WASHINGTON, DC, June 22, 2011 – Uganda’s updated Education Sector Strategy Plan (ESSP) 2010-2015 was endorsed by the Education For All Fast Track Initiative Partnership in June 2011. Members of the Local Education Group, including the African Development Bank; the governments of the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, United States and Japan; the European Union; and UN agencies and other partners including UNFPA, UNICEF, UNHCR, World Bank and the World Food Program took part in both the development and appraisal of the plan. Civil society and non-gov organizations also provided inputs to the country-level consultation process

The updated ESSP 2010-2015 is based on Uganda’s ESSP 2004-2015, which was responding to three critical sectoral concerns identified by the Government of Uganda:

• Primary schools were failing to provide sufficient Ugandan children with literacy, numeracy and basic life skills;
• Secondary schools were not producing graduates with the skills and knowledge required to enter the workforce or pursue tertiary education; and
• Universities and technical institutes were neither affording students from disadvantaged backgrounds access to tertiary education nor responding adequately to the aspirations of a growing number of qualified secondary school graduates.

The ESSP 2004-2015 was updated in the ESSP 2007-2015, with an emphasis on six policy priorities aimed to address the concerns above. These priorities included: aligning the ESSP with EFA and Millennium Development Goals (MDG) goals; improving of quality through local language instruction; ensuring access to post-primary education; strengthening science and technology in schools; strengthening tertiary education matched to labor market demands; and strengthening the teaching force.

The latest Revised ESSP 2007-2015 builds on both the ESSP 2004-2015 and the ESSP 2007-2015, retaining a focus on the concerns and policy priorities already identified but more directly aligning the key objectives and strategies of the ESSP with those of the country’s National Development Plan.