PRIVATE SCHOOLS TAKE OVER! UBOS 2025 Report Reveals Why Parents Are Ditching Government Schools!
By Our Reporter
Kampala – On Thursday, 28th May 2026, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) released findings from the Baseline Education Census (BEC), which was conducted between April and November 2025.
According to the report, there are more privately owned pre-primary (91.7%), primary (71.2%), secondary (73%), and non-tertiary institutions (83.5%) compared to those owned by the government.
Furthermore, the report shows that there are 2,374,674 learners in 38,347 pre-primary schools, with a large percentage concentrated in Buganda (15,846 schools), Busoga (3,649 schools), Ankole (3,636 schools), and Bunyoro sub-regions with 2,330 schools, among others.
One of the glaring findings in the report is the concentration of schools in the Buganda sub-region, which has the largest number of schools and learners, while upcountry sub-regions like Karamoja, Madi, and Sebei lag behind.
Meanwhile, there are slightly more female learners in primary schools (50.3%) compared to their male counterparts, with 57.2% of the learners attending private schools.
However, the report highlights an alarmingly low primary school completion rate, with only about 700,000 learners completing primary education out of approximately 1,700,000 who enroll.
The secondary school completion rate is also poor, with only about 100,000 learners completing Senior Six out of the approximately 500,000 who joined Senior One.
The report further indicates the challenge of congestion, especially in public schools, with the teacher-to-student ratio standing at 1:40 in primary schools and 1:41 in secondary schools.
One of the key findings was the low number of public secondary schools in Kampala, which has only 23 government secondary schools.
Nationally, there are 1,716 sub-counties with at least one private secondary school, while 1,208 sub-counties do not have a single privately owned secondary school. There are also 1,007 sub-counties with at least one public secondary school, with Bugisu having the highest number at 110, followed by Acholi, Karamoja, Bunyoro, Bukedi, and Ankole, among others.
The report also indicates that there are more male learners (51%) than female learners (49%) in pre-primary schools nationally, with 25.5% of learners enrolled being above the official age group of 3–5 years. This was attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to prolonged school closures.
Dr. Albert Byamugisha, the UBOS Board Chairperson, said in his remarks that the report will help the government address gaps in the education sector and support the presidential agenda for 2026–2031, which President Yoweri Museveni highlighted during his swearing-in ceremony on 12th May 2026 at Kololo Independence Grounds.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines after the release of the report, UBOS Executive Director Dr. Chris Mukiza applauded the public for their positive response when approached by the Bureau’s enumerators in the various schools visited.
He also extended his appreciation to President Yoweri Museveni for his strong support toward statistics and for being an ardent user of statistical data in many of his national addresses.
Also present at the launch of the report was Dr. Kedrace Turyagenda, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education and Sports, who said the report was long overdue because of its importance in planning within the education sector and informing policy decision-making.
She added that the gap in the number of public schools is being addressed through government grant-aiding of schools and the construction of seed schools. She also thanked the private sector for filling gaps where government efforts remain insufficient, especially in pre-primary education.
The report is the first of its kind to be undertaken by the Bureau in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Sports. It was initially supposed to be conducted earlier, but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
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