This lack of investment has come back to bite in areas where the government has spent the most: Universal Primary Education (UPE), a government program launched to provide free primary education to all children in the country. The program, has among other things trippled enrollment from 2.5 million in 1996 when it was introduced to 8.6 million in 2023. Every year, the government allocates a capitation grant of UGX 10,000 for each of the beneficiaries on the program.
What we know?
84% of Ugandan children do not have access to pre-primary education. The main reason is that four fifths of the households cannot afford primary fees and the ECD sector in the country is entirely private, so much so that even ECD centres attached to government primary schools are private entities and charge as such. The result of this is 60% of 3-5 year olds denied a chance to attend any form of school, and barely a quarter of the reminder are enrolled in a licensed pre-primary school.
The under(non)-prioritisation of early childhood learning by the government has compounded into attitudes such as the notion that ECD is a luxury and as such not essential in a child’s life despite decades of research show that early childhood education is the foundation for lifelong success.
The Cost of Skipping the Basics
This lack of investment has come back to bite in areas where the government has spent the most: Universal Primary Education (UPE), a government program launched to provide free primary education to all children in the country. The program, has among other things trippled enrollment from 2.5 million in 1996 when it was introduced to 8.6 million in 2023. Every year, the government allocates a capitation grant of UGX 10,000 for each of the beneficiaries on the program. Despite this, figures from a 2013 UNICEF report indicate that for every UGX 1,000 invested in UPE, the government loses UGX 600 because the children enter school without the readiness that pre-primary provides.
In the 2024/25 budget speech, the Minister of Finance noted that UPE enrolled 9.52 million learners. At a capitation grant of UGX 10,000 per child, the government is losing about UGX 57.12 billion due to lack of school-readiness. To put this in perspective: this is enough to fully finance Uganda’s primary school infrastructure budget (UGX 12.9 billion) for the next four years.
The Human Cost: Dropouts and Lost Potential
The fiscal inefficiency, while serious, pales in comparison to the human cost. Children who start school without pre-primary education often fall behind in literacy, numeracy, and classroom discipline. These gaps accumulate, and by P.3 or P.4 the cracks become unmanageable.
Evidence across Sub-Saharan Africa suggests that early dropout is strongly correlated with lack of school readiness. In Uganda, available data show that from last year puts the dropout rate at 45% which is an increase from 38.5% in 2017. If we project conservatively, by age 10, nearly 3 million children from the 9.52 million enrolled cohort are already out of the education system.
What does this mean in economic terms? Every dropout represents a wasted public investment in UPE, foregone lifetime earnings, and a future taxpayer lost to the informal economy. The long-term cost to GDP is immense, especially in a country where 73.2% of the population is below the age of 30.
Why Uganda Must Rethink Its Priorities
While Uganda’s education system has long been praised for expanding access to primary school, access without readiness is a hollow achievement. Prioritizing Early Childhood Development would:
- Reduce wastage in UPE by ensuring children enter school ready to learn.
- Lower dropout rates by equipping learners with the skills to stay and succeed.
- Save state resources that can be redirected to infrastructure and teacher training.
- Unlock economic growth by producing a better-educated, more productive workforce.
Uganda’s leaders must decide: will pre-primary education remain a private good for the few, or will it become a national priority that guarantees every child a fair start? We either continue burning billions on an inefficient system that leaves millions of children behind, or invest early, save later, and finally give Ugandan children the foundation they deserve. In the end, we may not have 57 billion reasons to prioritise ECD, but we sure have a plan to repurpose the UGX57 billion waste every year. Let’s act now!