Schools, funds and learning

A new brief from our Learning, Monitoring and Evaluation department examines whether Ugandans have heard of Uwezo and what they know about the capitation grant.

One of the critical inputs into the Ugandan education system is the Capitation Grant – a set amount (5000 UGX for lower and 8000 UGX for upper primary, per child) per child per year that the Ugandan Government allocates to every primary school. Promoting awareness of this grant by parents, as well as  their motivation and capacity to follow up with schools on whether, and how much of, the grant has been  received, is an integral part of Twaweza’s work on promoting accountability.

In 2014, Twaweza partnered with Vision Group (a wide-reaching independent media group in Uganda with different media outlets reaching across the country) to include Capitation Grant topics and facts in a series of its radio and television broadcasts in order to increase citizens’ awareness about this important education policy component. Awareness of the grant was measured initially in January 2014 and again in November 2014.

In 2015, we re-visited this question to see if there are further changes to the levels observed, and whether in addition to awareness, there was any indication also of active monitoring of the grant by citizens. Below is a summary of the findings.

• Only 7% of Ugandans can recognize the Uwezo name. However, more than half of respondents recalled hearing the Uwezo tagline about a report which says that children are going to school but not learning.
• The proportion of Ugandans who have heard of the Capitation Grant (a government policy of funding allocated to public schools, per student per year) increased from 10% in January 2014 to 35% in March 2015. It is plausible that a Twaweza-supported mass media initiative contributed to this increase.
• Two out of three respondents know that any parent has a right to inquire about the Capitation Grant in a public school.
• Just 17% of respondents have ever directly inquired about the grant; those who have done so tend to be male and live in rural areas. Notably, among those who have inquired about the grant, 70% report having received the requested information. This is in contrast with the perception of those who have not inquired directly about the grant: 80% believed that if they ask, the information request would be not inquired directly about the grant: 80% believed that if they ask, the information request would be denied.
• Radio and word-of-mouth are the key sources of information on Uwezo and the capitation grant.

Blog originally posted at the Twaweza Website