Uganda: Lack of free pre-primary education causes lifelong damage

• The Ugandan government provides free primary education for all children, but parents who enroll their children in pre-primary education often have to pay high fees.
• Preschool education is a critical period for children’s growth. Children who miss out on preschool education may never catch up with their peers. The lack of government-funded preschool education also hinders Uganda’s economic development.
• Governments should provide at least one year of free and compulsory pre-primary education for all children and make additional years of pre-primary education free as soon as possible.

(Kampala) – UgandaIndia’s failure to provide government-funded preschool education has lifelong negative consequences, Human Rights Watch and the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER) said in a report released today. The fees charged by private preschools for children aged 3 to 5 are an insurmountable barrier for most families, especially those in rural areas and on low incomes.

The 68-page report ‘Building a strong foundation for all children’: School fees are a discriminatory barrier to pre-primary education in Uganda’ The report documents how a lack of free pre-primary education has led to lower primary school achievement, higher repetition and dropout rates, and wider income disparities. Less than one in ten Ugandan children aged 3-5 years attends a registered and licensed pre-primary school (known locally as a “nursery”), and 60% have never attended school before entering primary school. Pre-primary education refers to early childhood education before children enter primary school, which in Uganda starts at age 6.

“Preschool is a critical period in children’s development and children who miss out may never catch up with their peers.” Joe BeckerDirector of child rights advocacy at Human Rights Watch. “Failing to provide government-funded preschool education harms children’s lifelong prospects and undermines Uganda’s social and economic development.”

The Ugandan government introduced free primary education in 1997 and free secondary education in 2007. However, under the 2008 Education Act, pre-school education is provided by private institutions and parents are responsible for the cost. Unable to access government-funded pre-school education, some parents pay several months’ income for a year’s worth of tuition for one child. While pre-school fees vary widely, some kindergartens advertise fees that are higher than the average tuition for certain courses at Makerere University, Uganda’s top university.

Uganda spends just 8.4% of its national budget on education. In comparison, neighboring Kenya and Tanzania each spend more than 18% of their national budgets on education. As part of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, all governments have pledged to spend at least 15% to 20% of public spending on education.

ISER interviewed more than 100 education officials, teachers, parents and children in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, Namayingo District in eastern Uganda, and Nakapiripirit and Omoro Districts in northern Uganda.

Many parents said they could not afford to pay for their children’s pre-school education or described the financial difficulties they experienced in sending their children to kindergarten. A subsistence farmer in Omoro District said: “It is always difficult for me to find money. For some of my children, they did not complete all their schooling because I could not afford the tuition fees every semester.” An electronics trader in Mukono District said his children were sent home because he could not pay the tuition fees on time.

Because pre-primary education is not free, many parents enroll their children in primary school before the age of 6, even though the children are not yet adults and are often unprepared. Early primary school enrollment leads to overcrowded classes, exacerbating inefficiencies in the education system and increasing repetition rates. In Uganda, children who did not attend pre-primary education are twice as likely to repeat the first year of primary school as those who did attend pre-primary education.

Early childhood education has profound long-term benefits for children’s cognitive and social development, health, future education levels, employment, and other opportunities later in life. Research estimates that in Uganda, every shilling invested in pre-primary education yields up to 16 shillings in benefits. Increased access to pre-primary education can increase parents’ employment and income, enabling them (especially mothers) to enter or re-enter the workforce earlier.

2023 Cost-benefit analysis UNICEF, the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports and G:ENESIS estimate that 90% of the cost of expanding pre-primary education in Uganda could be covered by savings from reduced repetition and enrolment of minors in primary schools. More than half of the world’s countries already guarantee at least one year of free pre-primary education in their domestic laws.

The study by UNICEF, UNESCO and the Government of Uganda found that:

• More than half of children in the poorest 20% of Uganda’s households have never attended a single day of preschool education.
• 60% of early childhood development centres are located in central and eastern Uganda. This concentration leaves more than 80% of the poor and rural population unserved.
• Expanding pre-primary education in Uganda could reduce first-grade repetition by 50 percent. One year of free and compulsory pre-primary education could increase primary school completion rates by 12 percentage points.

The Ugandan government has identified pre-primary education as the foundation for further education and has set a goal that all children in Uganda should have the opportunity to complete at least one year of quality pre-primary education. President Yoweri Museveni has called Establish an Early Childhood Development Centre in every public primary school in Uganda.

Human Rights Watch and ISER said the government should provide at least one year of free and compulsory pre-primary education for all children, and make additional years of pre-primary education free as soon as possible.

“A Ugandan child’s access to pre-primary education should not depend on their parents’ ability to pay for school fees.” Angela Kasule – I’m Not AfraidExecutive Director of ISER. “The government should move quickly to deliver on its promise to provide free pre-primary education for all children.”