EDUCATION IN UGANDA

Introduction
Education is a fundamental pillar of a nation's development, shaping the future of its citizens and contributing to
economic growth and social progress. In Uganda, a landlocked East African country known for its rich cultural
diversity and stunning natural beauty, education has made significant strides over the years. However, it
continues to grapple with numerous challenges. This article explores the state of education in Uganda, its
challenges, recent progress, and the potential for a brighter educational future.
Uganda is one of the most diverse and dynamic countries in Africa. Rivers flow through the country’s south,
spilling into and out of countless small and large lakes, and combining with the region’s abundant rainfall to water
its fertile soil. In the north, where rain and waterways are rarer, the land supports herds of domesticated animals
—goats, cattle, and sheep—and pastoralism has historically formed the basis of the region’s economy. In
between, snowcapped mountains rise in the east, separating the landlocked country from neighboring Kenya,
while the continent’s largest oil reserves lie beneath the surface in Uganda’s west.
Uganda’s people—the most ethnically diverse population in the world, with more than 24 ethnic groups—speak
more than 40 languages. The country has one of the world’s fastest growing populations as well: More than 1.5
million Ugandan babies are born each year.
This diversity and dynamism have inspired ambitious goals. In its 2015/16 to 2019/20 National Development Plan,
the Ugandan government, hoping to reap the harvest of the country’s vast demographic dividend, outlined its
aim of achieving lower-middle-income status by 2020, and upper-middle-income status by 2040.
But significant challenges, including the poor condition of the country’s educational system, continue to frustrate
these lofty aspirations. Aware of the system’s many problems, the Ugandan government, with assistance from

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the international community, has taken notable steps to reform and improve it. But problems persist,
exacerbated by uncontrolled population growth, creeping authoritarianism, smoldering internal and external
conflicts, and a history of underdevelopment and neglect that is rooted in colonial exploitation and which
continues in a modified form to this day.
The system of education in Uganda has a structure of 7 years of primary education, 6 years of secondary
education (divided into 4 years of lower secondary and 2 years of upper secondary school), and 3 to 5 years of
post-secondary education. Education in Uganda is administered in English.
Historical Perspective
Uganda's education system has come a long way since gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1962.
Back then, access to education was limited, with disparities favoring urban areas. However, Uganda has made
substantial progress in expanding access to education, particularly at the primary level. The introduction of
Universal Primary Education (UPE) in 1997 aimed to provide free education to all Ugandan children. While the
UPE policy significantly increased enrollment rates, it also presented various challenges, including overcrowded
classrooms and inadequate infrastructure.
Mission schools were established in Uganda in the 1890s, and in 1924 the government established the first
secondary school for Africans. By 1950, however, the government operated only three of the fifty-three
secondary schools for Africans.

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 Key Challenges
Uganda has made progress in implementing universal primary education, yet many students do not achieve
minimum levels of literacy and numeracy. Low learning levels contribute to low completion rates and many
students fail to transition between grades and dropout rates are high.
1. Quality of Education: Despite increased access, the quality of education in Uganda remains a concern.
Many schools lack qualified teachers, teaching materials, and adequate facilities. This affects the overall
learning experience and the ability of students to acquire essential skills.
2. Gender Disparities: Gender disparities persist in Uganda's education system. Girls, especially in rural areas,
face barriers to education due to early marriages, cultural norms, and inadequate facilities like separate
latrines. While progress has been made to address these issues, more efforts are needed to ensure equal
access for all.
3. Teacher Shortages: Uganda faces a significant shortage of qualified teachers, particularly in remote and
underserved areas. This shortage affects the quality of education and contributes to overcrowded
classrooms.
4. Infrastructure and Resources: Many schools in Uganda lack basic infrastructure, including classrooms,
textbooks, and sanitation facilities. These deficiencies hinder effective teaching and learning.
5. Dropout Rates: High dropout rates, especially at the secondary level, are a major concern. Poverty, long
distances to schools, and early pregnancies are some of the factors contributing to these high dropout
rates.
Other challenges
 Government funding for education. On any list of current issues in education, school funding ranks near the
top. ...
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 School safety. ...
 Disciplinary policies. ...
 Technology in education. ...
 Charter schools and voucher programs. ...
 Common Core. ...
 Standardized testing. ...
 Teacher salaries.

Progress and Initiatives

Despite these challenges, Uganda has made notable progress in its education system. The government has
implemented various initiatives to address these issues:
1. Universal Primary Education (UPE)
The first significant result of these renewed reform efforts was the introduction of Universal Primary
Education (UPE) in 1997. The UPE initiative initially promised tuition-free elementary education to four children
per Ugandan family. The government eventually extended tuition-free education to every Ugandan of elementary
school age, a concession to the needs of Uganda’s large families, who, from the policy’s initial rollout, had been
sending more than four children to school simultaneously. The Ugandan government hoped that UPE would help
reduce poverty and develop the country’s vast store of human resources.
The program’s success in expanding access to elementary education is undeniable. In the first year following its
introduction, elementary enrollment grew by nearly 75 percent to 5.3 million. By 2003, that number had
increased to 7.3 million, well over double its size in 1996. The gross enrollment ratio at the elementary level shot
up from 71 percent in 1996, to 118 percent the next year.

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Despite the stunning successes of the UPE program, significant problems persist. Growing enrollment rates have
not been accompanied by rising completion rates. Uganda has long had one of the highest elementary school
dropout rates in the world, a problem that UPE initially exacerbated. By 2003, the first year that an entire cohort
had been educated at the elementary school level under the UPE, a staggering 78 percent of all Ugandan
students had dropped out before completing their elementary education, up from 62 percent in 2000, according
to UIS data. Although conditions have since improved, high dropout rates persist. In 2016, nearly two-thirds (65
percent) of all students dropped out of elementary education before completion.
Other education indicators suggest that expanded elementary school enrollment may have come at the expense
of educational quality. In Uganda’s schools today, students crowd classrooms, overwhelming the country’s
understaffed teacher corps. There are around 43 pupils per teacher at the elementary level, well above the world
average of 23, and even above the sub-Saharan African average of 38, according to UIS data. The negative effects
of the country’s teacher shortage are exacerbated by high rates of teacher absenteeism. In more than half of all
Ugandan schools, at least three in five teachers are absent. School infrastructure is also often inadequate, with
many schools lacking toilets and bathrooms, as noted earlier. In certain regions of the country, such as northern
and eastern Uganda, conditions are even worse. As a result, numeracy and literacy rates remain low. Today, just
two in five students who complete elementary school are literate.
A March 2014 report on Uganda’s progress in achieving universal elementary education identified widespread
poverty, a lack of nearby schools, and inadequate and overcrowded learning facilities as the most critical drivers
of the country’s high dropout rates. The expenses incurred by families sending their children to school in Uganda
can be considerable. Although UPE guarantees tuition-free elementary education to all Ugandan children, other
expenses, such as school uniforms, books, and even “school development funds” for projects such as building
maintenance, must be provided by the students and their families. For many of Uganda’s poorest families, some
of whom live on as little as one dollar a day, these supplemental expenses pose an insurmountable barrier.

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Universal Primary Education (UPE) Enrolment statistics

2. Universal Secondary Education (USE)

In 2007, a decade after the start of UPE, the government of Uganda introduced the Universal Post Primary
Education and Training (UPPET) program, better known as the Universal Secondary Education (USE) program. The
program sought to extend free, high-quality lower secondary education to Ugandans who had successfully
completed elementary education. In 2012, the government introduced the Universal Post O Level Education and

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Training (UPOLET) program, which also extended free upper secondary education to those who had completed
elementary education.
While USE and UPOLET aimed at extending free secondary education to all eligible Ugandans, the programs did
not replace the previously prevailing fee-based model of secondary education. Fee-based schools, both public
and private, continue to exist alongside tuition-free USE and UPOLET schools, and often appeal to wealthier
families who are able to spend more for better learning facilities. The USE policy also included a public private
partnership (PPP) program, which allowed private schools to participate in the USE program, with the
government covering some of the cost of tuition for students choosing to enroll at participating private secondary
schools. Over time, the proportion of secondary students enrolled in USE schools, both public and private, has
increased.
Initial assessments of the programs’ performance, especially the USE program, were positive. In the words of the
then director of basic education at Uganda’s Ministry of Education, the USE program had, by 2010, “ushered in an
ambitious and comprehensive reform program to provide universal access to quality post primary education and
training which has played a critical role in providing future workers with competencies and knowledge required
for increase in productivity and labor mobility.” By 2016, more than one million students were participating in
tuition-free secondary school through either the USE or UPOLET programs.
But enrollment figures suggest that the success of the programs in expanding overall access to secondary
education has been mixed. The years immediately following USE’s introduction saw steady growth, with total
secondary enrollment increasing from around 815,000 in 2006, to nearly 1.2 million in 2009, according to the
Ministry of Education and Sports (Moe’s) statistics. But growth slowed considerably thereafter. After peaking at
just under 1.5 million in 2016, enrollment declined to less than 1.4 million the next year.
This modest, uneven growth was far from enough to achieve one of the programs’ central aims: universal
enrollment. In 2017, a decade after USE’s introduction, just a quarter of secondary school-age Ugandans were

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enrolled in school. In the country’s outlying regions, conditions were even worse. In Lango and Karamoja, two
northern sub-regions, just 10 percent of the relevant age group attended secondary schools.
Quality and educational outcomes also remain poor. In 2017, two out of five secondary school teachers did not
possess an undergraduate degree. Student-to-teacher ratios are still high. In 2013, more than one-third of UPPET
classrooms had more than 60 students.
Graduation rates are even more shocking. In 2016, just 11 percent of the relevant age group graduated from
upper secondary school. And government officials and business leaders worry that those who do graduate are
inadequately prepared for employment or university education.
Many of the problems at both the elementary and secondary levels result from inadequate public funding.
Despite Uganda’s quickly growing youth population, spending on education as a share of total government
expenditure has declined sharply, falling from around 25 percent in the early 2000s to just 11 percent in
2018, according to the World Bank. In 2019, the National Planning Authority (NPA), a constitutionally mandated
development planning agency, decried the government’s inadequate spending on elementary education, noting
that the government would need to more than double its per student spending if it ever wished to fulfill the early
promises of the UPE program.
At the secondary level, funding declines are even more extreme. A growing percentage of the money the
government spends on education is being redirected from secondary to elementary education.
Given these trends, the words of the NPA’s executive director, Joseph Muvawala, could easily be extended to
secondary education: “Given the massive resources required to improve the quality of UPE, it remains an illusion
that the quality of education will improve under the current financing arrangements.”

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Universal Secondary Education (USE) enrolment statistics

3. Teacher Training: Efforts to train and deploy more teachers have been ongoing, particularly in rural and
remote areas. The government has also worked on improving teacher remuneration to attract and retain
qualified educators.
4. Infrastructure Development: Investment in school infrastructure has increased, with efforts to build more
classrooms and improve facilities in both urban and rural areas.

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5. Girls’ Education: Several programs and campaigns have been launched to promote girls' education and
address gender disparities. These initiatives include the provision of sanitary pads and sensitization campaigns.
6. Education Reforms: The Ugandan government has initiated education reforms aimed at improving the
quality and relevance of education, including curriculum revisions and the integration of ICT in education.
University education
There are 5 state universities, 11 religiously-affiliated universities, and 10 private secular universities in
Uganda. There are also 4 technical colleges, of which 1 is private. Of the Ugandan students who qualify for
tertiary education less than 50% find places though.
The second oldest, and by far the largest institution is the University of Makarere founded in 1922 and sited
on a hill overlooking Kampala. It has a number of campuses, and 8 halls of residence, of which 2 are for
women.
Top 10 universities in Uganda

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ACADEMIC CALENDAR AND LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION

At elementary, secondary, and BTVET schools, the academic year runs from February to late November or early
December. The school year is divided into three terms, with end-of-year examinations held in October or
November.

At the tertiary level, the academic year runs from August to May and is divided into two semesters. Each
semester consists of 15 weeks of teaching and two weeks of examinations.

Uganda’s official languages are English and, as of 2005, Swahili. However, a rich variety of local languages is used
most frequently in everyday affairs throughout the country, a reality only recognized in the country’s educational
system in the 21st century.

Following the introduction of a local language policy in 2007, the first three years of elementary education are
taught in the prevailing local language, after which English becomes the principal language of instruction. At the
secondary level, all education is in English. The local language policy was initially greeted with enthusiasm, but it
has proven hard to effectively implement because of the nation’s numerous ethnic and linguistic groups and a
lack of learning materials and trained teachers in many minority language

Future Prospects
The future of education in Uganda holds promise, but it also requires sustained efforts to overcome existing
challenges. Key areas for improvement include:

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 1. Quality Assurance: Continued efforts to enhance the quality of education, including teacher training,
curriculum development, and resource provision, are essential to ensure that students receive a
meaningful education.
2. Infrastructure Development: Investment in school infrastructure must continue to accommodate the
growing student population and ensure safe and conducive learning environments.
3. Inclusive Education: Strategies to ensure equal access to education for all, regardless of gender, ability, or
socio-economic status, should be a top priority.
4. Vocational and Technical Education: Expanding vocational and technical education programs can provide
students with practical skills and opportunities for employment or entrepreneurship.
5. Parent and Community Involvement: Engaging parents and communities in education is crucial for
improving school attendance, reducing dropout rates, and fostering a supportive learning environment.
Conclusion
Education in Uganda has come a long way, with notable progress in increasing access and addressing gender
disparities. However, challenges in quality, infrastructure, and teacher shortages persist. The government's
commitment to education reforms and initiatives like UPE and USE demonstrate its dedication to improving the
nation's education system. With continued efforts, Uganda can build a brighter educational future for its citizens,
unlocking their full potential and contributing to the nation's overall development.

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