To What Extent Has Girl Child Education Been Promoted by The Government of Uganda at Secondary School Level?

This paper presents an analysis of girl child education in Uganda at secondary school level, as a result of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Since Uganda is a signatory to this convention, it put in place many policies so as to end whatever was perceived as discriminatory against women. In the Education sector, policies and programmes have been put in place to promote girl child education. These include Universal Primary Education (UPE), Universal Secondary Education (USE), The National Strategy for Girls’ Education (NSGE), The Promotion of Girls’ Education (PGE) Scheme, The Equity in the Classroom (EIC) programme, the Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja (ABEK), The Classroom Construction Grant (CCG) programme, The Gender desk in the Ministry of Education and Sports headquarters, The Girls’ Education Movement in Africa (GEM), Child Friendly School programme, Focusing Resources for Effective School Health (FRESH), among others. This paper analysed girl chil education by basing on three questions namely: What is the Enrolment level of girls at secondary school level in Uganda?; what is the completion rate of girls at secondary school level in Uganda; and what is the academic performance of girls at secondary school level in Uganda?. The analysis was made on the data from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2020, a government body which produces quarterly and annual statistical reports for all the ministries in Uganda. The findings were that the enrolment, retention and performance of girls in Uganda’s secondary schools is good and does not differ significantly from that of the boys. However, in rural areas, some girls are married off at an early age and hence drop out of school and in some instances, their performance is poor. It is therefore suggested that parents, religious leaders, non-government organizations, as well as the government do more to educate the masses on the dangers of early marriages and school drop-out so that all girls who enroll in school can finish.