Democratic Education Only for Some: Secondary Schooling in Northern Uganda

This article analyzes the effects of the political, social and cultural contexts of secondary education in northern Uganda. Specifically, the authors examine interactions between several factors with the schooling system, including post-colonial curriculum, centralized examination system, several decades of war and instability, poverty, and intra-national and inter-tribal prejudice and discrimination. Informing the analysis is the fact that Uganda is a democracy and thus has certain democratic responsibilities to its children and students. To explore these issues, the lenses of democratic theory and critical theory are employed. 

This article analyzes the effects of the political, social and cultural contexts of secondary education in northern Uganda. Specifically, the authors examine interactions between several factors with the schooling system, including post-colonial curriculum, centralized examination system, several decades of war and instability, poverty, and intra-national and inter-tribal prejudice and discrimination. Informing the analysis is the fact that Uganda is a democracy and thus has certain democratic responsibilities to its children and students. To explore these issues, the lenses of democratic theory and critical theory are employed.