The state of Early Childhood Development and

Education in Uganda

Charles kyasanku
Makerere university, uganda
 Key issues
 Early Childhood Development (ECD) concerns holistic care of a child nutrition,
interaction, safe environment, stimulation and responsiveness.
■ ECD is critical in the wellbeing of a child. There is a positive link between early
childhood learning and future holistic development of a child
■ Early childhood care happens before 3 years and Pre- school starts at 3years up to
5years
■ ECD a period of conception (0-8 years). Any childhood development is an integrated
package and not just school
■ The quality of education and care young children receive determine the quality of
development that children have afterwards
■ ECD involved ensuring children are ready for school when time comes, ensuring that
schools are ready for children and the importance of pre-natal care among women
■ Development in early childhood is a multi-dimensional and sequential process, with
progress in one domain acting as a catalyst for development in other domains
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 Introduction
■ The importance of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) as a prerequisite for national
development has been emphasized in recent years by developing countries and by donor agencies.
■ The first EFA goal required nations to work towards the expansion and improvement of comprehensive
ECCE by the year 2015. The responsibility of poor countries was to make necessary budget
allocations and policy commitments; rich countries were to provide both intellectual and financial
support. Whilst some progress has been made, many developing countries especially in Sub-Saharan
Africa are still at risk of not achieving EFA by 2015.
■ Uganda is one country where there were difficulties in attaining EFA and ECCE in particular. This
situation still exists and has been exacerbated by the prevailing economic, social, geographical, and
cultural differences, as well as general beliefs about ECCE.
■ The aim of early childhood development (ECD) (also known as pre-primary education) in Uganda is to
develop children’s capabilities, healthy physical growth and good social habits
■ In Uganda, there are a variety of terms that are used to describe ECCE programs for children prior to
entering primary school. These include Crèche, nursery school, kindergarten and pre-primary
■ ECCE is under the Department of Preprimary and Primary Education within MOE&S. The department
holds the sole responsibility of strengthening management and service delivery in the ECCE sector by
controlling, licensing, registering, inspecting and supervising the ECCE sector.
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 Historical development of ECE in Uganda
■ Traditional or indigenous education (also referred to as pre-colonial, informal,
tribal, or community based education) was the type of education that existed
prior to 1830.
■ Nursery education (ECD programmes) was brought in by the British colonial
administrators and Indians in the 1930s. “to prepare children for formal
education”. Nursery schools were private and established exclusively for the
use of private communities. The main objective of European nursery schools
was to prepare European children for school when they went back to Europe.
■ The curriculum methods and scholastic materials for learners were foreign,
with very little reference to the Ugandan situation. Later, some indigenous
Ugandans became interested in nursery school education, they opened up
their own nursery schools to cater for indigenous children in urban centres.
These schools were of poor quality compared to those of the Europeans.
■ After much lobbying by private persons and nursery school proprietors for
government assistance in terms of training, the government identified a
number of Grade II teachers and sponsored them to go for training in infant
methods in the United Kingdom in 1960 4
 Historical development cont’d
■ Since the government did not have nursery schools, it deployed the
nursery school teachers trained in infant methods in the lower primary
classes of government primary schools. These were called infant
teachers.
■ From 1962, Grade II colleges began to offer specialized courses in
infant methods. Some Grade III colleges also later, after learning from
infant methods specialization, started to specialize in P.E, music,
infant methods, and art and crafts
■ 1973, government enacted a statute which conferred upon NCDC the
mandate for developing a curriculum and support materials for all
levels of education including pre-school

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 Changing context of ECCE
■ Like in the developed world, current social and economic trends are
disrupting many existing child care arrangements in Uganda. urbanization,
work-driven migration and the increasing participation of women in the
labour market are transforming family structures.
■ The prevalence of nuclear families, in which fewer adults are available to
take care of young children, is increasing, while extended families are
declining. Armed conflict, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and environmental
degradation have resulted in large numbers of orphans and, more
generally, of families confronted with major difficulties in the upbringing of
young children
■ Family and community structures are evolving and Uganda is going
through rapid social and economic changes, early childhood programmes
complement the roles of parents and other carers in raising children
during the early years.
■ Smaller households, more working women, maternity benefits, new gender
roles — in which the provision of care and education for young children has
historically evolved. 6
 Changing context con’t

■ After much lobbying by private persons and nursery school proprietors

for government assistance in terms of training, the government
identified a number of Grade II teachers and sponsored them to go for
training in infant methods in the United Kingdom in 1960
■ Although ECD covers children in the age range of 0–8 years, ECD
centres (schools for young children) take up children from 0 to 5 years
■ Emphasis in ECD centres is on moral development, imagination, self-
reliance, thinking power, appreciation of cultural backgrounds,
customs, language and communication skills in the mother tongue.
(although parents prefer children to be first taught reading, writing
and arithmatics)
■ Today in Uganda there are a range of caregiver, teacher and parenting
programmes that are managed by individuals who have little ‘Western’
ECD formal training, but base their activities on indigenous
knowledge.
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 Why the case for ECCE in Uganda
■ A good early childhood education will help the child’s brain grows optimally and also on the
other hand a bad early childhood education will influence the child’s brain development in the
other way.
■ Young children have rights, and early childhood programmes are one instrument to guarantee
that these rights are respected
■ Research on human development emphasizes that young children have specific needs and that
the extent to which these are satisfied affects the outcomes of their development into youth and
adults.
■ Participation in ECCE programmes is beneficial because it leads to improved outcomes,
including better nutrition, health and education, in both the short and the long run outcomes of
their development into youth and adults.
■ From an economic point of view, investment in ECCE programmes offers a high pay-off in human
capital and there is a strong case for public intervention.
■ Early childhood programmes not only benefit children and families, they reduce social inequality,
and benefit communities and societies at large.
■ Positive interactions with caregivers and early learning opportunities can improve children’s
health, educational, and even economic trajectories
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ECCE participation and primary school attendance and performance

■ The positive impact of ECCE programme participation on education at the

primary level and beyond
■ Such programmes can enhance physical well-being and motor development,
social and emotional development, language development and basic
cognitive skills
■ ECCE programmes can improve school readiness; make enrolment in the first
grade of primary school more likely; reduce delayed enrolment, dropout and
grade repetition; and increase completion and achievement.
■ In Uganda, Children who had attended pre-school had better language skills
than nonparticipants and achieved better results in school until grade 4
(Mwaura, 2005, 2006).
■ Controlling for GDP, the higher an African country’s pre-primary enrolment
ratio, the higher its primary school completion rate and the lower its primary
school repetition rate
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 Access to Pre school in Uganda
■ The Education Sector Policy recognizes pre- Region
Number of Pre – Primary schools by category
Communi Day Care Home Nursery Total

primary as the first level of education in ty Based Based

Uganda under four programmes; day care

centres, home based centres, community Acholi 17 3 1 203 224

Ankole 15 2 255 272

centres and nursery schools Buganda 97 5 6 1694 1802

■ The Education Act (2008) however Bukedi 18 1 1 193 213

Bunyoro 35 6 478 519

pronounces the management of pre- Busoga 18 3 304 325
primary education under the management Elgon 12 153 165

of the private sector which limits access. Karamoja 79 5 17 101

■ 91% of Uganda’s children are not Kigezi 12 171 183

accessing pre-primary education. Over 80% Lango

Teso
12

15 2
232

207
244

224
of the population cannot afford the fees Tororo 98 5 6 387 496
charged for pre-primary education, which West Nile 14 1 2 171 188

limits access (NPA 2015) Grand Total 442 33 16 4,465 4956

Source: MOE&S Statistical Abstract 2014

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 Access to pre school cont’d
■ There is an uneven distribution of ECD centres in Uganda exacerbated by
the prevailing economic, social, geographical, and cultural differences, as
well as general beliefs about ECCE
■ Areas whose population earns a high income tend to attract the ECD
proprietors with an assumption that the parents and guardians will afford
fees. This pattern of setting up ECD centres has eliminated majority of the
rural children from benefiting in pre-school.
■ According to ESSAPR, 2015, the ECD enrolment stood at only 433,258
yet there were over 5 million aged 3-5 years children. Hence, for every
100 children of preschool going age (3-5 years), only 9 were enrolled.
90.5% will wait until they are 6 years to join primary education most
especially those in the rural communities
■ In comparison to other East African countries, Uganda’s enrolment in pre-
schools is far behind. In Kenya, enrolment is at 53.5%; Tanzania at 35.5%
and Rwanda at 29%.
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 Challenges of ECCE in Uganda
■ Inappropriateness of Learning Materials. Appropriate materials are only
found in “high class” pre-schools. The rest use improvised and
sometimes primary education instructional materials. Chalkboard plays a
central role in children’s education
■ The absence of well equipped outdoor space and outdoor time “more
time during the week devoted to ‘book’ or class work”
■ Shortage of qualified pre-primary school teachers
■ Early childhood educators are not well compensated in Uganda
■ General negative beliefs about ECCE
■ Poor quality of Infrastructure; according to the Statistical Abstract 2014,
10,255 (66.6%) classrooms were permanent and 5,133 (33.4%) were
temporary. There are inadequate pre-primary sanitation facilities. There
are only 31,292 latrine stances of which 29.3% are for boys, 30.6% for
girls, 12.2% shared by both male and female pupils and,
caregivers/teachers and 27.9% for teachers. A big number of these have
neither doors nor shutters.
■ Inadequate inspection and supervision of ECD centers (inadequate
funding)
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 What should be done to take ECCE to the next level
 Expand professional development and ongoing support of ECCE service
providers and actors.
■ Community sensitisation regarding ECE (many still believe school before
primary is a total waste of time).
■ Incentivizing on-time enrollment in preprimary school could help address the
significant problem of early enrollment in pre school. It is important to
determine the appropriate funding level to maximize effectiveness of policy.
■ The Government should consider revising its current policy to increase
financial allocation for preprimary education and providing targeted services
to disadvantaged children who currently do not benefit from preprimary
education (capitation grants, transfers for disadvantaged families upon
enrolment)
■ Implementation and enforcement of intersectoral policies on ECDE
interventions in health, nutrition, education, social and child protection
especially targeting pregnant women young children and their parents/
caregivers across regions and socio-economic status. (NIECD policy 2016-
2020)
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 What should be done con’t

■ National policy to establish a minimum level of public funding for

ECDE and mechanisms be put in place to coordinate budgeting
across ministries. (gender, education, health, agriculture, justice and
internal affairs)
■ Strengthen quality assurance of informal and formal early education
and care programs and services.
■ Provision of good quality community led pre-school centers through
collaboration of MOE&S, and the local governments (Harambe “self
help spirit” in Kenya)

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