The uncertainty surrounding the implementation of the new Advanced Level (A-Level) school curriculum has been resolved, with the Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development allocating Shs 7.1 billion to support its rollout.
This confirmation came after a rigorous inquiry by Members of Parliament on the Education and Sports Committee, who pressed the Minister of State for Finance (Planning), Amos Lugoloobi, to ensure that adequate funding is provided to the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) for the implementation of the updated curriculum.
The Ministry of Education introduced a competence-based syllabus for Ordinary Level (O-Level), with the first cohort of students were assessed by the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) last year. These students have now advanced to the A-Level stage.
James Kubeketerya, the Chairperson of the Committee on Education, emphasized the urgency of implementing the new A-Level curriculum, noting that its rollout is overdue and should be treated with urgency.
“This is non-negotiable; the matter cannot be debated. Money should be found to implement the new curriculum,” he said.
The MPs were meeting the Minister of State for Education (Higher Education), Chrysostom Muyingo, alongside Lugoloobi to consider the Ministry’s policy statement and budget estimates for the 2025/2026 financial year last week on April ,03, 2025.
Michael Timuzigu (NRM, Kajara County) added that it is unfortunate that only 15 teachers have so far been trained by UNEB on how to assess students under the new curriculum.
“UNEB was not given money to train more teachers to do assessment and this new curriculum is going on. There is an assumption by the Ministry of Finance that those 15 who have been trained are training others,” said Timuzigu.
Nathan Itungo (Independent, Kashari South County) said that the new curriculum requires continuous assessment but UNEB is constrained by lack of funds.
“We have students in senior five but we are still struggling with implementation of the new curriculum,” he said.
Lugoloobi however said that the Ministry of Finance has allocated Shs18 billion to facilitate UNEB to carry out continuous assessments and subsequent marking of final national examinations.
“We have supported UNEB and now they have even reduced cases of exam leakages,” Lugoloobi said.
The MPs also urged the Minister to consider harmonisation of salaries of all primary and secondary school teachers, following enhancement of salaries of teachers of science subjects.
Butemba County MP, Patrick Nyanzi raised concern that the Ministry of Education has not included the request in the 2025/2026 financial year’s budget.
“The two Ministers [Finance and Education] have been appearing before us and they said that even before salaries of science teachers were enhanced, there was a plan to increase that of arts teachers. The two Ministers are here, do they have news for us to deliver to arts teachers,” he said.
Lugoloobi said that government was grappling with closing funding gaps in the national budget.
“We still have a challenge with mobilising resources,” Lugoloobi said.
The Ministry of Education’s projected budget for the next financial year is Shs800 billion, and Minister Muyingo said out of that, Shs200 billion is external financing.
“All the additional resources provided to the Ministry are not discretionary but earmarked for specific activities. This implies that the fiscal space available to the Ministry to implement emerging priorities is still very limited,” Muyingo said.
He pointed out some of the unfunded and underfunded activities including implementation of free and compulsory Universal Primary Education, grant aiding of primary and secondary schools and re-purposing of primary teacher’s colleges.
