Population-Based Survey on Peace and Education: Uganda 2015
This study involved a survey of 2,079 randomly selected respondents in Uganda, a nationwide sample of 1,024, and four additional sub-samples of 1,055 individuals to assess factors affecting resilience, social cohesion and security as elements of peacebuilding in Uganda, and the interaction of education with those factors. The study was conducted in partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); the four sub-samples were drawn from four of the regions where UNICEF's interventions have been most active: Acholi, Karamoja, South West and West Nile. The surveys were designed to provide results that are representative of the population over the age of 14 years in Uganda nationally and in the four UNICEF intervention areas. Close to half of study respondents were male, with a little more than one third (36.9%) being between the ages of 14 and 24, and the remainder (63.1%) adults over 24 years.
- Access to and quality of education
- Attitudes to education
- Poverty
- Teachers, parents, students and the community
- Gender
- Safety and security
- Resilience and social cohesion
Recommendations
Based on the findings, we offer the following recommendations to the Government of Uganda and its partners.
- Ensure regular payment of teachers' salaries as a way to combat absenteeism and increase motivation among teachers.
- Tailor education to the realities of the economy. Continue to encourage and expand vocational education and education relevant to youth. A more thorough assessment of the economic market outlook and youths' interests would help the development of appropriate educational opportunity for youth in Uganda.
- Take steps to address ongoing violence in schools and undertake further research to understand how children perceive the frequency with which they are subjected to abuse in schools.
- Take steps to strengthen the relationship between the community and teachers, parents, and students. This would enable the local authorities to help develop appropriate policy and programming.
- Efforts to improve security, combat poverty, increase food security and resolve land disputes are crucial to improvement in the educational sector.