Several schools across the country are stuck with over 4,000 wrong textbooks for the new lower secondary curriculum that they received from the Ministry of Education in 2022 and are lying idle on their bookshelves.
According to the Value for Money Audit Report on the implementation of the new lower secondary curriculum by the National Curriculum Development Center (NCDC), a total of 3,713 learners’ books and 242 teacher’s guides for various subjects were wrongly delivered and remain unutilized.
According to the 2023/24 Audit report, the most affected category was that of elective subjects such as IRE, General Science, Performing Arts, and Technology and Design.
As a result, while some schools are burdened with excess incorrect textbooks, others are left without any necessary materials, highlighting significant disparities and inefficiencies in the distribution process.
The above 4,000 books were given to 11 schools sampled by the audit team, meaning the magnitude of the problem could have been high if all the schools were sampled by the team.
Meanwhile, the audit did not only identify the significant challenges with the distribution and availability of textbooks and teacher’s guides for the curriculum but also late delivery of the text books.
The report indicated that the government only commenced the distribution of textbooks in 2022, which was two years into the implementation period and after the first cohort of students had reached Senior 2.
When contacted last evening, Dr. Denis Mugimba, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, explained that when designing the new lower secondary curriculum, provisions were made for 20 subjects, yet schools are ordinarily meant to take books for only 15 subjects, hence the excess.
