Social Sciences

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Browsing Social Sciences by Author "Ejuu, Godfrey"

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    The Status of Implementation of the Education Sector Early Childhood Development Policy in Uganda
    (Uganda National Commission for UNESCO, 2012) Ejuu, Godfrey
    Uganda is one of the many African countries that still has majority of her people living in poverty. Although the share of Ugandans living in poverty decreased from 56.4 to 24.5 percent between 1992/3 and 2009/10 (MoFPED, 2012), there is substantial and growing urban-rural inequality and imbalance between regions. Despite the impressive growth, Uganda‟s Gini coefficient has been rising over the years, and stands at 0.426 (UNHS, 2009/2010), indicating a worrying trend towards increased income inequality (Kaduru, 2011). This inequality may mean that some children who are born into poor families are much more likely to have parents who have low levels of education attainment, low-quality jobs, and low wages, thus such children are more likely to have less access to public services, such as water and sanitation, health care, and education (Vegas & Santibanez, 2010). A number of interventions have been tried in terms of poverty alleviation such as NUSAF, SACCOs; Youth credit schemes, entandikwa, and PEAP. Even with these interventions, poverty still persists in many communities especially in the rural areas where they live on less than a dollar a day. One of the ways of poverty eradication and reduction of inequality among people is through the use of early childhood development programmes which put children on equal footing prior to starting primary schooling, regardless of the different conditions in life such as poverty, neglect and ignorance (Kisitu, 2009). This notion is expressed in a number of international declarations and frameworks like the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Education for All (EFA) goal and the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), all of which have provisions for inclusion of ECD as a priority area (UCRNN, 2010). In 1990 at Jomtien in Thailand, 155 nations of the world agreed on a joint plan of action to fulfill six Education For All goals. The first goal required nations to work towards the expansion and improvement of comprehensive ECD by the year 2015. Similarly, the Dakar Framework of Action adopted by the World Education Forum, Uganda, among other participants, committed herself to attain the goals pertaining to the child with emphasis on expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. Therefore, any attempts to improve the status of ECD in the country will be an effort that is geared towards the fulfillment of the Education For All (EFA) targets and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).