The Functional Adult Education programme in Uganda’s Kalangala District may have to close next year amid talks that its most significant donor, Iceland’s International Development Agency, could be pulling out.
For the past seven years, Iceida has been responsible for 90 per cent of the programme’s total budget.
Edward Kabongoya, a project officer for the development agency confirmed that Iceida would be “scaling down” its operations.
“We aren’t stopping at once. We are looking at reducing funding by 40 per cent but we are still debating the issue,” Mr Kabongoya said last week. The programme is officially run by the Ugandan Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.
The programme offers adult students three levels of education. The first level teaches basic reading at writing equivalent to about a fourth grade level. The second level gets adults up to a level roughly equal to seventh grade and the final level of studies offers vocational training. Each level requires one year of studies to complete.
Since 2002, more than 3,000 adults have been through the course, attaining the three levels of certification. There are currently another 3,000 in the course.
I applaud Iceland’s degree of commitment to help Uganda. Even in the midst of its economic fiasco, Iceland still finds the will to help Uganda. Even though the project might be eventually pulled out from Uganda, the fact that Iceland’s International Development Agency is trying to work on a scaled down budget would mean a lot to the Ugandan recipients.