Uganda should make Universities Free just Like Liberia -UPC

In a press conference held at Uganda house on Wednesday, Michael Osinde, the UPC spokesperson showed concern on the number of students admitted to higher education compared to the number of students who are given government scholarships each year.

“As UPC, we welcome the recent initiative in Liberia, where government has taken on full sponsorship of university/tertiary education at all public universities compared to Uganda, where government caters for only 4,000 university students annually.” he said.

The president of Liberia,George Weah, declared all public universities in Liberia tuition-free which Osinde believes was a good move.

“Uganda needs to take keen interest in studying how such countries are managing to achieve that grand objective and borrow a leaf from them if the country is to achieve education for all,” Osinde added.

The speaker further expressed fear at how the world is fast producing highly skilled manpower that Uganda’s education system can not produce.

“We therefore urge government to heavily invest in vocational training institutions, purposely to enhance skills development,” the UPC spokesperson remarked.

Osinde wished the primary seven candidates success in the forthcoming Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) 2018 and on this note demanded that government devises means of neutralizing the school dues to ensure a free education for all.

“UPC calls on the parents to strategically engage their children in domestic work and skillful activities, which can bring income to the family in order to address the above captioned challenge as well as mitigating the negative consequences during the forthcoming vacation,” Osinde said.

“Some have prematurely opted to leave school without attaining a PLE certificate due to teenage pregnancy, high increment in school fees among others, yet writing PLE is a fundamental step towards success,” the party mouth piece noted.