Improving student learning outcomes is one of the top priorities for the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology & Sports (MOESTS). Valid and reliable measures of the quality and distribution of student learning outcomes are essential components in the drive for improved education quality. However, improved learning achievement depends not only on the resources invested in the school system, but also on the policies and institutions that direct their use and the quality of implementation at classroom level.

This document is the first deliverable as part of the development of a roadmap for the strengthening of Uganda’s examination and assessment system (including formative assessment) in primary and lower secondary for the period 2015/16 to 2020/21.

Investment in Uganda’s formal examination system is important as Uganda’s formal examination system defines (and is in turn shaped by) the in-practice curriculum in primary and secondary – what students learn and what teachers try to teach, how knowledge and skills are stratified, prioritised and valued. Results in the formal examination system confer prestige on teachers, schools and students while governing access to further education and the status this brings. Classroom practices in teaching and assessment reflect and reinforce the priorities, values and assumptions of the formal examination system.