Baseline education census to go countrywide

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Ugandans, heads of institutions and other stakeholders in the education sector have been urged to fully support the national Baseline Education Census exercise.

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) and the education ministry-led programme will be rolled out across the country starting June this year at the beginning of the second term.

Addressing the media in Mbarara City on Thursday (May 8, 2025), UBOS spokesperson John Igumira said this is going to be the first-ever census of education in the country.

He explained that the exercise is aimed at collecting statistical data and information from all schools and education training institutions, generating high-quality data to facilitate planning and policy decisions in the education sector.

He explained that the exercise will cover all learning institutions in the country for both government-aided and private establishments, namely, pre-primary, primary, secondary, vocational and higher institutions of learning.

The exercise, which kicked off on April 7, 2025, started with the Greater Kampala Metropolitan area of Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono.

He said the exercise enumerators will use computer-assisted personal interviewing technology to ensure accuracy and minimise data entry errors.

Information confidentiality

Asked about the kind of information to be collected, Igumira said the exercise will collect information about learners, teaching and non-teaching staff, institutional identity, location, infrastructure, learning materials, water and sanitation and energy supply.

He encouraged schools and institutions to work closely with enumerators who will have an official identification card and will be mandated to present a letter of introduction from UBOS.

“We shall have enumerators coming to those schools. Head teachers, directors and teachers, kindly receive them, they are doing this work officially on behalf of the Government and Ministry of Education,” he said.

Asked about the confidentiality of the collected information, Igumira assured the public that all collected information will remain confidential and used for only statistical purposes, without jeopardising the identity and particulars of any individual respondent.

He called for collaboration from all stakeholders to facilitate a successful exercise.

Asked when Ugandans should expect the official announcement of the results, Igumira promised they will announce the results before the year ends.

Mbarara City speaker and chairperson of Uganda Urban Council Speakers Association, Bonny Karusya Tashobya, appealed to parents to support the exercise by sending their children early to school so that they don’t miss out on the exercise.

Abasa Aine Gerald, the deputy headteacher of Uganda Martyrs Primary School, said they are aware and prepared about the exercise, and they have already encouraged parents not to delay sending their children to school as the second term opens.

Igumira also announced that next week they are going in for the aquaculture Census. He said the exercise is also going to be done in the whole country, and it will kick off on Monday next week and run up to the end of May.

He reported that they are already training people who will be doing the exercise and said this is also done for planning purposes.