outcomes. Methods: A cluster quasi-randomised controlled trial was conducted across 8 schools, including 1124 girls, in rural Uganda. Schools were allocated to one of four conditions: the provision of puberty education alone; reusable sanitary pads alone; puberty education and reusable sanitary pads; and a control (no intervention). The primary outcome was school attendance. Secondary outcomes reflected psychosocial wellbeing. Results: At follow-up, school attendance had worsened for girls across all conditions. Per-protocol analysis revealed that this decline was significantly greater for those in the control condition d = 0.52 (95%CI 0.26–0.77), with those in control schools having a 17.1% (95%CI: 8.7–25.5) greater drop in attendance than those in any intervention school. There were no differences between the intervention conditions. High rates of school drop-out and transfer meant the trial suffered from substantial participant drop-out. Intention-to-treat analyses using two different imputation strategies were consistent with the main results, with mean differences of 5.2% attendance in best-case and 24.5% in worst-case imputations. Results were robust to adjustments for clustering. There was no impact of the interventions on girls’ self-reported shame or insecurity during menstruation. Conclusion: Results of the trial support the hypothesised positive impact of providing sanitary pads or puberty education for girls’ school attendance in a developing country context. Findings must be interpreted with caution in light of poor participant retention, intervention fidelity, and the attendance measures used. Trial Registration: Pan African Clinical Trials Registry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the causal relationship between primary schooling and adult HIV status in Malawi and Uganda, two East African countries with some of the highest HIV infection rates in the world. Using data from the 2010 Malawi Demographic Health Survey and the 2011 Uganda AIDS Indicator Survey, the paper takes advantage of a natural experiment, the implementation of Universal Primary Education policies in the mid 1990s. An instrumented regression discontinuity approach is used to model the relationship between increased primary schooling and adult women's HIV status. Results indicate that a one-year increase in schooling decreases the probability of an adult woman testing positive for HIV by 0.06 (p < 0.01) in Malawi and by 0.03 (p < 0.05) in Uganda. These results are robust to a variety of model specifications. In a series of supplementary analyses a number of potential pathways through which such effects may occur are explored. Findings indicate increased primary schooling positively affects women's literacy and spousal schooling attainment in Malawi and age of marriage and current household wealth in Uganda. However primary schooling has no effect on recent (adult) sexual behavior., (Copyright © 2014 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Many education policies in low income countries impose eligibility limits, and these can generate household responses that distribute educational investments across children. In this paper, I study the effects of eligibility limits in the context of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) reform in Uganda. The program abolished elementary school fees for up to four children per household, with families paying fees on each additional child. Depending on the composition of children and their age at the onset of the reform, the policy generates costs for primary school that vary both within and across households. Children that are eligible for the tuition waiver but live in households with ineligible siblings complete fewer years of schooling. I estimate that the presence of ineligible siblings wiped out almost half of the overall impact of the UPE reform on educational attainment, with the effects concentrated among the poorest households. Household responses to the subsidy program are similar to those found in other types of schooling programs such as conditional cash transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological distress is common among adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV) worldwide, and has been associated with non-adherence to anti-retroviral therapy (ART), leading to poor virologic suppression, drug resistance, and increased risk for AIDS morbidity and mortality. However, only a few studies have explored the relationship between psychological distress and ART adherence among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. The paper examines the relationship between psychological distress and ART adherence, and effect of psychosocial resources on ART adherence. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 464 ALHIV (aged 12–19; 53% female) seeking HIV care at a large HIV treatment center in Kampala, Uganda. ALHIV were recruited during routine clinic visits. Three self-reported binary adherence measures were utilized: missed pills in the past three days, non-adherence to the prescribed medical regimen, and self-rated adherence assessed using a visual analog scale. Psychological distress was measured as a continuous variable, and computed as the mean score on a locally developed and validated 25-item symptom checklist for Ugandan ALHIV. Psychosocial resources included spirituality, religiosity, optimism, social support, and coping strategies. After adjusting for respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics and psychosocial resources, a unit increase in psychological distress was associated with increased odds of missing pills in past 3 days (Odds Ratio(OR) = 1.75; Confidence Interval (CI): 1.04–2.95), not following the prescribed regimen (OR = 1.63; CI: 1.08–2.46), and lower self-rated adherence (OR = 1.79; CI: 1.19–2.69). Psychosocial resources were associated with lower odds for non-adherence on all three self-report measures. There is a need to strengthen the psychosocial aspects of adolescent HIV care by developing interventions to identify and prevent psychological distress among Ugandan ALHIV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uganda introduced the use of mother tongue as medium of instruction in primary schools in 2007. This was meant to promote interaction and participation in the learning process and improve children's proficiency in reading and writing. Drawing elements of interaction and participation from the socio-cultural theory, the child-centred pedagogy was introduced. This intervention, however, did not yield the expected results. Children taught in the local language still had problems in reading and writing. A participatory action research framework was used to gain insights into the child's learning to read and write within a re-emphasised child-centred pedagogy. In this paper, we argue that involving children at individual and group levels, conducting continuous assessment and using appropriate instructional materials help children to learn and improve their proficiency in reading and writing. Some pupils, however, still find difficulties in reading three syllable words, constructing simple sentences and punctuating their work. For the children to improve their proficiency in reading and writing in their mother tongue, the teachers need to use more instructional materials, carry out continuous assessment in small groups and design learning activities that promote children's interaction and participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental involvement in their children's schooling is in recognition that establishing the context in which a child attends school is important. Reading to Learn (RtL)was implemented in two districts of Kwale and Kinango in Kenya and of Amolatar and Dokolo in Uganda. This paper looks at parental involvement and their experiences with RtL. Data are obtained from survey responses at baseline and focus group discussions with parents at endline. Findings indicate that parents are key actors in literacy and numeracy of their children. The study underscores the role of parents and context in literacy activities and policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the scope of the right to education as enjoyed by refugees in terms of domestic (Ugandan), regional (African) and international law. One of the main obstacles to accessing education for refugees in Uganda is financial constraints, which the principle of burden sharing seeks to ameliorate in refugee hosting countries in the Global South. This principle of burden sharing lies at the heart of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly to realise a more equitable distribution of refugee populations, who are disproportionately found in the Global South within States whose financial resources are severely strained. This article explores whether the GCR will increase access to the right to education of refugees in such a country, namely, Uganda. This right is considered to be a “multiplier” right as the degree of access to education impacts the level of enjoyment of other human rights. The article considers whether the international and regional frameworks are likely to increase access to education for refugees in Uganda. Finally, recommendations are made to other stakeholders, namely, the Ugandan government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), on how to facilitate access to education for refugee children in Uganda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) is a proven approach for partial protection of men from acquisition of HIV infection. Several sub-Saharan African countries have a target to circumcise 80% of males aged 15 to 49. The use of devices such as PrePex would aid scaling up of SMC. Since most health workers would have no prior experience with use of devices, skills training is needed. This paper explores a skills transfer model at an urban site in Uganda., Objective: To assess the practicability and feasibility of rapid short duration training for safe PrePex device use., Methods: A prospective study, conducted over 8 weeks (August-October 2012) at International Hospital Kampala, an urban Kampala hospital, examining the performance of various health worker cadres after training in the use of a non-surgical device (PrePex). The prospective study obtained approval from the Makerere School of Medicine Research and Ethics Committee and the Uganda National Council of Science and Technology. If eligible, and after the subject signed the informed consent form, they were enrolled into the study., Results: Ten health workers were successfully trained in use of PrePex during a 3 day non-residential on-the-job training course. After the first three days of training, the trained health workers performed 561 placements and 529 device removals successfully. Over all adverse events (AE) rates were below ≤ 2%; however, there were some differences in AE rates across the cadres trained but not significant (p>0.25 for moderate AEs)., Conclusion: Rapid training for safe use of the PrePex device is feasible for the range of health workers available for SMC in resource limited settings, but among those with past SMC experience.

This paper is an analysis of the social interaction between drug sellers, their clients and local health care workers within a medical trial that introduced rapid diagnostic tests for malaria into private sector drug shops in Mukono District, Uganda. It locates the introduction of a new technology to test blood and a system of referral within the context of local concerns about the choice and evaluation of treatment; and the socially legitimated statuses, roles and hierarchies within the local health care system. Based on the multi-layered interpretation of 21 focus group discussions, we describe three key aspects of the trial central to local interpretation: openly testing blood, supervisory visits to drug shops and a new referral form. Each had the potential to shift drug shop vendors from outsider to insider of the formal health service. The responses of the different groups of participants reflect their situation within the health care system. The clients and patients welcomed the local availability of new diagnostic technology and the apparent involvement of the government in securing good quality health services for them from providers with often uncertain credentials. The drug shop vendors welcomed the authorization to openly test blood, enabling the demonstration of a new skill and newfound legitimacy as a health worker rather than simple drug seller. Formal sector health workers were less enthusiastic about the trial, raising concerns about professional hierarchies and the maintenance of a boundary around the formal health service to ensure the exclusion of those they considered untrained, unprofessional and untrustworthy personnel. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruptions in the education system and has worsened inequality within and between nations. The competitive power in academic achivement across nations including Uganda rests on pedagogy followed by school leadership. School leadership alone explains up to 27% of the differences in students' learning achievement across regions. While there is glaring literature on school leadership, and its role in learner achievement, the repositioned role of school leadership to match the demands of the post -COVID19 pandemic era has not been given the attention it deserves. Therefore, this narrative review specifically answered the role of school leadership in ensuring learning to thrive in the post-COVID-19 era. This role of education as a very powerful tool for socio-economic growth, development and transformation is clearly spelt out in a number of documents including; Uganda's vision 2040 and the National Development Plan III. Despite the thorough planning, a number of weaknesses in the education system have been exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic which clearly indicated the need for learning to thrive. In this case learners are able to think, provide solutions, and adopt. Accordingly, school leaders have a duty beyond the managerial role and the post COVID-19 era demands re-evaluation of the processes within the school setting to ensure quality and inclusive education while considering the 21st Century demands. Therefore, school leadership has an instructional, distinct, and systemic role to foster learning to thrive in the post-pandemic era. This can be supported by working more collaboratively to share knowledge and best practices with other schools and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender plays an important role in education as most traditional societies give preference to boys over girls when it comes to educational opportunity. Increasing access to education for girls is important to the health and well-being of the individual, their future children, families, and communities. The objective of this paper is to understand the gender differences in educational outcomes for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) attending secondary schools in Uganda and Tanzania. The study employed a four-year, retrospective record review utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. A total of 5738 student records were collected as part of the study. Students were grouped as “ever supported” OVC (receiving educational support from either a block grant or scholarship program during their secondary school education), “never supported OVC” (OVC students who did not receive any educational support), and “nonOVC students” (students identified by the school as neither orphaned nor vulnerable). Results of the study indicate that investment in secondary school education for OVC in Uganda and Tanzania can make a difference in educational outcomes, both for boys and girls. Although there was no gender difference in absenteeism or dropout rate among students those who received educational support, stark differences were found in secondary school Year IV national examination pass rates with girls significantly less likely to pass compared to boys. The disparity in secondary school learning achievement between male and female students is of concern and warrants further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We aim to evaluate the effectiveness of the Good School Toolkit, developed by Raising Voices, in preventing violence against children attending school and in improving child mental health and educational outcomes. Methods/design: We are conducting a two-arm cluster randomised controlled trial with parallel assignment in Luwero District, Uganda. We will also conduct a qualitative study, a process evaluation and an economic evaluation. A total of 42 schools, representative of Luwero District, Uganda, were allocated to receive the Toolkit plus implementation support, or were allocated to a wait-list control condition. Our main analysis will involve a cross-sectional comparison of the prevalence of past-week violence from school staff as reported by children in intervention and control primary schools at follow-up. At least 60 children per school and all school staff members will be interviewed at follow-up. Data collection involves a combination of mobile phone-based, interviewer-completed questionnaires and paper-and-pen educational tests. Survey instruments include the ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tools to assess experiences of violence; the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to measure symptoms of common childhood mental disorders; and word recognition, reading comprehension, spelling, arithmetic and sustained attention tests adapted from an intervention trial in Kenya. Discussion: To our knowledge, this is the first study to rigorously investigate the effects of any intervention to prevent violence from school staff to children in primary school in a low-income setting. We hope the results will be informative across the African region and in other settings. Trial registration: clinicaltrials.gov NCT01678846 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, the United Nations member states adopted the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Education, which is the fourth Sustainable Development Goal, has seen some major transformations with the advent of digital technologies. Education is now increasingly being imparted through these digital technologies as well. In the past few years, researchers have paid considerable attention to studying this changing educational landscape. However, there exists two major gaps. First, the existing literature highlights the importance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in imparting quality education by exploring characteristics of ICTs such as: portability, connectivity and usability but fails to explore learners' perception towards online education. Second, the changing educational landscape resulting from the use of ICTs has often been reported with regard to developed economies, giving little consideration to emerging knowledge economies. The present study overcomes these two gaps by exploring the motivators; de-motivators; as well as potential facilitators of online education, from the perspective of learners in emerging knowledge economies. Further, it attempts to understand individual differences with respect to country, gender, age, employment status and educational qualification towards the enrolment, preference and awareness related to online education. The study presents an in-depth comparative analysis of two emerging knowledge economies: India and Uganda and has been undertaken in two phases. In the first phase in-depth interviews were conducted with 51 learners to explore the motivators, de-motivators, and potential facilitators of online education. Data thus collected was checked for content validity through an extensive literature review. In the second phase, a structured questionnaire was administered to 252 respondents, drawn from a population of participants pursuing or having an intention to pursue online education in both countries. The present work provides better insights for further facilitation and improvement of online education in emerging knowledge economies. Mann-Whitney U-Tests and Kruskal-Wallis tests were undertaken to establish statistical validity. The paper concludes with some suggestions and recommendations on how to overcome barriers and factors which de-motivate learners from pursuing online education in order to achieve the desired Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes the case that policies, such as the National Strategy for Girls' Education in Uganda (NSGE), intended to achieve gender equity in education for girls in developing countries, have limited relevance to, and impact on girls' actual educational experiences. Recent considerations of girls' education acknowledge that gender equity within education is more than access to schooling; it entails the cultivation of capabilities necessary for girls to participate fully, actively and equally in all aspects of their societies. Drawing on a longitudinal, ethnographic policy research case study with 15 Ugandan schoolgirls in rural Masaka District, Uganda, from August 2004 to September 2006, I explore the girls' educational experiences in relationship to the NSGE. I employ the Women's Empowerment Framework (WEF) to evaluate the NSGE with respect to the extent to which its interventions are 'empowering' for girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationship between the 1997 UPE policy and regional educational and poverty inequality and its impact on lifelong learning through a one-year field based critical ethnography in Uganda, between June 2007 and May 2008. It drew on the Government's assumption that through UPE the twin goals of the universalisation of primary education and lifelong learning would be attained. This led to the concentration of resources away from higher education, secondary education, and lifelong learning to primary education. This 'UPE centric' approach ignored the precarious situation of the large number of illiterate children, youths and adults who have never accessed UPE or dropped out without attaining literacy and numeracy skills. This paper will clarify the relationship between informal, formal, non-formal, adult education and lifelong learning. It will suggest policy recommendations to prioritise lifelong learning as the route towards achieving well-balanced national Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) goals of halving poverty and achieving UPE by 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper defines how out-of-school adolescents from Masaka District in rural southwest Uganda currently receive sexual and reproductive health information and how they would prefer to receive that information. Information adolescents feel they lack falls into three broad categories: sexual and reproductive health issues, the negotiation of sex and sexual relationships, and making the transition to adulthood. The preferred source for information depends on the type of information to be delivered, the overriding principle being that the source must be authoritative in that type of information. Current information sources including family, peers and media are perceived as either flawed or insufficient. Preferable sources fall into three categories based on the type of information provided: accurate sexual and reproductive health information should come from trained community and media-based rather than clinic-based health educators; information about negotiation of good relationships and the negotiation of sex and condom use within relationships should come from an up-skilled traditional source, ssenga (paternal aunt), particularly for young women; and social information about becoming a good adult should come from parents, grandparents, church and community leaders. All information should be positively framed and non-judgemental. Centrally coordinated community health promotions delivered by trained community-based health educators, ssenga and parents, guided and supported by existing radio and print media, are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on the study that was conducted in Uganda to determine whether television HIV/AIDS education addresses the needs, experiences, and expectations of the urban youths. Based on the interpretist framework, which stipulates that all knowledge is socially situated, the study sets out to determine whether television HIV/AIDS presentations accommodate the voices, experiences, and discourses of the youths as a marginalized group. A qualitative approach based on focus groups and personal interviews was used to collect data. A total of 44 male and female participants within the age bracket 15-24 were divided into 4 focus groups. They were shown drama skits typical of those used for television HIV/AIDS education programs. They were requested to analyze the skits to determine whether the skits addressed their experiences and expectations. Personal interviews were also administered to staff of the Department of Education, television stations personnel, and staff of NGOs to solicit their views on the way the youths experience and value Television HIV/AIDS programs. Transcripts from focus groups and individual interviews were analyzed at both a conversational and a thematic level, in order to examine the processes by which audience group's value and construct the meanings out of these television programs. The findings suggest that the prevention messages and the values propagated by television HIV/AIDS education are detached from the experiences and the world views of the urban youths. From the perspective of the Uses and gratifications theory of television viewing, it is proposed that educators should involve the target audiences while developing HIV educational programs such that the programs are tailored to the experiences and perspectives of the target audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To access information and information materials, readers need to b e literate about their reading needs. This requires a creative reading culture within the society. Although there are demonstrated efforts by the government and civil society organisations to ensure quality education, there is a lack of co-ordinating strategy targeted at building a culture of reading among the Ugandan population. The problem is how to make the present efforts and opportunities available to potential readers to utilise information as a prerequisite for life long 1 earning. This paper discusses the various efforts by the Uganda Library Association (ULA) in the promotion of a reading culture and explores the possible strategies to build a culture of reading for life- long learning. Qualitative data were collected through reading camps and consultative meetings with both teachers and librarians. It was observed that the culture of reading in primary schools was low. The paper stresses the need for promoting a reading culture in Uganda by providing networking sand strategic alliances among the stake holders with respect to . existing facilities and efforts and by integrating them into the various strategic and educational programmes, actions and reforms for lifelong learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participation, a 'buzzword' in social development in both developed and developing countries, has several different interpretations in terms of purpose, form and implication. For instance, parents are encouraged to participate individually in choosing the school for their own children, and they are expected to participate collectively in school development through the work of school governing bodies. Furthermore, participation in education is often considered to be a means of assuring accountability of decentralised institutions. This paper explores the notion of parental participation in school governance, based on data obtained from field research in Uganda. It argues that parents' perceptions of the accountability of the school affect the way they participate in education. Thus, accountability is one of the crucial factors for realising local democracy through decentralisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]