Kampala-(Halbeeg) – Somali children in Uganda perform well in schools despite being refugees in the East African nation, report has said.
Thousands of Somali nationals fled from the civil in their country live in Uganda’s refugee camps.
The report released on Tuesday by UWEZO, a local NOG based in Kampala carried out the research in a questionnaire form.
The study shows that six in every 10 Somali refugee children living in Uganda are able to read and count better than their host counterparts in schools within and outside the refugee camps.
The report states that number of Ugandan Pupils at primary schools who are capable of answering questions based on the primary level education are 40% less than their Somali counterpart pupils.
According to the report posted on Daily Monitor, a Ugandan newspaper says only two in every 10 Ugandan pupils able to respond to the same questions at the same primary school level.
The researchers from UWEZO met with 5,000 pupils selected from the hosting communities and Somali refugees in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda.
Among the camps which the researchers visited are in Arua, Adjumani, Isingiro (Nakivale), and Yumbe neighbourhoods.
Speaking during a ceremony to unveil the report, Dr. Goretti Nakabugo, the Uwezo country director said, “Despite the Overall poor learning outcomes within and outside the camps yet Somali pupils are the best one among the children in Primary schools”
The report says the quality of the learning remain low with more than 90 per cent of the assessed children unable to read, comprehend and divide Primary two level questions.
“The learning outcomes are pretty low overall. Almost 90 percent of the interviewed children have not acquired literacy and numeracy competences. But the refugees perform better than the host,” Dr. Nakabugo said.
According to the report, six in every 10 Somali refugee children living in Uganda are able to read and count whereas other children from other communities based at 3 in 10.
Dr Nakabugo said they were not able to establish why Somali children in Primary Three to Primary Seven were more competent in reading and counting than their counterparts from South Sudan (20 per cent), Uganda (26.8 per cent), Rwanda (20.3 per cent), Burundi (18.7 per cent) and Congo (13.5 per cent).
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