UPE Learners are not Museveni’s Children – Minister

The office of the prime minister has expressed concern over the high UPE dropout rate in the country.

According to Justine Kasule Lumumba the minister of general duties in the office of the prime minister this is attributed to the lack of a school feeding programme, child labour and illegal fees levied upon learners.

Justine Kasule Lumumba also blames the mind set of the community in thinking that the children will be catered for by President Museveni.

“When UPE was introduced some communities look at the children as children for the president,so that mind set is also causing us problems” said Lumumba.

Lumumba adds that this also causes complacency on the side of the parents.

“On the side of school feeding some of the communities tell children to produce the maize, to bring the rice depending on the stable food in that community, so a child who has not been able to bring maybe because at home they don’t have enough is forced to go back home and look for food which demoralizes the child and he/she falls off”. Lumumba argued.

She was speaking during the manifesto implementation week at the office of the president.

The office of the prime minister says it has registered an overall 83% performance of its targets under the NRM manifesto commitments of 2021-2026.

According to the Lumumba, this is a midterm review with 17% ongoing till the end of 2026.

Lumumba says the office of the prime minister is constrained with limited resources to roll out the government web based system for monitoring and evaluation of all government programs, policies and projects.

The system tracks key result areas within the national development plan and key policy actions across the value chain from cabinet down to the parish level.

Lumumba says there is a need to prioritize resources for full operationalization of the system.