State Minister for Higher Education Chrysostom Muyingo while appearing during the second national Afri-child conference held at Golf course hotel said the government was in its final stage of presenting to parliament amendments in the education Act 2008 to ensure that parents enroll all children under the care to school.
“ if Uganda is to develop,we need every school going child to be at school but many parents ignore this but the solution is in that law and soon we shall be presenting a number of amendments made to it.”
However the conference brought together researchers,practitioners to discuss strategies for scaling up evidence based on child focused research.
Mr Muyingo further spoke to our Mutalika source and emphasized that through the intended amendments in the law, parents will be forced to meet their obligations and enroll all children in schools since government will also be enforcing free education throughout the country and that the amendments will be based on research based on identifying the gaps that need to be addressed to ensure free education for all.
The Executive Director of National Planning Authority Dr Joseph Muvawala noted the sustainable level of social-economic progress need to be anchored in evidence based planning and he noted further that whereas universities have always been viewed as primary procedures of research there are challenges with regard to dissemination of these research products.
“Traditionally universities focus on peer reviewed journals and other purely academic media to disseminate research products,albeit majority of the potent users being outside the academia.This has led to a lot of research done by research organizations and universities remaining on the shelves hence limiting its impact,”he noted.
Giving a keynote address Mr Timothy Opobo the Afri- child Executive Director told a Mutalika that as Uganda continues to grapple with challenges affecting children,many programs and policies are being developed by the policymakers are not necessarily informed by research.
