Education department is one of the core departments in Lira District Local Government. This department is headed by District Education Officer. It is divided into three sectors i.e. Inspectorate headed by district inspector of schools; sports headed by district sports officer and the administration headed by district education officer. All these departments work as a team to achieve a common goal. Lira District Local Government has gone through a lot of turmoil and wars. This has affected the education standard in the district where schools were burnt by the rebels, furniture were vandalised and books were also burnt, children and teachers were abducted by the rebels and some were even killed. This has affected the standard of education in the district.

The objectives of this department are:-
1. To make sure that seventy percent of our teachers are upgraded and trained ;
2. To build at least two (2) twin staff houses in all the 93 government aided primary schools by the year 2015/2016;
3. To build at least one (1) twin staff house in all the government aided secondary schools by the year 2015/2016;
4. To make sure that all the pupils sit on the desks by the year 2015/2016;
5. To make sure that at least there are eight (8) classrooms in all the primary schools in Lira district by the year 2015/2016;
6. To make sure that the district gets more than 1,500 candidates in the first grade by the year 2015/2016;
7. Make sure that the existing classrooms who are in dilapidated conditions are renovated and rehabilitated

The strategies that the department opt to use are:-
1. Lobbying for funding from International Agencies and Donors;
2. Critical planning for all primary, secondary, tertiary and vocational schools;
3. Taking staff houses as a priority followed by classrooms construction and purchase of desks in our schools;
4. Creating competition in our schools;
5. Advising schools to open gardens for learners to grow their own foods in order to improve nutrition in schools

Overall Goal
To ensure that the district utilizes her national, human and financial resources to positively change the socio-economic live of the population in a sustainable way hence contributing towards poverty eradication

Education department has got seven (8) staff at district level i.e. District Education Officer; District Inspector of Schools; Caretaker Senior Education Officer; two (2) Inspector of schools; Caretaker District Sports Officer; Office Typist; Driver and Office Attendant. The enrolment is 40,933 for boys and 39,910 for girls totalling to 80,843 learners/pupils. The staffing level is 996 male teachers and 494 female teachers totalling to 1,490 teachers. The teachers: pupils’ ratio is 1 to 54. HIV/AIDS is a big challenge in the Education sector where the majority teachers and pupils are positive; this has affected the performance in schools.

Development Challenges/Issues
The status of the performance of the District in implementing programmes and projects during the past five (5) years is affected by:
– Inadequate funding from the central government;
– Wars and insecurity caused by rebels and cattle rustling. This has affected the projects in the district;
– Inadequate manpower to monitor and supervise the projects ;
– Funds not provided for monitoring, example PRDP which is supposed to be monitored from the centre.

Gender
Gender differences and inequalities in the Lango Sub-region have resulted in great inequality between men and women with respect to access to education at all levels. From time immemorial men are decision makers, and opportunities for education are given to boys. The girls are for marriage. Evidence of this can still be seen in (a) number of female teachers who constitute only about 30% of Primary school teachers (b) very large gender gap in secondary schools (68.3%) boys against (31.7%) girls who join secondary after primary education (c) high dropout rate for girls at 27.4% against the boys at 19%. The results of these are that there are no role models in rural areas for the young girls to emulate

Maintenance of Department Assets
Many school buildings and structures are in a poor state. Some were destroyed during the insurgency, while others were abandoned and eaten by termites. Heavy storms, too frequently destroy many classrooms across the district. So far, community participation in maintenance has been lacking. It’s therefore necessary that a policy be designed for maintenance of all facilities and equipments at both district and school levels.