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The government of Uganda will give both private and government-aided secondary schools free student textbooks and teachers’ manuals beginning on Monday, May 29, 2023, continuing through Friday, August 25, 2023, according to the education ministry, for the new O’level curriculum.

According to the plan, seven million textbooks and teacher aides for Senior Three and Senior Four classes will be handed to the appropriate secondary schools around the nation over the next holiday break by the education ministry.

The provision of free textbooks will help around 5,700 secondary schools, the majority of which are privately held and 1,300 are public secondary schools.

For each of the 20 offered topics, including the choice ones, textbooks and teaching manuals will be distributed to the school. The revised curriculum reduced the number of O’level courses taught from 43 to 21 while maintaining the same level of substance.

The ministry wants to achieve a student-to-textbook ratio of five to one with the help of the government’s distribution of free textbooks.

According to Simon Peter Tukei, the assistant commissioner of education for the instructional materials unit at the ministry, the ministry’s top organ, led by the First Lady and Minister for Education and Sports, Mrs. Janet Museveni, recommended giving textbooks to all secondary schools.

“Being a new curriculum, the ministry’s top management recommended that we universally distribute these textbooks to all schools. This explains why we are also distributing them to private schools,” he said.

He disclosed that this textbook and teacher’s handbook purchase cost the government Sh30b.

For a contract price of shs32 billion, the ministry purchased seven to eight million textbooks for students in certain grade levels. A list of textbooks that should be utilized by students as part of the updated lower secondary school curriculum has been made public.

The books were obtained from 13 renowned publishers, including New Vision Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd., whose various reading materials have been certified for use in educational institutions.

The suppliers include only two foreign companies.

According to Tukei, the ministry was informed that some schools were purchasing goods without going through the government’s established evaluation procedures.

“As the ministry, we appeal to parents, schools or organizations to buy textbooks that are approved by the education ministry, ” he said.

The revised curriculum cut the daily classroom instruction time in half, from eight to five hours. Lunch breaks are included in the 8:30am–2:50pm start and end times for lessons. Students use the time that is left over for homework, projects, clubs, games, and sports. They have an hour and forty minutes for revision. The school day ends at 4:30 p.m.

At the conclusion of the O’level cycle, all academic assignments, athletic competitions, and games will contribute 20% of the final grade.

The remaining 20% will be collected gradually, from one class to the next, and will include things like school projects, sports, and game time.

80% of a student’s O level marks will come from the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE).

The new curriculum was implemented in 2020, and while it has recorded a number of successes, particularly in the area of skilling, it has also been plagued by numerous problems, most notably the absence of reading materials, and the provision of the free student textbooks and teachers’ manuals by the government of Uganda, will end this problem.