For education to be truly transformative, schools themselves must change. They must be safe and nurturing environments where all children feel accepted and protected.
As schools continue to receive children for Term 1, it is an exciting time for many children as they look forward to the new school term, joining new classes, meeting new teachers, and making more friends. School fees has been paid, shopping is done, and they cannot wait to jump on the quickest means to school. For others, it marks another year of uncertainty, no fees, no food, no uniform, no scholastic materials yet they still go, hoping to learn something and change their lives.
Despite the implementation of government-supported Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE), 1 in 20 school-age children (5%) will not enrol in primary education (MoES 2019). Only 6 out of 10 children who have completed P7 transition to S1, and approximately 57% of children in refugee communities in Uganda will not report to school. (ERP 2023) The cost of education is increasingly unaffordable for many Ugandans, and efforts to regulate school fees remain elusive.
The urgency for transforming Uganda’s education system has never been greater. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 57% of 10-year-old children could not read and comprehend a simple text. Currently, only three out of ten children in P3 can read a P2-appropriate text, and three out of ten children in P6 cannot read at a P2 level.
Furthermore, only thirty-four out of one hundred children enrolled in P1 complete P7. The USAID Integrated Child and Youth Development (ICYD) activity endline evaluation in March 2024 revealed that 45.4% of learners at the end of P2 were non-readers in English, and 65.8% were non-readers in their mother tongue. On the other hand, fluent readers—those who can read more than forty words per minute—stood at just 8.4% in English and 0.9% in mother tongue.
Recently released 2024 PLE results indicate a decline in the number of children passing in the best grades, with a significant drop in distinction scores. A staggering 64,141 children were ungraded, meaning they completed school but walked away with no official recognition of their learning. Worse still, 10,463 candidates registered for the 2024 exams but did not sit for them. Altogether, 74,604 children were either ungraded or absent, representing a 10% wastage rate at PLE.
This situation is a serious indictment of parents, teachers, education administrators, and policymakers.
Speaking at the Global Transforming Education Summit in New York in September 2022, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that unequal education was dividing the world. Instead of being the great enabler, education is fast becoming the greatest divide. His remarks came on the heels of the devastating impact of COVID-19 on learning, particularly for poor students who lacked access to technology. Uganda experienced the longest school shutdown in the world, affecting nine out of ten children and further worsening the learning crisis.
A UNESCO education brief on Uganda (January 2024) attributes this crisis to low participation in Early Childhood Development (ECD), an overly ambitious primary school curriculum, a syllabus-driven teaching approach, and an underperforming teacher professional development (TPD) system. These factors have resulted in high rates of children falling behind grade-level learning expectations. The report estimates that 81% of children enrolled in primary school could be learning-poor. The National Development Plan III identifies teacher quality as a key issue affecting learning outcomes. Poor results indicate that teachers need additional training to deliver the curriculum effectively using inclusive, gender-responsive, and learner-cantered approaches. Additionally, low transition rates require targeted instruction to support individual learning needs, while out-of-school children need opportunities to learn through Accelerated Education Programs (AEPs).
To make every child succeed, we must aim higher. We must make education more accessible, inclusive, and equitable. Schools should be welcoming, safe, and inspiring spaces that provide children with essential skills in literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking.
For education to be truly transformative, schools themselves must change. They must be safe and nurturing environments where all children feel accepted and protected. Teachers play a crucial role in this transformation not just as content deliverers but as mentors who inspire curiosity, problem-solving, and creativity. They must shift from rote teaching to fostering independent thought, inquiry, and innovation. However, for teachers to be more effective, we must improve their training, professional support, and working conditions, including better pay and job security.
Education remains our most powerful tool for breaking the cycle of poverty and unlocking a brighter future for Uganda’s population. To transform learning, we must invest in the people and systems that make quality education a reality for all.
