Tech Vs stomachs: Why Uganda’s education policies must face ground reality

Are we rushing to modernize our schools while completely forgetting our reality and context?

The ministry of Education and Sports is currently pushing for a move towards a cashless pocket money policy in all schools in Uganda. The plan comes at a time when many children in Budaka district are dropping out of school because they can’t afford to pay for lunch!

At least 67 per cent of households in Budaka suffer from severe food insecurity. Government has already enforced a strict ban on the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) fees that were collected by schools to help support systems and structures for smoother running.

As Uganda works alongside global partners like the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) to achieve true system transformation, we must evaluate whether our national policies match our economic realities.

That is why certain things have failed to fit our current narrative. The ministry scrapped the PTA fees because certain headteachers were secretly charging more money. Of course, this was a heavy burden on parents who already couldn’t afford to send their children to school.

That was a good move. But I think we forgot something. Schools used PTA fees for various reasons such as hiring extra private teachers. These private teachers are usually not on the government payroll.

In addition to that, sometimes, these fees were used to cater for the student’s lunch through hiring cooks, buying supplies like firewood, maize flour among others. Notice how one move has already caused two big problems.

The private teachers are no longer showing up because they aren’t facilitated anymore. There is a massive student hunger; children are either dropping out or simply too weak to focus.

Now, that’s the problem with completely strapping off the PTA fees. The cashless pocket money policy, which is intended to modernize schools, might not work. The policy comes with shortcomings that weren’t really put into consideration.

What happens when a student loses their card and they are already struggling to afford basic needs such as pads, pens, books etc. It is estimated that these cards will cost around Shs 3,000 to Shs 5,000.

In a country where many families are barely making ends meet, mandating an extra fee for students to access their own money creates unfair barriers for underprivileged learners. In addition to that, digital systems rely on network connectivity.

This means that if the school system goes offline, a student cannot buy soap, sanitary towels or even an afternoon snack. This is already an inconvenience in itself. Furthermore, these smart cards will only be working inside the school gate.

We can’t build a resilient, modernized education ecosystem by ignoring basic human and infrastructure limitations on the ground. To bridge the gap between policy intentions and classroom reality, the government must pivot toward targeted structural adjustments.

To begin with, replace the total fee ban with a regulated School Nutrition Fund that allows parents to co-fund student lunches under strict local price ceilings.

Secondly, authorize transparent community co-funding for PTA teachers as a temporary bridge until the central government payroll can fully absorb them.

Lastly, mandate a Cash Backup Protocol for all school fintech providers so that no child is ever denied food or basic sanitary supplies due to a network blackout. Uganda can’t take a quantum leap into a modernized school economy while neglecting the basic survival of students.

A smart card is useless in an overcrowded classroom that lacks a teacher and whose students are sitting on empty stomachs. If we truly want to achieve quality public education, our policies must match the economic reality of the ordinary Ugandan family.

The ministry needs to act today because these challenges affect us as a country. Because with a quality education, we can churn the potential in every Ugandan child into a direct advantage for the state.

True educational equity cannot be built on digital infrastructure alone; it must begin by securing the foundational human needs of the most vulnerable learners.

The writer is an advocate of better education policies

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