The Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) is a cabinet-level ministry of Uganda that’s mandated “to provide technical support, guide, coordinate, regulate and promote quality education, training and sports to all persons in Uganda for national integration, development and individual advancement”.
Without the ministry of Education and sports, all schools will just hang in balance and stay chaotic without a guiding authority. In that light, this article breaks down 10 pivotal roles that the ministry plays;
1. Promoting education
As you probably already know, Uganda has come quite a long way to promote and boost education activities. This has always been made possible through the Ministry of Education and Sports participating in activities like;
- Sensitizing citizens about the importance of education
- Preaching about the value of girl-child education
- Establishing and opening schools
Not all the heads of the education ministry are equally effective in this endeavor, and that affects the completion and achievement of this goal.
2. Revising and approves the curriculum
The Education ministry is not necessarily responsible for designing or drafting the curriculum. However, National Curriculum Development Center (NCDC) designs the curriculum and forwards it to the education ministry for approval.
This, therefore means the schools are allowed to adopt and follow the curricular path that’s already been set and predetermined.
3. Organizing workshops & seminars to discuss education issues
So many times, people create seminars and workshops to discuss problems and come up with potential solutions thereof.
Therefore, the education ministry is entirely responsible for calling all the teachers together and getting ideas from them on how to better the standards of education across the country.
4. Coming up with plans for education reforms
As always, there are some things that aren’t going in the right direction, and that’s where the education ministry comes in handy. The ministry is made of extraordinary people usually with experience in teaching.
This makes them better capacitated to come up with solutions and suitable plans for education reforms.
5. Setting standards for schools at all levels
The education ministry is responsible for setting standards that every school just has to follow or they don’t get a chance to do business. Some of them include;
- Requirements for a school to be licensed
- Desired student population
- The kind of staff hired at school
For the few schools that have not met the standards, they are denied licenses and it’s a punishable crime to see them open up for business before they’re licensed.
6. Organizing and approving international examinations
There are numerous international schools in Uganda that don’t let their students sit for UNEB exams because they want to provide an unlimited domain of qualification to their students.
The education ministry is charged with thoroughly examining these exams so that they suit the job market in Uganda.
7. Supervising countrywide education standards
For anything to grow exponentially and be maintained in the right shape, it always has to be supervised. The Ministry of education and sports is charged with supervising every government and private schools in the country for things like;
- Population of students versus space and equipment
- Whether the teachers are well qualified
- Living and feeding standards of students
When this is done correctly by the right people, it is then certain that everything will go smoothly as far as education is concerned.
8. Directing the development of higher education
While the elementary and secondary school level of education is becoming more and more accessible by people at a faster rate, the same is not true for higher education institutions.
This is why the education ministry is charged with establishing the possible government solutions based on the problems they’ve found in the higher education sector.
9. Ensuring proper management of funds
While it is known that the government generously funds the education ministry, there are high and alarming levels of corruption in almost every institution.
Therefore, there are people assigned the role of keeping the state funds safe until they play their desired goal in the end.
10. Funding government schools
The government, in order to achieve the desired goals in line of education, allocates the necessary funds to the ministry of education, making it easier for the ministry to facilitate the construction of schools even in rural areas.
Due to the effectiveness and efficiency of the education ministry, it then becomes an easier and cost-efficient option for the government.
11. Licensing private schools
So many people want to start up private schools, and just think of how many they would be, or even how pathetic the quality of education would be if there weren’t any strict requirements set for them to meet.
Once these standards are met, the ministry them issues licenses to these private schools so they can conduct academic activities like the rest.
Conclusion;
Even though some policies imposed by the education ministry seem intolerable by so many schools, it is usually for the greater good of the country’s education sector. However, this ministry is run by people and they can always be corrupted by either their emotions or money. Therefore, there should be a process where all stakeholders in the ministry make a decision based on what works for most people.
Comments are closed.