UHST has been helping the Humanist schools to prepare for the 2026 school year.
Isaac Newton Humanist Primary School
There has been so much to do to bring up to standard this school that was bought from an Evangelical Christian Foundation. In the past few months work has focused on completing:
the school hall and adjoining staffroom
additional toilets for boys and girls
a kitchen to enable food to be cooked on site
Making safe and repurposing old buildings to create a central hub with rooms for kindergarten classes, headteacher, her deputy, the bursar, book and reading room and computer room and paved area for outdoor activities.
Children lining up to start their school day in the new Swindale and Shrenk classrooms
Eagle’s View Humanist Primary School
As with all of the Humanist Schools, UHST has sent money to enable them to buy books for the new school year. However, we cannot do much to help with the major problem facing Eagle’s View school. All 10 classrooms are temporary structures made by nailing metal sheets to wooded poles. The rooms get too hot when there is full sun and water sprays through when it rains. Rogers Muwanguzi, a teacher and one of the school directors, is looking for supporters to sponsor the construction of new classrooms. The basic cost per room, without painting and furniture, is $5,000.
Eagle’s View children work hard by in conditions that are far from ideal
Kanungu Humanist Primary School
Kanungu School is overcoming opposition from local evangelical Christian churches by establishing decent standards of education and welfare and getting good results in the national Primary Leaving Examinations. The success of the strategy is evident in rising enrolment which brings its own challenges such as neither having enough desks and chairs nor sufficient books and learning resources. The school has also had to repair toilets and buildings following damage caused by climate-change induced storms. UHST has helped the school to meet all these requirements as well as ensuring that the school has sufficient exam desks and chairs and the headteachers office is a secure place to store exam papers.
Kanungu children love story time
Katumba Parents’ Humanist Primary School
Funds from UHST supporters in the UK and St. Louis, USA have enabled the school to build two dormitories, each providing sleeping quarters for 50 children – one for boys and the other for girls. Orphans and children in their last year of schooling who need to revise for their Primary Leaving Examinations will have priority for places. UHST has been helping with two other challenges. Firstly to improve water supply and storage at the school. Secondly, to carry out storm damage repairs and building refurbishment across the school.
New rainwater storage tanks
Katumba children take water to old lady
Kasese Humanist Primary Schools
The three Kasese primary schools at Rukoki, Kahendero and Muhokya will all see the benefits of major refurbishing work which took place, as part of the Sustainability Project, last year. They have all had money from UHST to buy books for the new school year and we have paid course fees to enable Solomon Masereka, the Headteacher of Rukoki, to complete his B.Ed. course and for Beatrice Gumisiriza, the Headteacher of Kahendero, to begin a Dip.Ed. course which leads on to a final B.Ed. qualification.
Precocious children of Kasese Primaries
Isaac Newton Humanist High School
The main challenge at the start of this year has been to ensure that Isaac Newton can accommodate the 34 additional scholarship student who have transferred from the troubled Mustard Seed School. Girls and boys’ dormitories have been extended, plastered and painted and additional bunk beds made. The school has arranged for a teacher to come down from Busoga so that children can continue studies of their local language Lusoga at weekends. The school has run out of shelf space for new books. So, UHST is facilitating the enlargement of the bookstore and furnishing a new reading room to fully establish in one building a Library & Information Centre. We have also funded the installation of a solar water heater. This will pre-heat water before cooking with the aim of further reducing the consumption of scarce and expensive firewood. If the system proves to be economic then we will consider rolling out the system to other schools.
Solar water heater on the roof of Isaac Newton kitchen
Kasese Humanist Municipal High School
Kasese has been working hard to make more space in its small dormitories to take in bright children from poor homes who have excelled in their Primary Leaving Examinations. In particular they have extended spaces to some of the 2025 cohort of children from Katumba Parents’ Primary School who gained grade 1 in PLE. UHST has also helped them to increase their stock of books and science equipment and chemicals. There is growing optimism in the school since all of the 2025 cohort gained overall passes in their UCE O-level examinations.
Students from Kasese Municipal High School at work in the library
The Kasese Schools project a very strong Humanist ethos, which includes a weekly lesson on Humanism. This is reflected in posters around the school.
Poster portraying the Humanist ethos of the school
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.
Posted: March 2, 2026 by Steve Hurd
Preparing for new school year
UHST has been helping the Humanist schools to prepare for the 2026 school year.
Isaac Newton Humanist Primary School
There has been so much to do to bring up to standard this school that was bought from an Evangelical Christian Foundation. In the past few months work has focused on completing:
Eagle’s View Humanist Primary School
As with all of the Humanist Schools, UHST has sent money to enable them to buy books for the new school year. However, we cannot do much to help with the major problem facing Eagle’s View school. All 10 classrooms are temporary structures made by nailing metal sheets to wooded poles. The rooms get too hot when there is full sun and water sprays through when it rains. Rogers Muwanguzi, a teacher and one of the school directors, is looking for supporters to sponsor the construction of new classrooms. The basic cost per room, without painting and furniture, is $5,000.
Kanungu Humanist Primary School
Kanungu School is overcoming opposition from local evangelical Christian churches by establishing decent standards of education and welfare and getting good results in the national Primary Leaving Examinations. The success of the strategy is evident in rising enrolment which brings its own challenges such as neither having enough desks and chairs nor sufficient books and learning resources. The school has also had to repair toilets and buildings following damage caused by climate-change induced storms. UHST has helped the school to meet all these requirements as well as ensuring that the school has sufficient exam desks and chairs and the headteachers office is a secure place to store exam papers.
Katumba Parents’ Humanist Primary School
Funds from UHST supporters in the UK and St. Louis, USA have enabled the school to build two dormitories, each providing sleeping quarters for 50 children – one for boys and the other for girls. Orphans and children in their last year of schooling who need to revise for their Primary Leaving Examinations will have priority for places. UHST has been helping with two other challenges. Firstly to improve water supply and storage at the school. Secondly, to carry out storm damage repairs and building refurbishment across the school.
Kasese Humanist Primary Schools
The three Kasese primary schools at Rukoki, Kahendero and Muhokya will all see the benefits of major refurbishing work which took place, as part of the Sustainability Project, last year. They have all had money from UHST to buy books for the new school year and we have paid course fees to enable Solomon Masereka, the Headteacher of Rukoki, to complete his B.Ed. course and for Beatrice Gumisiriza, the Headteacher of Kahendero, to begin a Dip.Ed. course which leads on to a final B.Ed. qualification.
Isaac Newton Humanist High School
The main challenge at the start of this year has been to ensure that Isaac Newton can accommodate the 34 additional scholarship student who have transferred from the troubled Mustard Seed School. Girls and boys’ dormitories have been extended, plastered and painted and additional bunk beds made. The school has arranged for a teacher to come down from Busoga so that children can continue studies of their local language Lusoga at weekends. The school has run out of shelf space for new books. So, UHST is facilitating the enlargement of the bookstore and furnishing a new reading room to fully establish in one building a Library & Information Centre. We have also funded the installation of a solar water heater. This will pre-heat water before cooking with the aim of further reducing the consumption of scarce and expensive firewood. If the system proves to be economic then we will consider rolling out the system to other schools.
Kasese Humanist Municipal High School
Kasese has been working hard to make more space in its small dormitories to take in bright children from poor homes who have excelled in their Primary Leaving Examinations. In particular they have extended spaces to some of the 2025 cohort of children from Katumba Parents’ Primary School who gained grade 1 in PLE. UHST has also helped them to increase their stock of books and science equipment and chemicals. There is growing optimism in the school since all of the 2025 cohort gained overall passes in their UCE O-level examinations.
The Kasese Schools project a very strong Humanist ethos, which includes a weekly lesson on Humanism. This is reflected in posters around 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.