Uganda is one of 164 countries that signed a pledge at the World Education Forum in 2000, to achieve Education For All target by 2015.
At that time, Statistics indicated that at least 73% of Ugandans can read and write. The Government would need to increase the figure to 90% over the next two years to meet the target.
Experts were however later concerned that Uganda would not meet this target.
According to figures quoted by Unicef and other official government agencies 2016, 55 per cent of Uganda’s under-five-year-olds, or approximately 3.7 million children, live in poverty while nearly 40 per cent of the six-to-17-year-olds also live in poverty.
On nutrition, 33 per cent of children in Uganda are undernourished, 14 per cent are underweight while five per cent are severely malnourished.
It is estimated that 462 million children of school age live in countries affected by humanitarian crises—including war, famine, and deadly epidemics—a UNICEF report published on 4th May, 2016 found.
According to the report, In Syria, for instance, at least 6,000 schools have been destroyed, taken over by military operations or repurposed. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, seven million children are missing out on education. Less than 30% of girls are literate in Nepal, and only 38% of children go to school in Liberia.
Things are particularly bad for girls, who are more likely to drop out of school than boys, particularly around puberty, when the lack of sanitary infrastructure affects their ability to attend school during their monthly period.
According to UNICEF, at least 75 million children are in need of education, or help to stay in school, in emergency areas alone. This puts them at a higher risk of trafficking and other abuses. It also affects their ability to contribute to the growth of their communities. Very little attention is dedicated to this emergency According to the report, only an estimated 2% of all humanitarian appeals are directed towards education in emergency situations.
To address this, UNICEF is launching a $4 billion education fund, promoted in Ukraine by its goodwill ambassador Orlando Bloom, to reach 13.6 million children within the next five years. The fund is designed to grow and reach 75 million children by 2030—until then, many millions will still go without an education. According to UNESCO, 124 million children (both in countries in crisis and outside) were out of school in 2015 (pdf, p.7). That’s higher than the previous years, despite a small increase in aid spent in education.
aaron@ugchristiannews.com
