On a bright Saturday morning in Lukung Village, Lebngec Parish, Nwoya District, 14-year-old Primary Four pupil Agenorwot sits outside her home, taking part in a nationwide citizen-led basic learning assessment.
She is the tenth child visited that day by volunteer enumerators from Uwezo Uganda. Agenorwot is among thousands of children aged 4 to 16 assessed across 10,440 households in 29 districts in numeracy, literacy, life skills, and values – regardless of whether they attend school.
When the literacy test begins, Agenorwot reads a passage about “Bora the Cat” aloud in a clear, confident voice, and handles the numeracy questions with ease. However, the newly introduced life skills section trips her up in an unexpected way.
Asked whether a house fire is a problem, and to name two ways to solve it, Agenorwot answers “yes” instantly – she knows fire is dangerous. But when pressed for practical solutions, she falters.
She offers “run” – but cannot explain where to go, which relative to wake first, where the nearest water source is, or whether attempting to save belongings could prove fatal.
A missing piece in daily learning
The moment highlights precisely what the assessment is designed to capture: Agenorwot recognizes danger instinctively, but she has never been taught step-by-step how to respond to it.
Unlike farming – a skill her mother patiently demonstrated by hand – household fire is so woven into daily life, present in every meal cooked, that no one had ever turned it into a structured safety lesson.
Her answer is logged as one small data point feeding into a massive national study evaluating what skills Ugandan children possess and where critical gaps remain.
“One of the things we believe in is that all children have the potential to learn and thrive. But for them to learn, the education system – right from the Ministry, district officials, schools, parents, and communities – should be aligned,” said Dr. Mary Goretti Nakabugo, Executive Director, Uwezo Uganda.
Local volunteers, scientific sampling
The Uwezo Uganda 2026 Basic Learning Assessment, conducted across 435 randomly selected villages, seeks to measure whether children can read and count, and whether they are acquiring the life skills and values emphasized in Uganda’s revised curriculum.
Unlike traditional research models, Uwezo relies on local volunteers recruited directly from the surveyed communities rather than a centralized team from Kampala.
“This approach allows parents and guardians to observe the assessment firsthand and receive immediate feedback, fostering a local environment that supports learning beyond the school gate,” says Dr. Mary Goretti Nakabugo, Executive Director of Uwezo Uganda.
Dr. Nakabugo notes that Uwezo has conducted independent assessments in Uganda every two to three years since 2010.
“What is new this year is the addition of a life skills and values component within our large-scale national assessment,” she explains.
To ensure accuracy, Uwezo collaborates with the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) to sample districts and villages scientifically. In each selected village, all households are compiled into a list before 24 are randomly chosen, giving every home an equal chance of participation.
Stakeholders demand actionable data
Local education leaders have welcomed the grassroots data-gathering approach to help address gaps in classroom outcomes.
Mr Philip Oryema, Nwoya District Education Officer, emphasizes the need for grounded evidence:
“We are requesting authentic data from the field team so that the information gathered from the community, schools, and individuals can directly inform management decision-making.”
Mr. Boniface Odongo Ochan, head teacher of Olwiyo Primary School in Nwoya District, adds that collaboration among external stakeholders provides crucial support to educators.
“When different reports come in, they inform us on exactly what we need to do to support our learners effectively,” Ochan says.
Uganda’s regional life skills gap
The inclusion of life skills in the 2026 survey comes against the backdrop of troubling regional findings. According to the 2022 Action for Life Skills and Values in East Africa (ALiVE) report, Ugandan adolescents struggled significantly in problem-solving compared to their East African peers.
Jurisdiction
Problem-Solving Proficiency Rate
Regional Rank
Zanzibar
14%
1st (Highest)
Tanzania Mainland
8%
2nd
Kenya
5%
3rd
Uganda
2% – 3%
4th (Lowest)
Data Source: ALiVE Regional Assessment Report.
The regional findings revealed that Zanzibar’s proficiency rate (14%) was nearly seven times higher than Uganda’s. At a full proficiency rate of just 2% to 3%, only two to three out of every 100 Ugandan adolescents assessed could fully demonstrate practical problem-solving capabilities.
By combining traditional literacy and numeracy testing with real-world problem-solving metrics, the 2026 assessment seeks to provide a clearer picture of whether Uganda’s educational environment is preparing children for life beyond the chalkboard.