SESEMAT CASH SCANDAL! Schools Accused of Overcharging Parents, Sitting on Millions
A programme designed to strengthen science and mathematics education in Uganda’s secondary schools is facing a funding crisis as schools collect money from parents but fail to remit the funds to support planned activities.
Stephen Bigirwa, the SESEMAT coordinator in Bunyoro, said many secondary schools are charging learners far above the approved contribution for the Secondary Science and Mathematics Teachers (SESEMAT) programme, while some remit only part of the money collected or fail to send any funds at all.
Bigirwa said some schools are demanding between Shs10,000 and Shs30,000 from learners, despite the official contribution being set much lower. His concern, he added, is that after collecting the money, some schools do not remit any funds to SESEMAT, leaving planned teacher training and learner support activities affected.
SESEMAT was introduced by the Ministry of Education with help from international development partners in 2005 to address poor performance in science subjects, including Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics. The programme focuses on improving teachers’ skills through continuous professional development, lesson studies, regional workshops and support for curriculum implementation.
As Uganda rolls out the lower secondary competence-based curriculum, SESEMAT has become a key platform for helping science teachers adopt new teaching approaches, including learner-centred and inquiry-based methods. To support these activities, the Ministry of Education authorised schools to collect Shs1,000 per learner per term as a contribution towards SESEMAT activities.
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), Uganda has more than two million secondary school learners. If every learner contributed the approved Shs1,000 per term, the programme would receive about Shs6 billion annually to support teacher training, student science fairs, seminars and other capacity-building activities. SESEMAT officials say failure by schools to remit the money has affected the organisation of training programmes and other activities aimed at improving science education. Namiti, a SESEMAT official, said some schools delay payments, while others remit amounts far below what they collected from learners.
Namiti added that the programme has since sought support from other education agencies to compel schools to comply. He added that they have explored working with the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) to request schools to get a certificate of clearance from SESMAT before they are given UNEB examination materials.
The remittance challenge comes at a time when Uganda is placing greater emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education to improve learning outcomes and prepare learners for a changing labour market. For parents already facing rising education costs, the concern is not only the additional charges but whether the money collected is serving the purpose for which it was introduced.
Muhammad Keeya, a parent from Nabweru in Wakiso, described the failure by schools to remit SESEMAT funds as a form of mismanagement that requires urgent attention from the Ministry of Education. He said schools often include numerous charges in their fee structures, presenting them as essential contributions, and put pressure on parents and learners to pay.
“When you read a school circular, there are many items listed as compulsory. If these fees are not paid, our children are sometimes harassed or sent back home. When we later hear that some of this money is not being remitted for the intended purpose, we ask where the government’s oversight is,” he said.
The concerns over unremitted school collections extend beyond SESEMAT. In recent years, the Uganda National Students’ Association also raised complaints over schools collecting student association funds but failing to forward the money as required, affecting planned activities and programmes.
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