Formal Education as a question of Law & Context in Uganda By Frank R. Wadidi Over the last couple of weeks, outspoken Lawyer, Hassan Male Mabirizi, kicked off & sustained an interesting storm surrounding the academic qualifications, among others, of Member of Parliament & Presidential Contender, Hon. Kyagulanyi Sentamu. At the climax of the storm, the Hon. Kyagulanyi issued a formal statement clarifying on, among others, his academic qualifications and particularly when, how and where he attended his Primary School and O-level. But, was the Hon. Kyagulanyi under any legal obligation to clarify on his educational journey? This should be answered by the law governing the academic qualifications for election either as Member of Parliament or President of Uganda. Let’s explore: Under art.102(c) of the Constitution of Uganda 1995 as amended, a person is qualified for election as President if he is, among others, qualified to be elected a Member of Parliament. This is reenacted in s.4(1)(c) of the Presidential Elections Act, 2005. It follows that the minimum academic qualifications required of a Member of Parliament apply equally to one vying for election as President. Article 80(1)(c) of the Constitution and s.4(1)(c) of the Parliamentary Elections Act, 2005, govern the academic qualifications for election as Member of Parliament. The two enactments require the person to have completed a minimum Formal Education of A- Level or its equivalent to be eligible for election as member of Parliament. You may not know, but, the key words in these provisions are “Formal Education”. So, what then constitutes “Formal Education”? In my view, this is a question of context, as we will see shortly. One context for “Formal Education” is supplied by the Education (Pre-Primary, Primary and Post-Primary) Act 13 of 2008 (call it the Act of 2008). In that Act of 2008, s.2 defines “Formal Education” as a package of learning made available by recognized schools and institutions, following approved curriculum standards and guidelines. Then, s.10 sets up the levels of Education as being pre-primary, primary, post primary and tertiary/university education. To make sense of the context supplied by the Act of 2008, one must look at the 2006- 2010 Regulations and syllabi made under the UNEB Act for that period. It will be noted that Reg.1 premises eligibility for A-Level exams on having sat and passed the Primary Leaving Exams (PLE), among others. It should therefore be clear that under the 2006/2008 context, attending, sitting and passing the Primary Leaving Examinations is mandatory for one’s subsequent qualifications to be valid. It is a context, we can say, of mandatory levels in the The author is a Kampala-based Lawyer & Bar-candidate. frwadidi@ldc.ac.ug