The Ministry of Education and Sports is tightening regulation of international schools, with institutions offering both foreign and Ugandan curricula required to choose a clear licensing path or meet the requirements for both independently.
Frances Atima, the Chief Education Officer in charge of education standards and quality assurance, said there is no legal middle ground for a school that wants to operate as an international school while offering the national curriculum under the same registration.
“If you want to do a dual curriculum, you must meet two standards. You must meet our basic requirements for national schools, and you must also meet the requirements for international schools,” Atima said adding that schools offering both pathways must maintain separate registration and licensing arrangements.
The position is part of a wider effort to bring international schools under tighter oversight. It follows the introduction in May 2026 of the Basic Requirements and Minimum Standards for International Schools (BRMS-IS).
Atima said the new standards address a longstanding gap in how the sector is regulated. Until the BRMS-IS were issued, there were no standards.
She said the absence of specific standards made it difficult for inspectors to distinguish genuine international schools from local institutions using the international label. Some schools, she said, have operated from residential houses while advertising themselves as international schools.
“At times when I am coming to office, I count about 20 signposts advertising international schools along the road and you find new ones coming up all the time,” Atima mused.
She said some of these schools charge high fees while offering programmes that are essentially similar to the national curriculum.
“You find a parent paying a lot of money thinking the child is in an international school, yet the school is offering something different, parents are thus being duped,” she said.
To establish the true scale of the sector, the ministry is preparing a nationwide validation exercise before the end of this year that will map how many international schools operate in the country, including those outside official records, and assess whether they meet the required standards.
Atima noted that the activity is expected to give the ministry a clearer picture of the sector, including schools operating outside official records and close them down.
The validation is expected to examine schools’ registration and licences, curricula, international accreditation, staffing, facilities and other requirements. Schools operating without the required licences, or failing to meet the standards, face regulatory action, including closure.
The inspectors have also been instructed to identify and document all international schools they encounter, including those not listed in ministry records.
What the standards cover
The BRMS-IS cover international schools from foundation level through secondary level, including day and boarding institutions. They address governance and management, registration, licensing, staffing, curriculum, teaching and learning, financial management, facilities, child protection, security, health and sanitation, food safety, environmental management and parent engagement.
Schools must be registered with the Uganda Registration Services Bureau and licensed by the Ministry of Education and Sports. They must also have qualified leadership, functional boards of governors or management committees, and parent-teacher associations.
The standards set teacher-learner ratios of one teacher to 15 learners in early years, one to 25 in primary and one to 30 in secondary. Schools are also expected to obtain an examination centre number within three years, or show documented progress towards obtaining one.
The new standards place particular emphasis on the curriculum. Foreign curricula used, according to the standards, must receive approval from the National Curriculum Development Centre and accreditation from a recognised international body. They must also be age-appropriate, responsive to different learning needs, and relevant to Uganda’s cultural, social and linguistic context.
The requirement also applies to schools serving refugee and migrant communities that offer curricula from their countries of origin.
Schools in Uganda offer several foreign pathways, including Cambridge programmes, the International Baccalaureate, American programmes and the French Baccalaureate. In July 2024, NCDC approved Pearson’s iPrimary, iLowerSecondary, International GCSE and International A-Levels for use in Ugandan schools.
Gonzaga Kaswarra, Education consultant, welcomed the new standards and the Education Ministry’s move to validate the international schools policy, describing the step as long overdue.
Kaswarra said the overall direction was positive, although gaps remain in the regulation of international curricula, teacher recruitment and school fees.
“By and large, it’s a welcome move in the right direction, but it requires alignment with international law to regulate the curriculum,” he said. “Another area of concern is racial segregation in teacher recruitment in international schools, because the current reality is not balanced,” he said.
He also raised concern over the rising cost of international education, saying the policy does not adequately address school fees.
“Regulation around skyrocketing fees wasn’t catered for, leaving parents to fall prey to exorbitant costs in the name of attaining international education, albeit the policy requiring schools to publish fees on their websites, a policy requirement we are yet to see being enforced,” Kaswarra said-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
