Dropping out or kicked out? This year, in January, the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) released the Primary Leaving Examinations. As you would expect, there were celebrations as the government authorities indicated that there had been an improvement from last year’s performance. Such statements often make headlines and bury the …
Read More »Tough love: psychology of Argentina’s Messi relationship
Buenos Aires, Argentina | AFP | Like neurotic parents, Argentines swung from criticism to unconditional love for their star footballer Lionel Messi this week, providing the soccer-mad nation’s many therapists with rich material for psychoanalysis. Fans’ frustration at the superstar’s missed penalty in Sunday’s defeat to Chile in the Copa …
Read More »Crisis meetings over Karuma, Isimba
The cost of the two hydro-power dams that the government is building at Karuma and Isimba could rise beyond control unless a recent directive by President Yoweri Museveni is implemented cautiously. Ministry of Energy Permanent Secretary (PS) Kabagambe Kaliisa issued the warning in reply to queries raised by Keith Muhakanizi, …
Read More »What is Article 50? The key to Brexit
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | It consists of just five short, vaguely worded paragraphs, but Article 50 of the European Union’s 2007 Lisbon Treaty will decide how Britain leaves — and it is already causing problems. The short section buried in the laws that govern the EU has never been …
Read More »From smart budgets to smart returns
World Bank shows the way for Uganda to get more from every shilling it invests The World Bank (WB) on June 6 unveiled its 7th Economic Update on Uganda at a ceremony in Kampala. The update, which is a bi-annual assessment of the state of the country’s economy, analyses the …
Read More »HEALTH: Why women ministers were handed the baton
DR ACENG: New Minister of Health is a thoroughbred technocrat. Will that help her fix a sector that politicians almost killed? Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, the new minister of Health, is very authoritative – in a soft spoken way. So it is easy to guess that she will want to …
Read More »Entebbe Road madness
One of the temporary inconveniences that are making branding Uganda more complicated Amos Wekesa, arguably the face of Uganda’s tourism industry and self-confessed ‘brand ambassador’ for the country, rarely, if ever, makes negative comments about his country in public. He travels around the world marketing the country in his ‘I’m …
Read More »Primary education to the test
Will institutionalising nursery school education overturn the appalling learning deficit? It’s about 6:30 pm. Most workers are heading home after a long day; not yet for the three men working at this construction site at Lusanja inWakiso District.As they carry bricks and piles of concrete with an obvious gait in …
Read More »The case for Uganda’s exports
It has almost become a norm that for every State of the Nation address, President Yoweri Museveni has to lament about the fact that Uganda imports far much more than it exports. This year’s address was no different. He lamented how Uganda had become a ‘supermarket’ economy, importing all sorts …
Read More »HEALTH: Worries persist over heavy dependence on donors
Ailing health sector: Sector gets increment but worries over heavy dependence on donors persist Every time the budget is presented, citizens take a hard look at the allocation to the health sector. This year, the government has unveiled an ambitious budget of Shs26trillion of which Shs1,826.49bn is going to the …
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