Title: The Economics of Educational Reform: Financing Competence-Based Curriculum Delivery in Uganda
Authors: Dr. Arinaitwe Julius, Musiimenta Nancy, Akampurira Sarah
Volume: 10
Issue: 6
Pages: 438-447
Publication Date: 2026/06/28
Abstract:
This study examined the economics of educational reform with specific focus on financing competence-based curriculum delivery (CBCD) in secondary schools in Uganda, following the rollout of the lower secondary Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC) by the National Curriculum Development Centre in 2020. The study was guided by a main objective of examining the economics of financing CBCD and three specific objectives, namely: to assess the effect of government funding on CBCD, to examine the influence of school-based internally generated funds on CBCD, and to evaluate the contribution of development partner support to CBCD financing. The study adopted a positivist research philosophy and a descriptive cross-sectional survey design, and quantitative data were collected from a sample of 240 respondents comprising head teachers, bursars, and teachers drawn from public secondary schools in Kampala District using stratified random sampling and a structured, pre-tested questionnaire whose validity and reliability were established through expert review and Cronbach's alpha coefficients above 0.70. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 26 for univariate and bivariate statistics and IBM AMOS version 24 for structural equation modelling (SEM). Univariate analysis indicated that internally generated funds recorded the highest mean composite score among the financing variables, while development partner support recorded the lowest and the most variable. Bivariate analysis using Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient revealed statistically significant, positive relationships among government funding, internally generated funds, development partner support, and competence-based curriculum delivery. The structural model fitted the sample data well, with a chi-square to degrees of freedom ratio of 2.14, a comparative fit index of 0.95, a Tucker-Lewis index of 0.94, and a root mean square error of approximation of 0.052, and it showed that government funding (? = 0.36), internally generated funds (? = 0.31), and development partner support (? = 0.22) jointly explained 49 percent of the variance in competence-based curriculum delivery. The study concluded that financing constraints, rather than teacher attitudes or pedagogical resistance, constituted the principal impediment to effective delivery of the competence-based curriculum in Ugandan secondary schools, and it recommended the adoption of diversified, predictable, and needs-based financing mechanisms, including activity-based capitation grants, regulated school-level revenue mobilisation, and pooled and harmonised development partner funding, in order to sustain the reform.