Mr President, please expedite the student loan scheme

Vincent Nuwagaba

I read with concern the press reports attributed to Mr Mwesigwa Rukutana that government has postponed the student loan scheme. This is a scheme that is long overdue; I guess President Museveni never promised the loan scheme for purposes of winning votes and nothing more than that. The loan scheme if implemented would be the only tangible contribution the National Resistance Movement government has made to the education sector. I know very many would rush to ask, what about the Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE). These are just in name but practically we don’t have any scheme known as UPE or USE.
With UPE, the government remits less than 2000 shillings for each pupil under UPE. In fact, in many schools that I have visited, parents pay at least Sh 10,000 and the government pays between 650 – 2,000 per pupil.
This surely is mocking the parents and pupils that the government introduced UPE. If the government was not aware that that is the situation, then let me inform them of the situation on the ground. A friend of mine is a head master of a certain primary school in Mitooma District. He revealed to me that for this term, the government disbursed Sh 1,010,000 (one million ten thousand shillings). When we divided that amount by the number of pupils which stands at 615, we got 1570 per pupil. This is the money that is supposed to run the school through co-curricular activities, administration, buying chalk and other scholastic materials.
As for USE, the government remits only 41,000 per student under USE. This money is too little to even provide for a student’s meals. In fact, many schools have applied to withdraw from USE but the government has refused. Ultimately, because of USE some schools end up making losses. What is surprising is that topnotch schools that are not implementing USE get lots of funding from government. Thus, one may ask, were UPE and USE introduced to widen the already wide gaps between the third world and the first class schools?
I would challenge anybody in government to show me a student with a UPE and USE background in the university pursuing a medicine or law course on government sponsorship.

I hear the government intends to introduce Universal A level education. What for? How much is it going to pay for each student under the scheme? In what schools is the scheme going to be implemented? The only viable scheme the government can talk of is a student loan scheme at the university. Not these other schemes which sound like lullabies intended to make the poor sleep.
In the 1996 Museveni’s manifesto, he promised to start a community polytechnic for each sub county. To date, I am yet to see the promised community polytechnics or maybe the only place that never got is my district. I am shocked that the government even after realizing that Advanced Level is not a shortcut to success is encouraging every Tom, Dick and Harry to join Advanced level. Look at the number of universities we have and compare them with technical colleges.

Universities are meant to train thinkers, planners and leaders not manual labourers. People who could best provide manual labour are those trained by technical schools.
Now turning to the university student loan scheme, the president made this promise while campaigning. He knows pretty well that university education has become a preserve of the rich. In August 2009, public universities hiked fees up to 126% in Makerere University. That year alone many students who had been admitted pulled out of the course. It is clear that the news that the government was introducing the student loan scheme was welcome to many – students and parents alike. What pains is that there are students on statehouse scholarship scheme who are paid for by taxpayers’ money to pursue their studies. Accordingly, a student loan scheme would help the president fulfill his oath he undertook to promote the welfare of all Ugandans. It would promote social justice which many are yearning for. Dear Mr President, please expedite the student loan scheme.
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
vnuwagaba@gmail.com