Universal Primary Education (UPE) is one of the Government of Uganda’s main policy tools for

achieving poverty reduction and human development. Broadly speaking, its main objectives are to:

• provide the facilities and resources to enable every child to enter and remain in school until

the primary cycle of education is complete;

• make education equitable in order to eliminate disparities and inequalities;

• ensure that education is affordable by the majority of Ugandans;

• reduce poverty by equipping every individual with basic skills.

UPE was introduced in January 1997, following a political commitment by President Museveni that

the Government would meet the cost of primary education of four children per family. This commitment was soon extended to allow all people that wanted to access primary education to do so.