The quality of public primary education in rural Uganda: An assessment using a Capability Approach

Abstract

This research sets out to analyse the mismatch between the national primary education curriculum and the classroom reality in rural government primary schools in Uganda. I.e., the impact of the introduction of the Thematic Curriculum in Uganda in 2007 as a quality improvement intervention is examined. For this purpose, a Capability Approach School Development Index is explored in a rural area in the north of Uganda to gain insight in the teachers´ and students´ capabilities that affect the quality of education. These capabilities are important because the traditional understanding of the quality of education does not include the context and process of education. This holds that the possible additional factors that hinder the quality of education in rural areas are not considered.

The data has been collected in a three-month period in Uganda, including a 10-day fieldwork in the selected area in Northern Uganda, and consists of 35 semi-structured in-depth expert interviews, five group discussions and eight observation reports. The results show that the constructs of implementation are insufficiently fulfilled to achieve the intended quality improvement. Additionally, the capability indicators show that teachers’ and students’ performance is hindered to such an extent that the curriculum implementation and education quality are not on the agenda in Namasale Sub-County: e.g., even basic survival capabilities – clean water and food - are not sufficiently fulfilled for teachers and students. This hinders the well-being and agency freedoms of the teachers and students and, thus, the quality of education.