Uganda: Education Country Brief
IICBA collaborates with a wide range of partners. For Uganda and other anglophone African countries plus Mozambique, one of those partnerships is the KIX Africa 19 Hub meant to promote the use of evidence in decision-making and south-south exchanges of good practices. The Ministry-appointed focal point for the country under the KIX Africa 19 Project is Ms. Sarah Bugoosi.
Background
This brief provides data and references to the literature on issues that matter for education in Uganda. It is part of a series that provides a brief introduction to the state of education systems in Africa. The work was prepared for country pages on IICBA’s website and a digital repository of resources at the country, sub-regional, and continental level. The brief series also informs work conducted in the context of (i) the European Union’s Africa Regional Teachers’ Initiative and (ii) the KIX (Knowledge and Innovation eXchange) Africa 19 Hub for anglophone countries that promotes the use of evidence for policy making and benefits from funding from the Global Partnership for Education and Canada’s International Development Research Center. This brief and its associated webpage are meant to be updated as new information becomes available, at least on a yearly basis.
Key resources: This brief provides the following resources:
- Educational outcomes: Estimates are provided for learning poverty (the share of 10-year-old children not able to read and understand a simple text), educational attainment and/or enrollment rates at various levels of education, the components of the human capital index, and human capital wealth as a share of national wealth.
- Selected literature: Links are provided to selected publications at the global, regional, and country levels with a focus on six themes: (i) learning assessment systems; (ii) early childhood education; (iii) teaching and learning; (iv) the data challenge; (v) gender equality; and (vi) equity and inclusion.
- Country policies: Links are provided to key institutions (including Ministries) managing the education system, selected policy and planning documents, and websites that aim to provide comparative data on policies across countries.
- Knowledge repositories and other resources: Links are provided to a dozen digital repositories that collate publications and resources on education issues in Africa.
- Data: Links are provided to data sources that can help inform education policy.
This country brief provides a brief introduction to selected issues and research relevant to Uganda’s education system and links to resources that may be useful to official of Ministries of Education and other education stakeholders. A special focus is placed on thematic areas from the KIX (Knowledge and Innovation eXchange) initiative for which UNESCO IICBA manages the Secretariat of the Africa KIX 19 Hub. Together with the associated webpages on UNESCO IICBA’s website, the brief is to be updated as new information becomes available, typically every year. The brief starts with a review of basic data on educational outcomes including learning poverty, educational attainment, and the human capital index. The focus then shifts to information related to the thematic areas of focus of the KIX Africa 19 Hub, namely: (i) learning assessment (ii) early childhood education; (iii) teaching & learning (iv) data challenge; (v) gender equality; and (vi) equity and inclusion. The brief also includes links to country documents and processes as well as a range of other resources and websites.
Educational Outcomes and Human Capital
Uganda as many other African countries is facing a learning crisis. Learning poverty, the share of children not able to read and understand an age-appropriate text by age 10, is estimated by the World Bank, UNESCO, and other organizations at 83 percent (see Table 1 for selected statistics) This is in part because out-of-school children are unlikely to achieve reading proficiency. But it mostly results from the fact that 81 percent of children enrolled in primary school could be learning poor. It is imperative to improve the quality of the education provided in schools.
Schooling does not imply learning, but lack of learning increases the likelihood of dropping out of school. According to the World Bank and UNESCO Institute of Statistics, the primary school completion rate was at 52 percent in 2017 for boys and 54 percent for girls. In the same year, lower secondary completion was at 28% for men and 25% for women. Gross enrollment in tertiary education was at 6 percent for men in 2016 versus 4 percent for women.
Another useful statistic is the Human Capital Index for Uganda based on six variables: (i) the probability that a child will survive past age five (95 percent); (ii) the years of schooling that a child is expected to complete by age 18 (6.8 years); (iii) the level of learning that a child is expected to acquire (397 on a scale where 625 represents advanced attainment and 300 the lowest attainment); (iv) the learning-adjusted years of schooling that a child is expected to complete, a measure combining the two previous measures (4.3 years); (v) the adult survival rate (74 percent of 15-year olds surviving until age 60); and finally (vi) the probability that a child will not be stunted in early childhood (71 percent). Based on those six variables, the expected productivity in adulthood of a child is estimated in comparison to full productivity that could be expected with full education and health. The estimate is that a child born in Uganda today will reach only 38 percent of its potential. This is lower than the average for sub-Saharan Africa region but higher than the average for Low-income countries.
One last statistic may help make the case for the importance of investing in education for the country’s development. A country’s wealth mainly consists of three types of capital: (1) Produced capital comes from investments in assets such as factories, equipment, or infrastructure; (2) Natural capital consists of assets such as agricultural land and both renewable and nonrenewable natural resources; (3) Human capital is measured as the present value of the future earnings of the labor force, which in turn depends on the level of educational attainment of the labor force. The latest estimates from the World Bank suggest that human capital wealth in Uganda accounts for 73 percent of national wealth.
Selected Literature
Supporting countries in using evidence for policymaking is an objective shared by many organizations and initiatives. Under the KIX initiative for which UNESCO IICBA manages the KIX Africa 19 Hub and collaborates with KIX Africa 21, the focus is on six themes: (i) learning assessment systems (ii) early childhood education; (iii) teaching and learning (iv) the data challenge; (v) gender equality; and (vi) equity and inclusion. For each topic, a link is provided to the GPE-KIX Discussion paper written at the start of the initiative in 2019 and additional publications that could be useful for policy. By necessity, to keep this brief short, only a few resources can be mentioned, but additional resources can be accessed through digital repositories listed below. A brief note on UNESCO IICBA research is also provided.
Learning Assessment Systems [GPE-KIX Discussion Paper]. Learning assessment tools and systems are essential to gauge and improve learning outcomes for students. A primer on large scale assessments from the World Bank provides guidance on such assessments, as does a review of learning assessments in Africa from UNESCO IIEP. Among regional assessments, PASEC (Programme for the Analysis of Education Systems) for francophone countries in West and Central Arica and SEACMEQ (Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality) for anglophone countries in East and Southern Africa are the best known. These instruments target primary schools. Other tools that focus and assess the learning outcomes of young learners include the Early Grade Reading and Mathematics Assessments (EGRA/EGMA). Supported and funded primarily by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), these assessments are administered by different agencies such as the World Bank, RTI International and others across the continent. The West African Examinations Council also provides guidance on examinations and certificate accreditation in Anglophone countries of West Africa. Also interesting is PISA for development which is being piloted in secondary schools in a few African countries.
Uganda participates in regional and international assessments such as SEACMEQ. Responsible bodies assessing learning include the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB), the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), the Education Standards Agency (ESA), Makerere University, and the Education Service Commission (ESC), among others. UNEB is mandated to conduct summative examinations at primary (PLE), lower secondary (UCE), and upper secondary (UACE).
In response to the impact of COVID-19 on education, UNEB and the GPE conducted a comprehensive assessment. The assessment combined written tests, focus group discussions, and interviews to understand the effects of the pandemic on learning at primary and secondary education levels in Uganda. The findings are summarized in the report “The Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Teaching and Learning at Primary and Secondary Education Levels in Uganda” (2021).
Improving Teaching and Learning [GPE-KIX Discussion Paper]. How teachers and students interact and engage is key to improve learning outcomes. Cost-effective approaches pr ‘smart buys’ to improve learning in low-income countries are discussed in a World Bank report. Teaching is paramount, and therefore so are teacher policies to ensure that successful teachers make for successful students. Standards for the teaching profession were proposed by Education International and UNESCO with regional standards available from the Africa Union Commission, including a framework for standards and competencies.
Uganda uses a 7-4-2-3+ structure, compromising seven years of primary education, four years of lower secondary, followed by two years of upper secondary and a minimum of three years of post-secondary education. The quality of and efficiency of primary education in Uganda have raised concerns, as highlighted in the country’s National Development Plan (NDP) III 2020/21-2024/25. The plan cites low literacy rates (49.9 percent at P.3, and 53.1% at P.6), low numeracy rates (55.2% at P.3, and 50.9% at P.6) and low completion rates in primary at 38% in 2018 due to high drop-out.
The quality of teaching is identified as an important factor contributing to low learning outcomes in the NDP. To address this, the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), with the support of IICBA under the Capacity Development for Education (CapED) Programme, has undertaken several initiatives, including the development of the Continuous Professional Development Framework (2017), National Teacher Policy (2018), Situational Analysis of Quality Assurance for Teacher Training Programme (2018), the Quality Assurance Framework for Initial Teacher Education (2019), among others. Furthermore, IICBA’s Policy Brief (2017) summarizes the process of the National Teacher Policy development in Uganda.
Additionally, a study by Gilligan et al. (2019) evaluated a program in rural Uganda that introduced bonus payments to teachers based on students’ math performance relative to comparable students in other schools. This program targeted 302 primary schools (Grade 6) in Uganda and found that the incentive system raised teacher’s attendance rates.
Strengthening Early Childhood Care and Education [GPE-KIX Discussion Paper]. Experiences children undergo in early childhood can affect their entire life. Nurturing care is essential. Essential interventions in early childhood include pre-primary education. Yet less than half of young children in Africa benefit from pre-primary education according to the Global Education Monitoring report 2021. The Office of Research at UNICEF maintains a webpage with useful links to organizations working on child-related themes organized by subject, including early childhood.
Pre-primary education in Uganda is predominantly privately-run and located in urban areas. The National Development Plan (NDP) III 2020/21-2024/25 highlights the issues of low access to ECCE, which stood at 15.6 % in 2015/16. Addressing the challenges in ECCE, Uganda has developed the Early Childhood Care and Education Policy, a key policy framework introduced by the MoES in 2018. For a previous assessment of the status and implementation of early childhood development policies in Uganda, the Uganda National Commission for UNESCO published a report on “The Status of Implementation of the Education Sector Early Childhood Development Policy in Uganda” (2012) examining the condition of ECD policies in Uganda.
To gain insights into the ECCE landscape in Uganda, the African Early Childhood Network (AfECN) offers the Uganda: ECD Profile based on UNICEF’s The State of the World's Children 2023. Moreover, Mendenhall et al. (2021) explored promising innovations for teacher professional development that can support the uptake of play-based learning in three countries, including Uganda. Basic data on early childhood development are available from a nurturing care profile.
Achieving Gender Equality In and Through Education [GPE-KIX Discussion Paper]. The cost of gender inequality is massive, as is the cost of not educating girls, including in Africa. When girls lack education, this affects their earnings in adulthood, the number of children they will have and their health, as well as their agency, among others. When girls are not in school, they are also at higher risk of child marriage, with again high costs for them, their children, and society. In Africa, the African Union’s International Centre for the Education of Girls and Women in Africa supports member states on girls’ education.
Recent policy documents addressing gender equality in Uganda include key policy documents such as the Gender in Education sector policy (2016) and the National Strategy for Girls Education (2015-2019). Uganda’s Vision 2040 states that ‘gender, disability and human rights mainstreaming are a core part of the planning process’; however, challenges such as teenage pregnancies, early marriages, and violence in schools hinder the realization of gender equity goals.
A 2022 UNICEF report on Child Marriage in Eastern and Southern Africa estimates that 1 in 3 young women were first married or in union before the age of 18. In Uganda, the cost of child marriage is high and it is estimated that if child marriage and early childbearing had ended in 2015, the economic impact would have been equivalent to US$2.4 billion purchasing power parity by 2030. 66% of women aged 20 to 24 years who were first married or in union before age 18 had no education as compared to 15% who had at least a secondary education.
The spread of violence in schools is also an alarming issue in the education sector. A study conducted by Raising Voices & London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2017) found that over 90% of children between 11 and 14 years of age have suffered physical violence from school staff at some point in their lives.
IICBA has produced several knowledge briefs in 2023 that provide relevant background information such as “Uganda: Gender Inequality and National Wealth”, “Uganda: Girls’ Education, Early Childbearing, and Child Health”,” Uganda: Basic Profile of Child Marriage”, “Uganda: Girls’ Education, Child Marriage, and Fertility Rates and “Uganda: Basic Profile of Early Childbearing.” For a thorough overview of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in the country, the Global Education Monitoring report webpage offers valuable insight into the state of CSE in Uganda.
Data Management Systems Strengthening [GPEKIX Discussion Paper]. Education management information systems (EMIS) are key for management. They can also support evidence-based policymaking. In Africa, the African Union’s Institute of Education for Development supports member states on EMIS. In addition to EMIS data, other data sources including household surveys, school surveys, student assessments, and impact evaluations of pilot interventions are essential to inform policy.
In Uganda, the key entities responsible for educational data management include the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB), and District Education Offices (DEOs). UNESCO’s report “Strengthening Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) and Data for Increased Resilience to Crisis: country case study: Uganda: (2021) summarizes the current information mechanisms and provides recommendations. The report notes that current EMIS has not been updated since 2017 due to concerns about the quality and coverage of the data. The report offers valuable recommendations for improving and enhancing the EMIS to address the challenges it faces.
Cambridge Education’s think piece, “Integrating ECCE in Uganda’s EMIS,” examines the integration of ECCE into Uganda’s EMIS to create a more responsive and inclusive national Ugandan EMIS.
Equity and Inclusion/Leaving No One Behind [GPEKIX Discussion Paper]. Equity and inclusion are major challenges for education systems. Gender, disability, ethnicity, indigenous status, poverty, displacement, and many other factors may all lead some children to lack access to education. In Africa especially, gaps in educational outcomes between groups may be large, as illustrated in the case of disability. Equity must be at the center of education policy on the continent. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) are Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) are two major international frameworks related to disability-inclusive education exist.
Uganda has implemented free tuition at primary school level since 1997 under its Universal Primary Education program. In 2007, the Universal Post-Primary Education and Training program extended this free education policy to primary education, further increasing access to education. On regional disparities, the Uwezo (2016) report notes that literacy rates in Kampala are significantly higher (30-40 percentage points higher) than in the poorest regions.
Uganda has also shown a strong commitment to inclusive education. In 1998, the Uganda National Action on Physical Disability (UNAPD) was established to provide a platform for addressing the needs of Persons with Physical Disabilities (PWPD). UNESCO, UNICEF and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation’s report “Good practices in South-South and triangular cooperation: transforming education and delivering on SDG 4” (2023) highlights examples of inclusive education practices in Uganda, such as the provision of accessible digital textbooks. Uganda's inclusive education policies is further evidenced by its development of the “Education response plan for refugees and host communities in Uganda (2018-2021)” which addresses the specific educational needs of refugees and their host communities.
Uganda is a signatory to several international and regional commitments. The country ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1990 and ratified the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2008.
The GEM Report webpage "Inclusion in Uganda" provides a comprehensive overview of the country's efforts to promote inclusive and equitable education for all.
Note on UNESCO IICBA Research. IICBA recently launched a new program of applied research on teacher and education issues in Africa. A total of 200 publications have been completed from January to September 2023, including studies, discussion papers, training guides, reports, knowledge briefs, event summaries, and interviews. Several of those publications focus on Uganda. All publications are available on IICBA’s website.
Country Policies
Information on Uganda’s education system and policies is available on the website of the Ministry of Education and Sports which covers basic and higher education as well as technical education and vocational training (TVET). The Education and Sports Sector Strategic Plan (2017-2020) is the most recent flagship policy covering the sector in Uganda. In 2018, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development commissioned a report that provides an Independent Assessment (Appraisal) Report on the Education and Sports Sector Strategic Plan 2017-2020 (2018) which provides comprehensive assessment of the strategic plan. Uganda is in the process of developing a teacher’s service commission.
A few organizations aim to capture education policies on specific themes across countries, including Uganda. UNESCO’s Profiles Enhancing Education Reviews (PEER) covering the themes of the Global Education Monitoring reports, including: inclusion in education (2020 Report), non-state actors in education (2021/22 Report), technology in education (2023 Report) and leadership in education (2024/25 Report, forthcoming). PEER also covers additional topics on key SDG 4 issues, including financing for equity, climate change communication and education, and comprehensive sexuality education.
Knowledge Repositories
Only a few links to the literature on education by theme for Uganda, Africa, and globally were provided earlier to keep the brief short, but repositories of digital resources facilitate access to the literature. A few of those repositories are listed below by alphabetical order:
- 3ie Development Evidence Portal (DEP): DEP is a repository of rigorous evidence on what works in international development, including in the area of education.
- AERD: The African Education Research Database hosted by the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge collates research by African scholars on education.
- African Development Bank: The Bank has publications that cover a range of topics, including education. It also hosts ADEA which also has selected publications.
- Global Partnership for Education: GPE is one of the largest funders for education in Africa. It collaborates with Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to build and mobilize evidence on education through the Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (GPE KIX), which has a Library of research outputs.
- J-PAL: The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab maintains a database of impact evaluations and policy publications, quite a few of which are about education.
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics is a large archive of research on economics, including the economics of education. It can be searched through IDEAS.
- Teacher Task Force (TTF): The TTF is collaborative across many organizations hosted by UNESCO. It maintains a Knowledge Hub with resources on teacher policies.
- UNESCO HQ: UNESCO is the lead agency in the UN systems on education. Its Digital Library includes UNESCO Open Access which includes most UNESCO publications.
- UNESCO GEM: UNESCO publishes annually a Global Education Monitoring Report on a different theme each year with associated resources and background papers.
- UNESCO IICBA: IICBA is a Category 1 Institute at UNESCO. It conducts research on education in Africa with several publication series and maintains a digital repository.
- UNICEF: Publications can be found under Reports, the Office of Global Insight and Policy, and the Office of Research. Also of interest is the Data Must Speak initiative.
- World Bank: The Open Knowledge Repository provides access to the Bank’s research. It includes a section on Africa with country pages including for Uganda.
Many organizations maintain websites that include country pages with useful information. Examples include the GPE Uganda Country Page; World Bank Uganda Country Page; UNESCO IIEP Country Page. Many organizations also maintain blogs on education issues, often with stories on Africa. Examples include Education for All (Global Partnership for Education), Education for Global Development (World Bank), Education Plus Development (Brookings Institutions), and World Education Blog (UNESCO). Beyond blogs focusing on education, blogs on Africa more generally may also provide useful resources. This includes Africa Can End Poverty and Nasikiliza (the World Bank’s two blogs for sub-Saharan Africa ) and Arab Voices (the Bank’s blog for the Middle East and North Africa).
Data
It is often useful to download data for Uganda and other countries from multi-country databases. The largest database on development, including education data, is the World Bank’s World Development Indicators (WDI). The World Bank also maintain the Education Statistics (EdStats) database. Both World Bank databases rely in part for education on data from the UNESCO Institute of Statistics. UNESCO also maintains the Global Education Observatory and the World Inequality Database in Education (WIDE), as well as a wide range of other databases. Specific estimates are occasionally maintained by other agencies. For example, UNICEF provides data on out-of-school rates, adjusted net attendance rates, completion rates, foundational learning skills, information communication technology skills, youth and adult literacy rates, and school-age digital connectivity. Another useful reference is StatCompiler which provides data at various levels of aggregation from Demographic and Health Surveys across countries and over time, including Uganda. For comparison purposes, data from the OECD for member and partner countries (including South Africa) can be useful.
References
References are available through the links provided in this brief.