More Ugandan Girl Learners attending school classes than Boys: UBOS Baseline Education Census Report

On Thursday 28th May2026, Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) has disseminate the Baseline Education Census (BEC) 2025 Report which according to UBOS had a general objective of undertaking general baseline education statistics in formal education curriculum to strengthen the education management information system.  

 In his opening remarks the Executive Director UBOS Dr. Chris Mukiza said that the report provides high quality, nationally representative and timely data on learners, teachers, non-teaching staff, number of schools in both private and government, infrastructure and give a general overview of the education sector in Uganda.

He applauded stakeholders and specifically the Ministry of education and sports for supporting the census, urging users to utilize official statistics from UBOS for planning and policy makers into relevant actions.

“As we disseminate the Baseline Education Census report, we applaud ministry of education and sports. The survey was exercised under close consultation with the ministry of education. This marks the climax of releases under the calendar that we started on 12th March 206with a series of statistical reports, which are also on the UBOS website” he said.

According to Mr. Galan Winston from UBOS, the BEC report has revealed that there are more girls in all levels school than the boys right from pre-primary, primary and secondary levels with 1,166,708 females learners compared to 1,207,966 male learners out of the 2,374,024 overall learners in pre-primary schools in Uganda.

The report presented at Statistics House, Conference Hall also indicate that in Primary Schools, a total 4,586,979 female girls were in school representing 53% compared to 4,531,346 male learners represent 50.3%.

While presenting the report on Seconds schools by Sharon Apio, the report shows that in secondary schools females are till higher than the males with out os 2,008,133, female learners are 1,069,055 at 53.3% while males are 938,278.

According to the BEC report it indicates that there are 5,498 secondary schools with 4,014 more that the public school that represents 27%, with Buganda having the highest schools numbers for both private and public school and Madi sub region and Karamoja have8ngthe lowest numbers respectively.

The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education and Sports Ms. K. Turyagenda in her remarks while applauding UBOS said that she was happy to know the data on the population of learners to target interventions to the areas in need.

She noted that the Statistics indicates that the 27% existence of public school shows that government is doing a lot in ensuring availability of schools despite fewer learners compared to private schools.

The Chairman, Board of Directors of UBOS, Dr. Albert Byamugisha as Chief Guest said that the BEC Statistics will strengthen the statistical system especially reliable education data for decision making as a strategic national milestone in providing evidence based education to Ugandans.

“The report is essential for targeted investments, resources allocation, policy making. It reminds us that challenges still exist, we must invest in education, strengthen linkages between learning and labour demand to address skills mismatch” he said.

UBOS on behalf of government released over 12 surveys reports since March 2026 together with stakeholders.