In Uganda theoretically children younger than 15 years have to go to school. In practice the public schools are often far away and there is little education.

In the beginning of the year 2020 some of those schools couldn't open as they were in a very poor state because of a lack of investment. Sometimes even the latrines were not working. Because of this some public schools started to charge the parents. As a consequence of this, the Government threatened to cut official funding. Of course it didn't encourage the Government to invest more money in education.

The education system in Uganda makes an academic selection very early. At the end of the seventh year of Primary (P7) there are nationwide exams and the results of these exams decide which secondary school children can apply for. There are some Secondary Schools for the best ones, some for the quite good ones and some for the rest. But to have passed the exam with very good grades does not mean that children can choose the Secondary School they want to go to. Each school also makes tests to select the best of their applicants. This means that children have to work very hard from the beginning as they will not get a second chance as we do in Europe. The children know this and take their work very seriously.It is not unusual that P7 pupils work from 7 o'clock in the morning until 8 or 9 o'clock in the evening.

So those who can afford it send their child to a good private school.But for such a school you might pay more than $1000 per term for each child (one year has three terms). The average income in Uganda is about $50 a month. So a good education is only given to the children of those who can afford it.

The Gramos International School tries to give an alternative option. It is a private school where children start learning English in Nursery. The fees are approximately $250 a year for boarding pupils and between $150 and $250 for day pupils depending in which year they are in. So that at least some parents can afford this.


here a link to the singing children

or some popular dance