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My King wants me to be a reader
by Charles Batambuze
It’s about that time of the year when Uganda celebrates the book and reading. This year, the 18th National Book Week Festival will be held on 13-18 September 2010. The theme selected for the celebration being, "Books enriching your Life". The earliest reading activities recorded in Uganda’s history were from the Koran and the Bible as both Islam and Christianity competed for the souls of kings, pages and subjects. Read More...
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Copyright of New Book for Sale
Ijue lugha ya Kiswahili is a new book written by Ahmad Mujaki. The author is looking for companies interested in buying out his interests in the work (copyright). Read More...
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FEMRITE celebrate Literary Week
Last evening at the National Library of Uganda we were treated to the
mature and seasoned literary voice of Prof. Timothy Wangusa as he
read his poetic prose titled, "the thing without feathers". Read More...
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National Library Policy in Offing
A policy to streamline the management of libraries in Uganda was recently tabled for debate by different stakeholders. The policy follows the National Library Act 2003 and the decentralization of public libraries, a task accomplished in 2005. Read More...
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Publishers Debate Common Market Protocol
Publishers in Uganda have debated the East African Community (EAC) Common Market Protocol. This was at a consultation meeting called by the Ministry of East African Community Affairs who were seeking publishers’ views on the possible impact of the common market protocol. Read More...
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Uganda Marks World Book and Copyright Day
by Batambuze Charles
Ugandans are probably beginning to appreciate literature. There were great numbers at each of the events organized to celebrate World Book and Copyright Day on Friday 23 and Monday 26 April 2010. We began on Friday 23 April with supplements in both New Vision and Daily Monitor. In the evening, enthusiasts attended an author public reading at the German Cultural Society Read More...
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Uganda Musicians Receive Royalties from Collecting Society
On March 31, 2010 musicians who are members of the Uganda Performing Right Society (UPRS) laughed all the way to the bank. This happiness followed a ceremony at which they received a cheque of Shs 50 million in royalties. This was the first royalty distribution that UPRS was making since its inception in 1985. Read More...
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Read to Compete Favourably- Rural Schools Urged
The NABOTU CRT Programme has brought hope to schools in the eastern districts of Busia and Tororo. The programme aims at promoting the culture of reading amongst primary school children. CRT events were conducted in the Sub-counties of Molo and Iyolwa in Tororo and Buhehe in Busia district in March 2010. Read More...
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TEXTBOOK CENTRE OPENS SHOP IN KAMPALA
Textbook Centre (TBC) Africa a leading retailer in books has opened their first shop in Kampala at the Oasis Mall. TBC Africa brings to the Ugandan market several years of dedicated experience in book vending. Read More...
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UNEB FIGHTS PIRATES
The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has issued a stern warning to the public who have been illegally re-printing and selling their question booklets and mathematical tables (log books). Also UNEB warned that ‘inaccurate’ answers to UNEB questions were being generated and bound into pamphlets and sold to the public as ‘UNEB Questions and Answers’. Read More...
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FEMRITE to Launch Three Books
FEMRITE – the Uganda Women Writers’ Association is to launch three new titles- a children’s poetry anthology: The Butterfly Dance; words and sounds of colour, and two short story anthologies: Talking Tales and Pumpkin Seeds and Other Gifts. Read More...
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Ugandan Elected to the International Reading Association
A Ugandan Mr. Sam Andema is the new Chairman of the International Development Coordinating Committee (IDCC) of the International Reading Association (IRA) for a term of two years. Read More...
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Library Education Career Fair in the Offing
A Library and Information Science Education Career Week is being planned by the East African School of Library and Information Science (EASLIS) Makerere University. The event scheduled for 5th – 9th April 2010 is to be held under the theme “Re – alignment of Library and Information Science (LIS) Education to meet the emerging Information Management Challenges in the Knowledge Society.” Read More...
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Local Author in International Children’s Author Award
A renowned teacher and author Mdoe Janet Nkabirwa Nsibirwa is one of the nominees for the 2010 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA). Mrs. Mdoe has a love for reading and writing and has published books both jointly and solely. Read More...
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Race for Africa Region Commonwealth Writers Prize
The shortlist for the regional winners from Africa has been unveiled in the race to win the influential 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Only two Ugandan authors have in the past won this coveted prize in the category of Africa’s best first book. Jackee Budesta Batanda won in 2003 with her book Dance with me. And Doreen Baingana won with her book Tropical fish: tales from Entebbe in 2006. Read More...
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Government Issues Copyright Regulations
Government of Uganda has issued the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Regulations 2010. The regulations operationalise the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act 2006... Read More...
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Ekisakate Embraces Reading
Wobulenzi-The ‘Ekisaakaate’ is an annual children’s holiday camp initiated in 2007 by Her Royal Highness Nnabagereka Sylvia Nagginda under the guidance of Buganda Kingdom. The ‘Ekisaakaate’ aims at nurturing young boys and girls into... Read More...
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NLU stands to Lose Nakawa land
It is a shame that all 8 governments that Uganda has had since 1962 i.e. Obote I, Amin, Binaisa, Lule, Military Commission, Obote II, the Okellos, and Museveni have failed to adequately provide for public library and now national library development. How come from 1964 when the Public Libraries Act was enacted through the transformation 2003 National Library Act we can not even point to ... Read More...
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Study Visits to European RROs
By Charles Batambuze
OSLO- CEOs of KOPIKEN-the Kenya Reproduction Rights Organisation, NAMRRO- the Namibian Reproduction Rights Organisation and NABOTU/URRO- the Uganda Reproduction Rights Organisation respectively benefitted from a study visit to CLA- the Copyright Licensing Agency (UK) and KOPINOR- the Reproduction Rights Organization of Norway. Read More...
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Photocopying licenses to benefit local Authors
By Charles Batambuze
HARARE- Author compensation is a sticky subject that is rarely discussed in joint publisher and author association meetings. The reason is that it is the heart of all publishing businesses and the parties prefer to handle it in confidence. Author compensation especially resulting from the right of reprography including photocopying Read More...
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A synopsis of the 17th National Book Week Festival
By Charles Batambuze
The 17th National Book Week Festival held on 14-19 September 2009 stood out as the most important and exciting literary celebration of books and reading and their contribution to the development of Uganda culturally, socially, economically and politically. The theme of the festival was, “a reading parent, a reading child.” Parents were reminded of the important role that they play in teaching culture values including reading to their children. This was the first time that the book week was focusing on a constituency outside of the formal book sector and government. Read More...
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Publishers want tender terms for secondary textbooks changed
Textbook publishers in Uganda have requested the Ministry of Education and Sports to change some of the requirements for them to qualify to supply secondary school textbooks. At a meeting convened by the Uganda Publishers Association recently, the publishers met to review the bidding document for the procurement of textbooks for Universal Secondary Education (USE). The textbook procurement is part of the US$ 150 million loan support to USE which was extended to the government of Uganda by the World Bank. Read More...
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National Book Week Festivals get boost
The 17th National Book Week Festival was the most celebrated in the history of book weeks in Uganda. For the first time, 17,000 primary schools across Uganda were expected to join the celebration as they organized reading marathons, silent reading, word games, public reading, book discussions and debates around themes drawn from storybooks. Read More...
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Commercial Publishers experiment with Open Access
Ugandan universities reportedly make the lowest investments into book and journal procurements in the region. Students are currently spending several thousands of shillings on photocopying whole course books and lecturer’s hand outs every semester. This is with copyright restrictions notwithstanding. Read More...
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2010 Beverley Nambozo Poetry Award
Push Your Pens to the Pinnacle!
Beverley Nambozo Poetry Award is here again this time linking poetry to financial literacy and so we invite you to push your pens to the pinnacle. The theme for the 2010 Beverley Nambozo Poetry Award is Money and Culture. Read More...
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Kitengesa Community Library gets new building
By Kate Parry
The big news this year is that the Kitengesa Community Library
has moved into a new building! We have been working on the
building project since January 2008 when the University of
British Columbia gave us the first installment of a grant for building
a computer center. Rather than extend our old building, which is
on the grounds of Kitengesa Comprehensive Secondary School,
we decided to put up a new one with a room for reading, another
for computers, and a community hall. Read More...
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MOE Procurement guideliness should protect bookshops
Charles Batambuze
As Uganda braces itself for the 17th National Book Week Festival this September, uncertainty surrounds the future of over 500 local bookshops following the adoption of the new hybrid procurement guidelines by the Ministry of Education and Sports. Read More...
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Ugandans are poor readers, says survey
Education
Written by FELIX EUPAL
Monday, 28 September 2009 05:52
Uganda has an estimated population of about 31 million people and according to a media landscape report released by Uganda Media Council in 2008, only 0.2% of the population has access to newspapers. That revelation alone confirms that Uganda’s reading culture is hugely pathetic. James Tumusiime, the Managing Director Fountain Publishers ...
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READING TENTS BRING HOPE TO SCHOOLS
By Lillian Nakiwala Nyakana
The quality of education offered by Universal Primary Education (UPE) has frustrated many parents in Uganda. The debate appears to resurrect every time PLE results are released and gets quite emotional for many families unsure of their children’s future.
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Genocide by Denial: How Profiteering from HIV/AIDS Killed Millions – an open access book from Uganda
Genocide by Denial: How Profiteering from HIV/AIDS Killed Millions – an open access book from Uganda
Posted by Eve Gray | 24 May, 2009 Read More...
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Uganda’s reading culture resting under the rocks
DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA
Do we have a reading culture? Have politicians conspired to keep us ignorant and poor by not availing helpful reading materials? Is Okot p’Bitek truly our only literary genius? And when is the Nobel Prize in Literature coming home?
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Single-textbook policy will destroy local publishing
Charles Batambuze
I wish to enlighten the public on the ongoing debate on textbook procurement for secondary schools that has been ongoing in the press. The last article which appeared in The New Vision of February 20 titled: “World Bank textbook policy promotes efficiency” alleged deliberate misinformation against the bank- a charge which is false.
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World Bank Textbook policy promotes efficiency
In the recent past, there have been articles in the press regarding the role of the World Bank in influencing Government textbook policy and its impact on the publishing industry. Read More...
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Is the World Bank scare back in Uganda?
Stakeholders in Uganda’s book industry are currently reeling in shock from the news that the Ministry of Education and Sports was armtwisted by negotiators from the World Bank to change a 15-year-old book policy that had made Uganda the model for Africa in education. Read More...
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Education, Publishers in dispute
By Fortunate Ahimbisibwe
PUBLISHERS are in a bitter row with the World Bank and the education ministry over the procurement of secondary school textbooks worth $190m.
The publishers accused the bank and the ministry of breaking the procurement guidelines by changing the textbook policy.
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Ggaba Catholic Parish Organizes Book Day
By Mary Serumaga
The morning of 10 January 2009 saw children in Ggaba Parish, some 5 years old, some 8, most 10 yearsold, hurrying towards St Karoli Lwanga Church. When they got there, they hesitated along the periphery of the gardens and peered tentatively at the tent erected the night before. They were nervous, so were we the organisers, because we had never had a book day before. Read More...
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Mpigi Schools Embrace Reading for Life
By Lillian Nakiwala Nyakana
NABOTU supported the implementation of Children’s Reading Tents in Mpigi district in 2008 in which teachers were trained, and books donated to the participating schools. The centers included; Kibibi – Butambala, Nkozi, St. Theresa Mawokota, Budde – Butambala and St. Kizito Mpigi. Read More...
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Promote Reading to Improve Grades
By Rebecca Nkore
The National Book Trust of Uganda (NABOTU) was formed in 1997 to promote a reading culture in Uganda. To this cause, they have an annual Book Week Fest and this year’s was held under the theme: “Publishing for Lifelong learning.”
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Teach in local languages or close, schools warned
Abubaker Kirunda
Jinja
The Ministry of Education is considering closing primary schools which have failed to implement the thematic curriculum. The thematic programme which encourages the use of local languages in training pupils in the lower primary, was initiated by the government two years ago.
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Government Scraps DIMP programme
The future of 300 bookshops which were established as a result of the Decentralised Instruction Materials Procurement (DIMP) programme now hangs in balance following a recent decision by the Ministry of Education and Sports to scrap the programme. Read More...
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Uganda sends delegation to Tanzania Book Week
A high powered delegation of six Ugandan book sector professionals will represent NABOTU at this year's Tanzania Book Week whih opens on 3rd November 2008. Read More...
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Why we need to read those books?
This year’s National Book Week, the 17th, organised by the National Book Trust of Uganda, starts tomorrow. It is as good a time to reflect on books and reading. Most people in Uganda stop reading books the moment they finish, or drop out of, school. Read More. Read More...
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VP Bukenya roots for better reading culture to fight poverty.
Sep 19, 2008 - 12:47:28 AM - Fred Muzaale & Michael Ssali. The Vice President Gilbert Bukenya has called on Ugandans to embrace a strong reading culture if the government-led poverty eradication programmes like prosperity for all are to succeed. Read More. Read More...
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Do you take time to read?
The 17th edition of the annual National Book Week festival, organised by the National Book Trust of Uganda (Nabotu), will take place from 15th to 20th September 2008 at the National Theatre, under the theme ‘Publishing for Lifelong Learning’. DENNIS D. MUHUMUZA asked some people about their love of reading and what they think of the event. Read more. Read More...
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Juakali Vendors
A newspaper report has found that juakali booksellers on Kampala's streets were dealing in stolen books. The report uncovered an illicit racket involving teachers, students and the street traders on Kampala road as being highly involved in the crime. read more. Read More...
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Declining standards in Schools blamed on poor access to supplementary reading materials
On Thursday 21 August 2008, I participated in the final dissemination workshop which was organised by a team of researchers that carried out the study on Literacy Practices in/ Primary Schools in Uganda:
Lessons for Future Interventions, which was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. The research uncovered a lot of issues relevant to the book sector including that... Read More...
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