Govt starts West Nile baseline education census
According to UBOS spokesperson Nancy Agnes Anyango, the data will capture both the nationals and refugees in all the West Nile schools for planning purposes.
The UBOS officials and Deputy Resident City Commissioner in charge of Arua central Division Swadik Angupale, during the press briefing in Arua City on Tuesday, September 23, 2025. ( Photos by Robert Adiga)
By Robert Adiga
Journalists @New Vision
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The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), in collaboration with the education ministry, has commenced the baseline education census for the West Nile region.
During a media briefing in Arua city on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, UBOS officials disclosed that the data collection exercise commenced in April in greater Kampala after being launched by the First Lady, who is also the Minister of Education and Sports, Mrs Janet Museveni.
The Baseline Education Census is a nationwide initiative aimed at collecting critical data on learners, teaching and non-teaching staff and school infrastructure.
Thomas Rutaro, the director methodology and statistical co-ordination at UBOS, said the exercise aims at generating comprehensive education baseline statistics of all schools and institutions in the formal education system to facilitate appropriate planning, policy formulation and decision making.
The UBOS and Aarua City officials pose for agroup photo after the press briefing in RCCs office in Arua City.
According to UBOS spokesperson Nancy Agnes Anyango, the data will capture both the nationals and refugees in all the West Nile schools for planning purposes.
She urged all the stakeholders to prioritise mobilisation of both the learners and staff.
She also outlined some of the information that will be collected during the exercise.
“During this exercise, we shall get from the learners their name, sex, date of birth, nationality, and the National Identification Number. The enumerators shall pick refugee identity cards for the refugees, name, nationality, sex and also for the staff we shall pick the name, sex, date of birth, NIN, subjects taught and the highest level of qualification among others, and we shall look at the infrastructure at the school," Anyango said.
Emmanuel Andudubo, the assistant deputy town clerk Arua city, commended the census, saying it has come at a time when the schools battle with high teenage pregnancies and school dropouts.
Deputy Resident City Commissioner in charge of Arua central Division Swadik Angupale, encouraged the school to embrace the baseline survey to help them understand the statistics in the schools for planning and assured the data collectors of their safety while carrying out the exercise.
He also warned the public against propagating negative attitudes towards the education census.
“Where I was before the national census, there were some communities in a certain cult who refused to be counted, and this is what I want to discourage our people from because this exercise is very important for us to do planning for a city, a region and nationally,” Angupale said.
UBOS reaffirmed its commitment to producing reliable data that supports the national development goals and called upon all stakeholders to support the successful implementation of BEC 2025.