Isaac Newton students at the start of their first UCE exam
The recently published results for the Uganda Certificate in Education (O-level) examination taken at the end of 2025 showed further improvement in the performance of Humanist schools.
With 176 candidates, Isaac Newton Humanist High School had the largest ever exam cohort in the school’s history. Yet, larger numbers have not lowered standards. In contrast performance has shown further improvement.
The school’s performance put it in the top 10% of schools in Uganda (365th out of 3,789 high schools in the country).
This is quite remarkable for a rural school that was at the epicentre of the HIV/AIDS epidemic just a few year ago – when half of the working age population died leaving many orphan children. The school has triumphed despite the low income and education levels of local families and low funding compared with better endowed urban schools.
Distribution of pass grades at Isaac Newton
The table above shows a fuller picture. All students gained an overall pass. Whereas a majority of students nationally gained C,D and E grades, the results at Isaac Newton were skewed towards the top end of the grade distribution. High grades in English are quite remarkable in a rural school where the spoken language is Luganda. A really good performance across the sciences is particularly commendable and justifies the school’s motto “To Reason not to Believe“.
Students educated at Isaac Newton School gain a strong foundation, which enables them to move on to UACE (A-level), vocational courses and to gain employment in trades and services. The school’s success has come through steady improvement over the past 20 years. Teachers have become more experienced and improved their qualifications and the quality of students coming in from primary school is getting better. This will be boosted further as children who have gained a strong foundation in Isaac Newton Humanist Primary School progress through the high school.
Kasese Humanist Municipal High School is at the start of the improvement process. The school had a second cohort of 16 students taking UCE. It has already showed improvement on last year, when a few students failed to gain the certificate. Every child in the 2025 cohort recorded an overall pass. Many students gained lower pass grades but many middle grade Cs were achieved too. This year no student gained one of the top two grades of A or B, but we are hopeful that things will improve next year as teachers gain experience and improve their qualifications and also as the quality of students coming into the school improves. This year the school has continued to attract bright children from Katumba Parents’ Humanist Primary School who gained grades 1 in their Primary Leaving Examinations.
Onward and upward! The Humanist schools are giving hope of a better life to local children from very poor homes. They are very grateful to UHST supporters for helping them along the path of improvement.
The Humanist schools supported by UHST are in deprived rural communities.
It has been a struggle to raise standards because, with low parental income, school fees are correspondingly low. Consequently, teachers’ pay is low and money needed for learning goes instead on food and wood fuel.
UHST supporters have tried to give the schools a boost by sending funds to improve their infrastructure, the stock of books and to help them to pay their teachers. While we know that the support we provide is inadequate, it has made a difference, and standards have risen little-by-little each year.
Katumba girls after taking their Primary Leaving Examinations
This year, as a results of the additional support and hard work of children and their teachers, the schools have seen a further improvement in their Primary Leaving Examination results.
2025 Primary Leaving Examination Results (Exam taken at age 12)
School
Number of entrants
Grade 1 %
Grade 2 %
Grade 3 %
All Uganda
818,000
11
48
21
Eagle’s View
30
17
73
10
Isaac Newton
32
44
47
6
Kanungu
22
14
77
9
Kasese:Rukoki
27
7
89
4
Kasese:Muhokya
19
5
84
11
Katumba
60
70
8
0
All schools are way above the national average for percentage of children gaining the top two grades. The Kasese schools were below average for grade 1s, but this was nevertheless and improvement on previous years.
The results of children at Katumba Parents’ Humanist Primary School are truly remarkable given that the school has had to operate during periods of community unrest, in which many fathers at the school have been killed.
Isaac Newton Primary was constructed from the ashes of an Evangelical Christian School which collapsed during Covid in 2022. Despite only being part of the family of Humanist schools for 3 years, its performance has been magnificent.
By gaining a good primary education, children in all the Humanist schools are leaving with decent levels of literacy and numeracy and a broad general education, which will enable them to gain employment in the modern sector of the Ugandan economy. Many will find ways to continue with their education in high schools and vocational colleges and a lucky few will gain scholarships to enable them to continue their education at a Humanist high school.
Children and teachers are very grateful to the support they have received from UHST supporters, which is helping these Humanist schools to become the schools of choice in their respective areas.
UHST offered all the Senior 1, 2, 3 and 5 sponsored students who were attending Mustard Seed Secondary School last year an opportunity to transfer their scholarships to one of the other UHST secondary schools, as we could no longer support Mustard Seed. We are delighted that 33 out of 45 accepted the offer.
We are very grateful to Peter Kisiringa, the Director of Isaac Newton High School, for agreeing to take the students and to organise the necessary logistics.
The first task was to prepare places for the students to sleep. There was space for the boys in existing school dormitories, but a two roomed extension to the girls’ dormitories required plastering and painting. This work on the girls’ rooms is underway in the picture below.
We were not sure how many Mustard Seed students would take up the opportunity so we worked on the assumption that 20 would transfer, and 10 additional double bunk beds were made. When we learned that even more Busoga parents wanted their children to take up the opportunity, work started on the construction of 6 more bunk beds.
The next logistical problem was how to transport 33 scholarship students from Kamuli to Masaka – a journey of 240km taking over 6 hours. Isaac Newton commissioned two small coaches to pick up the children from the campus of Eagle’s View School near Buwenge. Return travel will be arranged each term for the students for the remainder of their schooling.
As they will be boarding at Isaac Newton they needed to come with their own mattresses, sheets and blankets as well as their clothes and other personal possessions. In the following picture, these items are being loaded into one of the two buses.
Screenshot
The next picture was taken by Dan Kasanda (centre) inside the second coach. Dan is UHST’s auditor in Uganda and did what he could to stabilise the administration of Mustard Seed School in 2025. Since the failure of the school, Dan has worked hard to facilitate the movement of scholarship children to their new school.
Screenshot
The journey from Kamuli to Masaka was, for most of the children, the longest journey they had made in their lives. Having spent their lives on smallholders farms, most had travelled no further than the nearest trading centre where their produce was taken to market. On this journey their eyes were opened to a new world. Along the way to Isaac Newton they will have seen:
The mighty River Nile emerging from Lake Victoria
The Owen Falls hydro-electric dam
Nile breweries – the largest beer factory in Uganda, which draws water from the Nile
Mabira Forest – one of the last remaining areas of virgin equatorial forest
The skyscrapers and motorways of Kampala, the capital city
The Equator as they crossed from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere
The green forested landscape near Isaac Newton which has much more rain than Busoga.
They arrived at Isaac Newton, accompanied by the Mustard Seed bursar, Moreen Athieno, who had been unfairly dismissed. Moreen will now take her accounting skills to the Isaac Newton Primary School, where she will serve as the school bursar. The following picture shows Mustard Seed children on arrival at Isaac Newton School. Peter Kisirinya, the school’s Director (in the middle at the back) was there to welcome them.
Screenshot
Peter and his staff are looking forward to making their guests feel at home in their new setting. The children will need to adapt to the local language around Isaac Newton School, Luganda. It is in the same language class at their home language, Lusoga, but there are differences in accent and in some vocabulary. Fortunately, the language of instruction, English, will be the same as in their old school. Isaac Newton School has a proud history of welcoming students from other parts of Uganda. For some years there has been a steady flow of students from Kasese Humanist Primary and Katumba Parents Humanist Primary Schools in the extreme west of Uganda. All have been welcomed and quickly assimilated into the life of the school.
Posted: March 2, 2026 by Steve Hurd
UCE O Level success at Humanist Schools
The recently published results for the Uganda Certificate in Education (O-level) examination taken at the end of 2025 showed further improvement in the performance of Humanist schools.
With 176 candidates, Isaac Newton Humanist High School had the largest ever exam cohort in the school’s history. Yet, larger numbers have not lowered standards. In contrast performance has shown further improvement.
The school’s performance put it in the top 10% of schools in Uganda (365th out of 3,789 high schools in the country).
This is quite remarkable for a rural school that was at the epicentre of the HIV/AIDS epidemic just a few year ago – when half of the working age population died leaving many orphan children. The school has triumphed despite the low income and education levels of local families and low funding compared with better endowed urban schools.
The table above shows a fuller picture. All students gained an overall pass. Whereas a majority of students nationally gained C,D and E grades, the results at Isaac Newton were skewed towards the top end of the grade distribution. High grades in English are quite remarkable in a rural school where the spoken language is Luganda. A really good performance across the sciences is particularly commendable and justifies the school’s motto “To Reason not to Believe“.
Students educated at Isaac Newton School gain a strong foundation, which enables them to move on to UACE (A-level), vocational courses and to gain employment in trades and services. The school’s success has come through steady improvement over the past 20 years. Teachers have become more experienced and improved their qualifications and the quality of students coming in from primary school is getting better. This will be boosted further as children who have gained a strong foundation in Isaac Newton Humanist Primary School progress through the high school.
Kasese Humanist Municipal High School is at the start of the improvement process. The school had a second cohort of 16 students taking UCE. It has already showed improvement on last year, when a few students failed to gain the certificate. Every child in the 2025 cohort recorded an overall pass. Many students gained lower pass grades but many middle grade Cs were achieved too. This year no student gained one of the top two grades of A or B, but we are hopeful that things will improve next year as teachers gain experience and improve their qualifications and also as the quality of students coming into the school improves. This year the school has continued to attract bright children from Katumba Parents’ Humanist Primary School who gained grades 1 in their Primary Leaving Examinations.
Onward and upward! The Humanist schools are giving hope of a better life to local children from very poor homes. They are very grateful to UHST supporters for helping them along the path of improvement.
Posted: February 13, 2026 by Steve Hurd
Humanist Schools shine in 2025 Primary Leaving Examinations
The Humanist schools supported by UHST are in deprived rural communities.
It has been a struggle to raise standards because, with low parental income, school fees are correspondingly low. Consequently, teachers’ pay is low and money needed for learning goes instead on food and wood fuel.
UHST supporters have tried to give the schools a boost by sending funds to improve their infrastructure, the stock of books and to help them to pay their teachers. While we know that the support we provide is inadequate, it has made a difference, and standards have risen little-by-little each year.
This year, as a results of the additional support and hard work of children and their teachers, the schools have seen a further improvement in their Primary Leaving Examination results.
2025 Primary Leaving Examination Results (Exam taken at age 12)
of entrants
%
%
%
All schools are way above the national average for percentage of children gaining the top two grades. The Kasese schools were below average for grade 1s, but this was nevertheless and improvement on previous years.
The results of children at Katumba Parents’ Humanist Primary School are truly remarkable given that the school has had to operate during periods of community unrest, in which many fathers at the school have been killed.
Isaac Newton Primary was constructed from the ashes of an Evangelical Christian School which collapsed during Covid in 2022. Despite only being part of the family of Humanist schools for 3 years, its performance has been magnificent.
By gaining a good primary education, children in all the Humanist schools are leaving with decent levels of literacy and numeracy and a broad general education, which will enable them to gain employment in the modern sector of the Ugandan economy. Many will find ways to continue with their education in high schools and vocational colleges and a lucky few will gain scholarships to enable them to continue their education at a Humanist high school.
Children and teachers are very grateful to the support they have received from UHST supporters, which is helping these Humanist schools to become the schools of choice in their respective areas.
Posted: February 10, 2026 by Steve Hurd
Lifeline for Mustard Seed students
UHST offered all the Senior 1, 2, 3 and 5 sponsored students who were attending Mustard Seed Secondary School last year an opportunity to transfer their scholarships to one of the other UHST secondary schools, as we could no longer support Mustard Seed. We are delighted that 33 out of 45 accepted the offer.
We are very grateful to Peter Kisiringa, the Director of Isaac Newton High School, for agreeing to take the students and to organise the necessary logistics.
The first task was to prepare places for the students to sleep. There was space for the boys in existing school dormitories, but a two roomed extension to the girls’ dormitories required plastering and painting. This work on the girls’ rooms is underway in the picture below.
We were not sure how many Mustard Seed students would take up the opportunity so we worked on the assumption that 20 would transfer, and 10 additional double bunk beds were made. When we learned that even more Busoga parents wanted their children to take up the opportunity, work started on the construction of 6 more bunk beds.
The next logistical problem was how to transport 33 scholarship students from Kamuli to Masaka – a journey of 240km taking over 6 hours. Isaac Newton commissioned two small coaches to pick up the children from the campus of Eagle’s View School near Buwenge. Return travel will be arranged each term for the students for the remainder of their schooling.
As they will be boarding at Isaac Newton they needed to come with their own mattresses, sheets and blankets as well as their clothes and other personal possessions. In the following picture, these items are being loaded into one of the two buses.
The next picture was taken by Dan Kasanda (centre) inside the second coach. Dan is UHST’s auditor in Uganda and did what he could to stabilise the administration of Mustard Seed School in 2025. Since the failure of the school, Dan has worked hard to facilitate the movement of scholarship children to their new school.
The journey from Kamuli to Masaka was, for most of the children, the longest journey they had made in their lives. Having spent their lives on smallholders farms, most had travelled no further than the nearest trading centre where their produce was taken to market. On this journey their eyes were opened to a new world. Along the way to Isaac Newton they will have seen:
They arrived at Isaac Newton, accompanied by the Mustard Seed bursar, Moreen Athieno, who had been unfairly dismissed. Moreen will now take her accounting skills to the Isaac Newton Primary School, where she will serve as the school bursar. The following picture shows Mustard Seed children on arrival at Isaac Newton School. Peter Kisirinya, the school’s Director (in the middle at the back) was there to welcome them.
Peter and his staff are looking forward to making their guests feel at home in their new setting. The children will need to adapt to the local language around Isaac Newton School, Luganda. It is in the same language class at their home language, Lusoga, but there are differences in accent and in some vocabulary. Fortunately, the language of instruction, English, will be the same as in their old school. Isaac Newton School has a proud history of welcoming students from other parts of Uganda. For some years there has been a steady flow of students from Kasese Humanist Primary and Katumba Parents Humanist Primary Schools in the extreme west of Uganda. All have been welcomed and quickly assimilated into the life of the school.