KAMPALA – Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga has summoned Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Museveni to explain why she defied recommendations by Parliament to halt the implementation of the new secondary schools curriculum.
The Speaker’s directive was in response to a concern raised by Leader of Opposition, Betty Aol who wondered why Cabinet had insisted on implementing the curriculum despite the defects raised by MPs, saying the Ministry of Education has misplaced its priorities.
The Leader of Opposition said, “The biggest problem in our education system is dropout rates not how our children are educate. We want someone to address compulsory education of the children.”
However, some MPs defended the First Lady saying saying resolutions of parliament aren’t binding but simply advisory and that the Cabinet has the last say on the implementation of the policy.
Kira Municipality’s Ssemujju Nganda questioned it Parliament made a mistake approving Janet Museveni as Minister of Education, saying her relationship with the President has turned her into a royal with no mandate to account to other authorities in the country.
“The Minister of Education I saw her here once since this parliament started. She always sends juniors to answer. Maybe we made a mistake of approving ‘Her Majesty’ as minister. She isn’t answerable to anyone. I move a motion that ‘Her Majesty’ be moved to committee or Rules for discipline,” said Ssemujju.
Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda lashed out at Ssemujju for disrespecting the First Lady, an accusation some MPs didn’t take lightly with Leader of Opposition saying it was Cabinet that disrespected Parliament first and therefore, MPs shouldn’t be blamed for their reaction.
“The Prime Minister was emphasizing respect and yet we made a resolution and they just decided to turn it down without explaining why they turned it down. I wonder if that was respectful of them,”
Said Aol.
Kadaga said the Minister of Education has to appear before Parliament and respond to all the questions MPs raised on the new curriculum, “The Minister of Education must come and answer the questions on the issues raised,” the Speaker said.
