United Nations (UN) Child Rights Committee Calls for Free Pre-Primary Education in Uganda

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has called on Uganda to significantly expand government support for early childhood education and provide free, state-run pre-primary education to all children.

In its latest review of Uganda’s record on children’s rights, issued October 1, the Committee expressed concern about high numbers of children out of school due to financial barriers, and highlighted “very limited access to early childhood education,” especially for children in rural areas and for children with disabilities.

The Ugandan government provides free primary and secondary education, but under Uganda’s education law, pre-primary education is left to private providers, with parents responsible for the cost.

The Committee’s findings echo 2024 research by Human Rights Watch and the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER), which found that the lack of government-funded pre-primary education in Uganda leaves most young children without access to this critical stage of learning. Fewer than 1 in 10 Ugandan children ages 3 to 5 were enrolled in a registered and licensed pre-primary school, while 60 percent attended no school before entering primary school.

Human Rights Watch and ISER found that private preschool fees create an insurmountable barrier for many families,particularly those with low incomes and in rural areas. A mother of eight told me that selling coal didn’t earn enough to cover her children’s school fees. She had gone into debt to keep them in school and had no idea how she would ever repay it.

Uganda adopted an Early Childhood Care and Education Policy in 2025. Recognizing the importance of pre-primary education, the policy commits the government to increasing equitable access to quality, inclusive early childhood education. However, it takes a piecemeal approach, that ultimately leaves early childhood education primarily in private providers’ hands.

As a result, many families nationwide will continue to face financial barriers to pre-primary education, and many children will continue to miss out.

Rather than subsidizing private pre-primary schools, Uganda should use or progressively expand current Universal Primary Education (UPE) infrastructure to introduce publicly funded pre-primary education for all children. Parliament should also amend Uganda’s Education Act to specify that universal pre-primary is a government responsibility.

The Committee’s recommendation offers a clear path forward: make pre-primary education free and accessible to every child.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).