By KT Reporter
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) has repeated long-standing pledges on education in its new manifesto, while dropping some commitments that are still unimplemented in the outgoing term.
At the launch of its manifesto themed “protecting the gains as we make a qualitative leap into a high middle-income status” on Monday in Munyonyo, the NRM outlined 16 priority areas it plans to address in the education sector over the next five years.
Key among the recycled pledges is the issue of fees in public schools, which the NRM still lists under unfinished business despite repeated commitments in past manifestos. “Enhancing quality…education. On education, the issue is charging parents fees in UPE and USE schools that are already funded by the government,” the manifesto reads in part.
The NRM has again pledged to continue providing free education under Universal Primary Education (UPE), Universal Secondary Education (USE), and the Universal Post O-Level Education and Training program. “All children in government primary and secondary schools should study for free…the next pressure on our families is the cost of education in government schools. In the coming term (kisanja), we are determined to implement free education for our children in government schools (primary, secondary, and tertiary). The good thing is that we have moved reasonably well on the expansion of the education network,” the president noted.
Alongside the pledge, the government promised to regulate charges collected in urban schools. This is not new. The same commitment appeared in the 2021 manifesto but has yet to be implemented. Parents have for years pressed the government to act on escalating school charges, which they say undermine free education. Several public interest groups have even taken the state to court, demanding enforcement of fee regulation as required by the Education Act.
Available information shows that current UPE guidelines only allow urban schools to levy limited charges, capped at 10,400 shillings for maintenance. Despite this, schools continue to collect additional fees, while the government insists that a draft policy on regulation is still under review. “In respect to government UPE and USE schools in urban areas, we allowed them to charge a small fee to cater for utilities (water and electricity). However, this has been abused by the headteachers charging exorbitant fees, thus sending away the children of the poor from these urban schools. We will, therefore, stop this practice and set fees commensurate with the cost of utilities,” the manifesto read in part.
Over the years, the government went as far as directing Resident District Commissioners (RDCs) to intervene when children were sent home for failing to meet contributions agreed upon by Parents’ and Teachers’ Associations (PTAs). The issue remains unresolved, making it one of the recycled promises carried into the new term. The government had indicated that implementing the program would require a budget of 1.48 trillion shillings. It was expected that over 300 billion shillings would be allocated starting from the 2024/2025 financial year through 2027/2028. However, this funding has not been provided, leaving the initiative unfunded to date.
Commenting on the repeated proposal of free education, Emmy Zoomlamai Okello, the Uganda Country Lead for the Regional Education Learning Initiative (RELI), said the idea of the government offering completely free education is misguided. He argued that the government should instead review the policy on fees and clearly spell out the role of parents and communities. According to him, blanket political statements about free education risk becoming voter-wooing rhetoric rather than solutions to real policy gaps.
Other recycled promises include rehabilitating existing primary schools and expanding grant-aid to parishes without public schools. The manifesto also repeats commitments to supply learning materials to improve the textbook-to-student ratio, construct staff houses for teachers, progressively raise salaries for arts teachers, and rehabilitate all 121 traditional secondary schools, as well as special needs schools across the country.
After reviewing the NRM manifesto, Gonzaga Kaswarra, an education policy analyst, said it offers rhetoric rather than concrete pledges. He argued that many of the commitments outlined are either recycled from past manifestos or framed in vague language without clear timelines or funding mechanisms.
Kaswarra noted that while the ruling party highlights achievements such as expanding access to primary and secondary education, it avoids addressing long-standing challenges like poor school feeding. He added that the absence of practical implementation strategies raises doubts about whether the promises can translate into real improvements in Uganda’s education system.
Michael Kakooza, a resident of Kamwokya, said the NRM’s manifesto promises have become a routine exercise rather than serious commitments. According to him, political parties keep recycling the same pledges without addressing why they failed to deliver them in the past. He added that this cycle has left many citizens disillusioned, as there is little accountability when promises are not met but are instead reintroduced in new manifestos.
Denis Mwesigwa, a trader in downtown Kampala, also expressed skepticism. He argued that the ruling party deliberately avoids fulfilling all its promises, so that it has material to campaign on in the next election cycle. In his view, this shows that leaders prioritize political survival over meaningful service delivery, leaving the public to bear the cost of unkept commitments.
As the NRM repeats earlier promises in the sector, some commitments from the last term remain unfulfilled. The school feeding program, a major pledge in the previous manifesto, is absent from the new document. The government had pledged to design an implementation framework for the program, but this has not happened. Another missing item is the pledge to provide sanitary pads for schoolgirls, which is not mentioned in the new manifesto among others.
-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
