Spectrum XLabs Alliance home
Find News Contact
The problem

The problem we address

Learners can recall. They are not yet able to use what they know.

1. The problem

Learners leave school able to recall, not yet able to use what they know

Uganda's competency-based curriculum (CBC) asks for project work and school-based assessment. Yet learners still leave able to recall, not yet able to use what they know, and their everyday challenges stay outside the classroom.

Four supports are missing. Without them, a learner's discomfort never becomes learning.

Part 1 of our theory of changeThe need: problem, people and reason

The four changes that answer these gaps

  1. No one asks about it

    Learners' own challenges, such as a family plot that grows too little food, never enter the classroom.

  2. No project method (skills)

    Project work is required but has no method for noticing, finding out and testing.

  3. No tools or resources (tools)

    Little access to tools, and no framework for choosing and checking them, including AI.

  4. Exams on other problems (mindset)

    80% of the final result is a written exam (source pending verification), which rewards recall over verifying, testing and improving.

2. Who

Secondary learners, S1 to S4, refugee and Ugandan, girls especially

Secondary learners, S1 to S4, in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement and its host communities, studying together on the same curriculum.

Girls are affected most: 44% of S1 learners at Spectrum Secondary School, but 13% (4 of 31) in S4.

Source: Spectrum records, Term One 2026.

  • 44%of S1 learners are girlsSpectrum records, Term One 2026
  • 13%of S4 learners are girls (4 of 31)Spectrum records, Term One 2026
3. Where and when

Kyangwali, western Uganda, and the years to 2030

Kyangwali Refugee Settlement is in Kikuube District. Uganda includes refugees in national services, so refugee and host-community learners share schools.

  • 156,248residents of KyangwaliUNHCR and OPM proGres population dashboard, 28 February 2026
  • 31,625young people aged 15 to 24UNHCR and OPM, 30 September 2026

Why the timing matters

A learner in S1 in 2026 finishes S4 in 2029 and moves on in 2030, when employers expect 39% of core skills to have changed (World Economic Forum projection).

  1. 2026S1
  2. 2027S2
  3. 2028S3
  4. 2029S4
  5. 2030Next step: A-level, training or work
4. Proof

What national data shows

A nationwide assessment of 3,276 secondary schools by UNICEF, the Association of Secondary Schools Headteachers of Uganda and the Ministry of Education and Sports, with Mastercard Foundation (November 2025 to early 2026), found that:

More than 1 in 3schools surveyed have no internet accessUNICEF Uganda, "Uganda's digital education gap", 19 March 2026. Read Original Research
About 12%of schools have internet across the whole campusUNICEF Uganda, 19 March 2026. Read Original Research
1 : 63on average, one digital device for every 63 studentsUNICEF Uganda, 19 March 2026. Read Original Research
42.6%of young people aged 15 to 24 are not in employment, education or trainingCensus 2024, reported by Daily Monitor, 1 May 2025. Read Original Research
12.3%national unemploymentCensus 2024, reported by Daily Monitor, 1 May 2025. Read Original Research

Work and livelihoods: few jobs for many young people

Why it matters: far more young people look for work than there are jobs, and most working people in Uganda work for themselves. JEP builds problem-solving and initiative for whatever path a learner takes. It does not assume every learner will become an entrepreneur, and entrepreneurship is no guarantee of employment.

48.2%of young people aged 18 to 30 in Bunyoro sub-region (which includes Kikuube, Hoima and Hoima City) are not in employment, education or training: 301,207 young peopleUBOS, Census 2024 (brochure, 19 September 2025). Measured. Read Original Research
50.9%of young people aged 18 to 30 in Uganda are not in employment, education or trainingUBOS, Census 2024 (brochure, 19 September 2025). Measured. Read Original Research
16.7%youth unemployment rate, ages 15 to 24. Among unemployed young people aged 18 to 30, 48.8% had been looking for work or trying to start a business for more than a yearUBOS, Census 2024 (brochure, 19 September 2025). Measured. Read Original Research
600,000 to 700,000young people enter Uganda's labour market each yearWorld Bank, press release, 4 June 2026. Estimate. Read Original Research
47.1%of employed people in Uganda were independent workers without employees; 34.2% were employees. Outside agriculture, 88% of employment was informalUBOS, Labour Force Survey 2021 (published November 2022). Measured. Read Original Research
10 to 12 millionyoung Africans enter the workforce each year, while about 3 million formal jobs are createdAfrican Development Bank, 25 May 2016. Estimate at the time. Read Original Research

The age groups differ between sources: the Census figures use 15 to 24 (the United Nations definition) and 18 to 30 (Uganda's National Youth Council Act). The NEET figure of 42.6% above is for ages 15 to 24; 50.9% is for ages 18 to 30.

5. Why

The root causes

Our analysis

This is SXLA's own analysis of why the gap persists, drawn from our work in Kyangwali.

Recall-weighted assessment

Curriculum and assessment are still weighted towards recall and written exams.

Projects without a method

Project work is expected, but there is no shared method for doing it well.

Technology without the means

Technology is taught as a subject without the devices, power or connectivity to use it.

Teachers without support

Teachers lack the training and tools to teach this way.

Poverty and distance

Poverty and distance keep learners out, and many girls leave before S4.

6. So what

Prepared for exams, not for 2030

Employers surveyed for the Future of Jobs Report 2025 expect 39% of workers' core skills to change by 2030, a global projection. Analytical thinking leads; AI and big data, cybersecurity and technological literacy grow fastest, and creative thinking and curiosity are rising.

World Economic Forum, January 2025; more than 1,000 employers, 55 economies. Read Original Research

  • 39%of workers' core skills expected to change by 2030World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2025

Skills

What 2030 needs (WEF)

Analytical thinking and problem-solving through projects.

What the curriculum misses

A project method.

Tools

What 2030 needs (WEF)

AI and big data, and technological literacy.

What the curriculum misses

Devices, connectivity and a framework for choosing and checking tools.

Mindset

What 2030 needs (WEF)

Creative thinking, curiosity, resilience.

What the curriculum misses

Assessment that rewards testing and improving.

Without change, learners in Kyangwali finish school prepared for exams, not for the work and problems of 2030, and talent in the settlement stays unused.

Four missing supports: an illustrative learner whose family plot grows too little food. No one asks about it in class, there is no project method, there are no tools or resources, and exams test other problems.Select to enlarge
The four missing supports, shown through an illustrative learner whose family plot grows too little food. Illustrative; not a real learner.
7. Scope

What we do, and what we do not

What SXLA does

  • Works inside the national curriculum. It does not replace it.
  • Works with secondary learners, S1 to S4.
  • Starts at Spectrum Secondary School, then partner schools.

What SXLA does not do

  • Provide primary education.
  • Replace teachers.
  • Run general relief.
  • Claim to fix connectivity nationally.
8. Rationale

Why act now

The S1 cohort of 2027 graduates in 2030. What they meet in school over the next four years shapes the skills, tools and mindset they leave with.

JEP answers each missing support: real challenges in the classroom, a project method, a way to choose and check tools, and assessment that rewards testing and improving. The Hybrid Edge JEP Studio is specified to work offline first.

The 360° JEP StudioThe Studio specification
DonateHelp equip the Studio and finish the school
Partner with usTalk to us about the problem and the evidence

Sources

Kyangwali population figures: UNHCR and OPM proGres population dashboard (28 February 2026) and UNHCR and OPM (30 September 2026). Spectrum figures: Spectrum records, Term One 2026. The exam weighting figure is pending verification.

Keep exploring

Explore more

JEP Studio

Why SXLA created JEP, and how learners move from a real challenge to knowledge, action and feedback.

Find out more

Studio specification

The Hybrid Edge JEP Studio: what it includes, and how it works with or without the Internet.

Find out more