Until the late 1960s, education in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya served as a unifying force across the three states of the East African Community (EAC). Curricula and examinations were the same at almost all levels of education, as determined by the examination council of East Africa.
In 1970, after the collapse of the EAC, the University of East Africa was split into the three national universities of Makerere, Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. Today, the revival of the EAC means there is a greater need for academic co-operation between the three universities.
Exchange programmes between EAC universities are one way to foster education cooperation in the region. According to Aggrey Kibenge, the public relations officer of the Uganda’s ministry of education and sports, Rwanda and Uganda are already co-operating in many areas, including exchanges of French and English teachers to reinforce the learning of these languages. Similar exchanges are taking place with Kiswahili teachers from Tanzania. Visa fees for students on exchange programmes have been scrapped.
The education ministries across the EAC are brought together under a body called the Education, Science, Technology and Cultural Council/Commission, which is mandated to promote cooperation among the ministries of partner states. This body and the The Inter-University Council of East Africa (IUCEA) are pushing for single curricula across all education levels as well as a uniform academic calendar for all member states.
But harmonising education systems and standards among EAC states is perhaps the biggest challenge in the EAC education cooperation efforts. Consider the differences in schooling years across the member states. A student in Uganda has to spend seven years in primary education, four years in lower secondary, two years in advanced secondary and three to five years in university. Her Kenyan counterpart will spend eight years in primary education, four years in secondary and four years in university. In Burundi and Rwanda, the last entrants of the EAC, primary school is for six years, secondary school, divided into junior and senior, takes three years each and university lasts at least four years. In Tanzania, meanwhile, primary school is for seven years and lower secondary school takes four years. At university level it takes three to five years to complete a course.
Then there is the issue of language. In Tanzanian public schools, where UPE is undertaken, the teaching language is in Swahili. Private schools in Tanzania teach in English. The official admission of Rwanda and Burundi to the EAC in June 2008 left the two Francophone countries with the option of switching to English as a language for instruction at all levels of education. Rwanda passed the law that saw English become the medium of instruction in schools. But for now, language differences limit the scope of the two new countries’ interaction with the English-speaking Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Disparities in education systems across EAC states mean that foreign students wishing to enroll for Uganda’s university education are required to meet an average score of C+ for their secondary coursework, which for some can be a real challenge. Many have to revert to A-level education to prepare for university. In some cases, they are required to complete a year-long remedial course prior to admission.
Kibenge says that while harmonisation is necessary, it is important to identify the right kind of harmonisation. He revealed that experts from the EAC countries’ ministries of education are mapping out a way of interfacing the education systems by sharing information regarding syllabi content in all areas and determining qualification equivalencies.
Harmonising tuition is another question for the EAC education sector. Education in Uganda is said to be cheaper than it is elsewhere in the region. This is one of the reasons for the presence thousands of East African nationals at Ugandan education institutions.
The EAC assembly wants to persuade universities within the community to levy a uniform fees structure to students from member countries. Some universities, especially those in Kenya, are said to be charging similar fees to East African nationals. But charges in Ugandan universities for non-Ugandans are in most cases lower than elsewhere in the region.
Training and investing in a country’s human resources is essential to help countries develop. Offering students loans, especially at university level, is a way of appreciating this fact. The Student Financing Agency for Rwanda, the Higher Education Loans Board in Kenya and the Higher Education Students Loans Board of Tanzania are agencies through which students who would otherwise not be able to go to school can access funds to fund their education. Other EAC member states without such arrangements are pressing to have them.
With the help of these loans, higher education in East Africa is expected to grow swiftly.
For instance, at the University of Rwanda, only 1,926 students graduated in 1993, but in March 2008, two years after the loan scheme was introduced, that number had risen to 3,400. Students who acquire these loans are expected to pay them back after they get jobs.
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