The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes education as a legal right of every child given its potential to promote individual growth as well as influence Development in a community. In many Developed countries, Education has been the backbone of most scientific developments and innovations as it exposes individuals to wide range of information and opportunities that they would otherwise not experience.

The Covid19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to socio- economic life across the globe and Uganda is one of those countries severely affected despite the government being hailed for having handled the situation very well. Uganda’s goal was to save life and to achieve this, there was a total lockdown of the economy; schools and business were closed.

However, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown on schooling in the local communities of Uganda was a generational catastrophe in the history of education, especially for the rural communities. Regardless of the government’s efforts to support the communities to adopt online learning through rolling out the free radio program, the pandemic exposed our country's unreadiness to embrace the digital era, it further demonstrated an urgent need to consider ICT as a key tool in the education sector for every Ugandan child.  

Whilst pupils from international schools continued with their studies online using ICT tools and applications such as Zoom and Google Meet, over 80% of Ugandan pupils from the most vulnerable communities (rural and slum areas) were unable to access remote due to lack of access to ICT infrastructure, tools and logistics and putting them at an increased risk of dropping out of school and being forced into child labor & marriage. The future of these pupils’ education has been uncertain for the past two years because they lacked access to and knowledge on how to use ICT tools like computers. This digital divide widened the educational inequality gap between high income and low income households in Uganda

Failure to embrace ICT in our Education system at a lower level will make it difficult for Uganda to develop its human capital/ workforce with appropriate skills. According to the Ugandan National Planning Authority, at least nine in every 10 Ugandans who have completed any form of education are unemployed majorly due to lack of basic skills including Computer knowledge, which is now required in our technology driven economy and workplace.

Conclusion.

From education to employment, digital is the new way of life and access to ICT knowledge and skills should no longer be considered a luxury. If all learners across the Uganda schools are exposed to ICT at an early age, Uganda will be able to produce an effective workforce that has all the necessary skills required by the global digital economy.

We are therefore asking you to support our petition to the Government of Uganda to do the following:

1.Increase investment in digital and physical infrastructure in the education sector. 
The government should invest heavily in providing adequate computers in schools to lower the student computer ratio. There is a need to invest in providing these computers to learners right from primary school level. The government further needs to enhance internet and electricity connection in the schools to ensure easy access to teaching and learning materials by teachers and students primarily from the web. It is important to note that more investment needs to be done in rural areas to bridge the digital divide.

2. Build Capacities of teachers ICT to enable them to use technology to facilitate lessons. 

Through the Ministry of education and sports (MoES), the government should develop pre-service and in-service staff training programmes tailored to the school programmes to keep teachers up to date with the technological changes that will promote proper integration of digital technologies in teaching and learning.

3. Review Education Curriculum.

The Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) should fast-track the implementation of the Digital Agenda 2021-2025 to embed use of ICT in teaching and learning processes by reviewing the current teaching curriculum for primary and secondary schools.

4. Make all government websites zero-rated, which means they are able to be accessed without data use charges.