Boost for free Uganda schooling

High school fees mean many students drop out

Ugandan children who got good marks in primary school last year are the first pupils to benefit from free education at many secondary schools.

Fewer than half Uganda's children go to secondary school, but about 100,000 children are expected to take part in the new scheme which started on Monday.

But a BBC correspondent in the capital, Kampala, said there was not a huge rush to take up the offer.

Donors have backed the move, which applies to some 1,000 schools.

This is the first such scheme in East Africa.

'Double-shifting'

The Kololo High School in Kampala was expecting about 400 extra pupils - a 25% increase.

The headmaster told the BBC that he would either introduce "double-shifting" - with some students attending in the morning and the others in the afternoon - or increase class sizes.

One student, who said she wanted to be a nurse, said her family would not have been able to pay the fees without the government subsidy.

"I feel good because I have a chance to study," she said.

The government says it is spending some 30bn Ugandan shillings ($1.5m) on the expansion of secondary schooling.

Schools with fees of 75,000 shillings ($37) or less a term will qualify, whether they are private or state-run.

Only 40% of the 350,000 primary school graduates in the country are absorbed into secondary schools each year.

President Yoweri Museveni pledged during his re-election campaign last year to help needy high school students.

Many students have been dropping out of secondary school because of the high cost of school fees.

Education experts in the capital, Kampala, say the demand for secondary schools has been high since the government introduced free primary education in 1997, but state facilities are limited.