Two months to the end of the 2014/15 fiscal year, the finance ministry has uncovered glaring glitches in the implementation of projects meant to improve primary education.
Prepared by the Budget Monitoring and Accountability Unit (BMAU) of the ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, the report follows the use of funds released in the second quarter of current financial year.
About 50 per cent (about Shs 822bn) of the approved Shs 1.69tn meant for the education sector had been released by the end of 2014. Of the total allocation, about Shs 30.8bn was meant for the primary education. By December 31, the BMAU report reveals, the education ministry had received about 49 per cent (Shs 15bn) for primary education; about 92 per cent of this (about Shs 14bn) had been spent.
About 46 per cent (about Shs 6bn) was spent on assessment of primary education; 30 per cent (about Shs 4bn on instructional materials for primary schools; and 18 per cent (about Shs 2.5bn) on primary teachers’ development while four per cent (about Shs 560m) was spent on policies, laws, guidelines, plans and strategies.
The monitoring and supervision of primary schools and support to war-affected children in Northern Uganda received one per cent (about Shs 140m) each.
But anomalies in the spending of these monies were discovered in the ministry of Education and in schools that BMAU visited in 14 districts. Monitored districts included Sheema, Ntungamo, Butambala, Mukono and Wakiso. Others were, Jinja, Kamuli, Kaliro, Bugiri, Mbarara, Kabarole and Iganga.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
In their report, the BMAU pins the education ministry for failing to account for Shs 17.4bn, budgeted for the procurement of instructional materials. Whereas the contract sum for the eight publishing firms tendered to supply the materials amounted to Shs 17.4bn, the ministry received about Shs 35bn in the past two financial years for the same project.
This comes to about Shs 17.5bn in the 2013/14 fiscal year and about Shs 17.4bn in the current financial year. However, no new contracts were signed with publishers during the 2014/15 financial year, the report notes.
“Therefore, the [education ministry] MoES has had more funds available for instructional materials which they may have to account for over the last two financial years,” the BMAU report says.
Yet the supply of the materials remained wanting. Although the firms had been contracted to supply the materials to 13,000 government-aided primary schools within four months, some publishers are yet to execute their contracts.
The procurement process by Baroque, East African Education, Fountain, MK, Longhorn, Pelican and St Bernard publishers went into the 2014/15 financial year – instead of the September 2013 deadline. Mukono Bookshop Publishers is yet to supply materials worth about Shs 1.8bn.
This accounts for the supply gaps that the unit uncovered in two of the three schools sampled. For example, Waluwerere PS in Bugiri district did not receive instructional materials for English for both primary five and seven.
At Kyamate PS in Ntungamo district, text-books for four subjects in both primary five and seven were yet to be received. BMAU also had reservations for the supplied books and was unable to compare procurement with the set targets.
“However, the actual number of materials delivered by half year by the different publishers to all primary schools in the country could not be established,” the monitoring unit wrote.
To foil loss of funds, BMAU has recommended that the education ministry supervises the contracted publishers to confirm that all textbooks are supplied as outlined in the contracts. The monitoring team has proposed an audit of the supplied materials to guarantee value for money.
MONEY FOR PTCs
The report also puts the education ministry in the spotlight over Shs 2.5bn meant for the procurement of 40,500 copies of textbooks for the revised PTC (primary teachers’ colleges) curriculum under the Teacher Instructor Education and Training (TIET) programme.
Whereas the education ministry reported that textbooks had been supplied between July and December 2014, BMAU notes, no procurements were done during that period. Instead the materials supplied were procured under the 2013/14 budgetary allocation, not the current financial year’s.
These 26,400 materials (under the 2013/14 fiscal year) were delivered to the MoES stores on October 16, 2013, BMAU notes, from where 45 government PTCs and some private ones began picking them on February10, 2014.
For each subject module, each core PTC received 100 copies. The modules were: professional educational studies (PES) modules I, II and III; social studies education (SSE) modules I and II; and the local language education (LLE) module. The non-core PTCs and private PTCs received 80 and 20 copies of each module, respectively.
But some private PTCs did not pick the materials; these were given out to two core PTCs as additional materials in December 2014. Arua Core PTC (in Arua district) received 22 additional copies of each subject module while Bishop Willis PTC (in Iganga district) received 50 additional copies of each subject module – except for PES III where 39 copies were received.
The ministry’s failure to supply the materials in the current financial year has left yawning gaps in the quality of instruction at the PTCs that the BMAU team visited. For example, Bishop Willis PTC, which serves much of the 10 districts and two municipalities in the Busoga sub-region, received materials for six subjects instead of 13.
Yet, with 468 pre-service students at the college and 548 in-service students spread across its 34 co-coordinating centres, each centre should have received a set of materials for each of the subjects.
At Fort Portal’s Canon Apollo PTC, the reference textbooks quoted in the teaching guides had not been supplied, according to the college’s deputy principal. Consequently, a few computer-literate tutors resorted to internet cafes for research, while the rest were stranded.
It remains unclear whether the ministry will heed BMAU’s recommendation and procure 40,500 copies of textbooks for the revised PTC curriculum for the 2014/15 fiscal year. What is clear, however, is the challenge that PTCs will face in effecting the new curriculum without these, on top of low staffing levels – and increasing teaching load.
SPECIAL NEEDS, LOCAL LANGUAGES
Over Shs 413m was approved for the procurement of 384 assistive devices for learners with hearing impairments. However, the procurement was yet to start by December 2014.
Meanwhile, provision of reading books in 27 local languages, songs books and Kiswahili readers for primary one and two also hit a snag. By January 2015, firms contracted by the department of basic education had not started supplying these instructional materials.
While there was hope for the supply of materials for other languages, materials for Madi, Pokot, Lubwisi, Aringa, Leb-thur, Lugungu and Luluuli were yet to be developed. A sum of Shs 600m was transferred to the National Curriculum Development Centre to develop these materials. But BMAU was unable to acquire information on the expenditure of the transferred money.
With BMAU rating the education ministry’s performance at less than 25 per cent, the monitoring team’s recommendations are yet to attract any response from the ministry. By last week, ministry officials said they had not seen the BMAU report, and asked for time before commenting officially on its findings.
FRENCH VERSION
MATÉRIEL DIDACTIQUE
