George Williams, 6th Feb 2024
Leader of Opposition in Parliament Joel Ssenyonyi has called on government to review the Shs20,000 in capitation grant allocated annually, to each pupil studying under the Universal Primary Education (UPE), saying such a meagre investment isn’t enough to secure the futures of these students.
Ssenyonyi made the remarks on Tuesday during a Plenary sitting as Parliament discussed the education sector following the recent opening of schools.
“This capitation grant is too little money. When you have Shs20,000 per UPE pupil, per year, not per term, and we expect good standards, we expect these children to operate & compete at international level, it isn’t possible. The magic will not happen. I hope that we can review this. If we are talking about securing the future of these young people, we secure it by investing in education, this capitation grant doesn’t make sense at all,” said Joel Ssenyonyi
Ssenyonyi also expressed his concern over delay to remmit the capitation grant to the schools which he said jeopardizes school operations.
“Yesterday, schools opened and we have been getting calls from many of these schools regarding capitation grant, this money hasn’t gone to schools especially the UPE schools. Capitation grant is the money meant to empower the operations like; utility bills, scholastic material, so once this money isn’t availed to the schools, how do we expect them to operate? So, it would be prudent to establish, is it a challenge with the Ministry of Finance, or Ministry of Education of is it Ministry of Local Government where this is habited? It would be important to find a very quick remedy for these schools to operate,” said Joel Ssenyonyi!
Ssenyonyi also requested the Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa to implore the government to explain why UPE schools haven’t yet received their capitation grant to enable smooth opening of the academic year, saying the delays in release of these funds have left some schools closed
