How school management committees monitor the implementation of universal primary education in Uganda

Abstract

Involvement of the community in school management may not necessarily improve education service delivery in schools. The purpose of this study was to conduct an empirical study on the ascribed roles of SMCs in monitoring the implementation of UPE in Uganda. SMCs are mandated to participate and monitor all the activities that make a school operational. The research questions that guided this study were twofold: 1) How do SMCs describe their roles in monitoring the implementation of UPE? 2) To what extent the SMCs influence the implementation of UPE? The questionnaire and interview guide were used as instruments to collect data. The results of the study seem to suggest that SMCs understand their roles and execute them in some schools. However, some members seem not to understand their roles according to the study findings. Even those understanding their roles, they were not fully implementing them as a result of not understanding their mandate fully. The study finding further seem to suggest that in schools where SMCs were active in their monitoring roles, there was an improvement in UPE implementation seen in increased enrolment and support supervision that are vital for promoting teaching and learning. The study recommends a need for policy makers to empower fully SMCs to take full responsibility of managing all the affairs of the schools if school resources are to be fully utilised and lead to improved education outcome.