The Minister for Education and Sports, Janet Kataha Museveni, has said that the government is finding ways to give more money for Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE) programs to stop parents from paying for public schools.
While addressing education stakeholders during the release of the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) exams Kataha explained that the MOE has liaised with Cabinet to cater for learners who drop out of school due to lack of school fees.
She however said the government won’t pay for students who stay in the school hostel.
“As a ministry, we have received broad direction from the cabinet regarding the need to implement free Universal Primary and Secondary education for items that the government is paying for. Learners in UPE and USE beneficiary schools will not be expected to be charged school fees. One area that the government shall not be paying for is the cost of boarding accommodation, even if such a product is being offered in a UPE/USE school. The reason why the government is focusing on eliminating fees in UPE/USE schools is to provide an affordable option to people who cannot afford the fees in other schools.” she revealed
Available information indicates that the implementation of the tuition-free policy is expected to be phased in, starting in the 2024/2025 financial year, which commences in June this year, beginning with Universal Primary Education (UPE).
To execute this plan, the ministry requires an additional 309.6 billion shillings, in addition to the 1.3 trillion shillings currently allocated by the government for UPE.
Last year, the government called for a tuition-free policy in in publicly funded schools and threatened to withdraw funding from schools if they refused to implement the tuition-free policy.
According to the Ministry of Education and Sports, approximately 105 public secondary schools and 109 public primary schools, recipients of public funds, have not been implementing Universal Secondary Education (USE) and Universal Primary Education (UPE).
The minister mentioned that discussions have commenced to ensure the implementation of these policies in these schools.
Many of these schools are foundation-based, with a majority classified as traditional schools that many Ugandan parents prefer for their children’s education.
Notably, these schools are charging fees comparable to, or in some cases, even higher than private schools.