- Before 1920, formal education in Uganda was run by the Christian missionaries.
- Their efforts were mainly concentrated in Buganda.
- Wherever they built a Church they would also set up a dispensary and a grammar School.
- Their main aim was to enable their converts acquire the three Rs – Arithmetic, Reading and writing.
- Their literacy was limited to reading religious books.
- However, by this time, very few African parents were willing to take their children to school.
- From 1900, missionaries introduced formal school education which was run alongside traditional education which they found.
- The aim of this type of education was to create a civil and literate community.
- Those who had this type of formal education could be clerks, interpreters and catechists.
- In 1902, the first school was built called Namilyango College.
- It was mainly children of chiefs and influential families who joined this school.
- In the same year, Mengo High School was also constructed by the church missionary society.
- By 1903, 7,800 girls were attending school.
- The girls’ syllabus stressed submissiveness, hard work and good behavior.
- In 1905, a boarding girls’ school was opened called Gayaza High School.
- In 1906, King’s College Buddo was opened mainly for the sons and relatives of the Kabaka.
- St. Mary’s college Kisubi was later opened in 1908.
- More schools were opened up in Masaka, Kamuli, Iganga, Hoima, Gulu and Mbarara.
- Such schools included Ntare School, Mary Hill high school and Kiira College Butiki.
- In these schools, more emphasis was put on religious knowledge, English, geography and arithmetic.
- These schools were run along denominational lines and were headed by reverends, nuns and
- priests.
- Teacher Training Colleges (T.T.Cs) were later setup, the first at Mukono by the Anglican Church.
- From 1920, the colonial government became interested in controlling education standards in Uganda.
- This was because of the weaknesses found in missionary education e.g. they had neglected technical and industrial education and they had also neglected agriculture and animal husbandry.
- The colonial government thus set up a department of education to guide education in Uganda.
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