Dilemma of Education

Northern Uganda is recovering from 20-yrs. of an armed conflict that led to a major humanitarian crisis: 1.8 million people - almost the entire population of its Acholi sub-region - were displaced.  

An estimated 25,000 to 28,000 children were abducted during the period as the result of an insurgency by the Lord’s Resistance Army, 80-percent of whose fighters were children. According to the Ugandan government 250,000 children dropped out of school during the peak of the war, as a result of the closure of 737 schools in northern Uganda. 

Eight years after the 2006 ceasefire agreement the region was still in recovery mode. Poor quality of educational infrastructure and the lack of qualified teachers are major problems for the large numbers of returning children. Other obstacles for children wishing to go to school are the long distances they must walk, poor prospects for post-primary education, and the key role of children in livelihood strategies of income for labour constrained households. Consequently many families are faced with a dilemma in regards to education: do they spend much needed family income on school uniforms, books and school fees to send their children to inadequate schools, or keep them home and permit them to concentrate on developing livelihood skills such as farming. 

In Pader district (northern Uganda) Alex Opira, headmaster of Acutomer Primary School with an enrollment of 365 students, stated, “the challenges to schooling also include inadequate scholastic reading materials, the lack of housing accommodation for teachers who live far away, and high dropout rates due to negative attitudes by parents who don’t value education, as well as early marriage for girls.”