WHO WE ARE
In Africa, kinship was a major means of identifying and ordering social relations, the clan was responsible for nurturing their youth and children through folklore in music, tales, and legends. However with western influence that has swept through the world via media (Television, Radio, Movies, Internet and many other mass media entertainment), the youth and children have become very vulnerable.
The fallout from this dramatic shift in values has been profoundly negative both for individuals and the society as a whole. Escalating rates of adolescent pregnancy with over 43% of the girls already mothers or pregnant with their first child. And pregnancies start as early as 10-14 years, abortion, Rape, Drug use, sexually transmitted e.g. AIDS.
The main source of information in Uganda are friends and the media leading to risk of misinformation, including dangerous myths being passed instead of accurate information. This has resulted into the following critical issues and concerns below:
(a).Poverty;
In Uganda, 41% of people live in poverty, and almost half of Uganda’s population is under the age of 15, representing one of the youngest populations in the world.
Uganda also hosts the largest refugee population in Africa—more than one million refugees have fled their home countries to seek asylum in Uganda.
Total population of Uganda is 44.3M
Only 33% of the people have an account at a financial institution.
In Uganda about 41% of families live on $1.90 a day. ill-health is prevalent and health services inadequate.
They often lack regular income, access to affordable and appropriate healthcare services etc.
(b) Alarming school Dropouts
University student drop-out rate is Alarming
According to the 2016 Africa Higher Education student survey project , Almost 30% of all students in Uganda, who join university education on various programmes in various universities, never finish their course on time , or just drop out.
At Makerere University , Uganda's main university out of the 67 universities the Annual dropout was found at the rate of 34.4% and 83.9% for bachelors degree
In the recent case 1,800 students who had failed to finish their courses on time were discontinued. Dropping out of the university- means students leaving university before completing courses they applied and registered for.
High school student dropout and failure rates are a major problem in a country with limited state resources , desperate shortage of high level skills and a pressing need to raise income levels among the poor.
(c ) Major Causes of University dropouts
Family Background
Research has concluded that Socio-cultural and financial factors mainly contribute to the student drop out.
Family background is another social factor that leads to student dropouts, according to research. About 83.7% of the students agree that their family background contributed to dropout.
Here there is evidence that most students drop out due to failure to pay tuition fees.
It was reported in the national newspaper on 26th June 2019, the high dropouts in Uganda partly are because of tuition and other economic and social related issues. Students, especially girls, encounter so many problems and it's gradually affecting the country's university education.Something just has to
be done.