Uganda Jubilee Network leaders and intercessors during a prayer meeting with Education and Sports Minister Janet Kataha Museveni ahead of the annual 50-day fast leading up to Independence Day. PPU PHOTO.
Ahead of celebrations to mark Uganda’s 60th anniversary of independence, Christian leaders under their umbrella organisation, Uganda Jubilee Network have announced 50 days of prayer and fasting, focusing on the country’s Education sphere.
Uganda Jubilee Network is an interdenominational association of like-minded Christian organizations namely: National Fellowship of Born Again Churches of Uganda, Evangelical Fellowship of Uganda, World Trumpet Mission and Intercessors for Uganda.
Dr. James Magara, Chairman, Uganda Jubilee Network, stated that the initiative will run under the theme, “Laying New Foundations for the Education Sphere and the Next Generation”, based on Isaiah 58:12.
“On behalf of Uganda Jubilee Network, I would like to extend an invitation to [the Body of Christ] to participate in the National 50 Day Prayer and Fasting Season 2022 which will be launched on Thursday 18th August 2022, virtually on Zoom platform,” Dr. James Magara said in a release.
Adding: “Following the National Jubilee celebrations in 2012, a decision was made to observe the 50 days leading up to Independence Day annually as a season of prayer and fasting focusing on God’s purposes for our land. The main focus of this year’s prayer and fasting season is the Education Sphere.”
Uganda Jubilee Network’s mission is to disciple Uganda and other nations in the ways of God by accelerating the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
During the prayer and fasting season, Dr. Magara explained that there will be a concluding three-day e-conference from 5th to 7th October, and a prayer night on the Independence Eve, 8th October 2022.
“We’ve been praying for the education sector for as long as we‘ve been here and everything that has happened in these years has been due to prayer. God is faithful, He listens, and He is using sports to put our flag high on the global map,” Education and Sports Minister Janet Kataha Museveni said Tuesday in Kampala, following her meeting with Uganda Jubilee Network leaders and intercessors.
“We have a generation of young people in this country who have absolutely no knowledge of God, and they don’t know what to do.” Janet Kataha Museveni said. “They don’t know, and we also don’t know how to direct them to places where we think they can be helped.”
“We have young people who are joining the workforce but do not know anything about God. All they know is they just need to get money, in whichever way,” Mrs Museveni cautioned.
Over the years, Uganda’s education sector has been constrained by many challenges. These include a high level of teacher and student absenteeism, weak school level management structures, inadequate availability of learning materials, and large class sizes.
The majority of literate Ugandans go through two basic levels of education i.e. primary and secondary schools and very few make progress to university and other tertiary institutions. According to the World Bank, Uganda’s current budget expenditure on education is among the lowest in the region.
According to a 2021 report by Makerere University School of Psychology, schools across Uganda are seeing a surge in drug abuse cases by students who have found clever ways to smuggle and consume the drugs without detection.
Marijuana, cocaine, shisha, heroin, khat (mairungi), cigarettes, and alcohol are among the most abused drugs and substances by school-going children. Saturday Monitor investigations done in 2016 found that about 100 schools were duped into training disguised homosexuality to their teachers and students. This was through an unauthorised curriculum dubbed: “The World Starts With Me.”
