Uganda realises right to free secondary education
Last year, RightsBase hailed the introduction of free primary education in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Uganda, resulting in huge increases in school attendance and great knock-on benefits to the kids and their society. Now Uganda is offering free secondary education, in accordance with its human rights obligations.
The International Covenant on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to which Uganda has been committed since 1987, states that:
"Secondary education in its different forms, including technical and vocational secondary education, shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education." [Article 13(2)(b)]
‘Progressive introduction of free education’ means that while the provision of free primary education must have priority, states "also have an obligation to take concrete steps towards achieving free secondary and higher education," according to the expert committee that governs the ICESCR. (Yep, free higher education is next!)
With the cooperation of around 1,000 government and private secondary schools, all students passing their exams at the end of primary school — roughly 90% — should now have the chance to go to high school. Previously, with average annual school fees at US$130, the drop-out rate was 50%.
This admirable initiative is estimated to cost the government US$17.15 million a year. Uganda currently ranks 145th out of 177 countries on the UN’s Human Development Index. Opening up secondary education for all should in time see citizens of this central African nation enjoying improved human development.
