Last year, History and Political Education posted the weakest performance among humanities at Uganda Certificate of Education, with nearly 13,000 candidates; about 3% failing to attain basic competence. UNEB Executive Director Dan Odongo attributed it not to intelligence, but to the difficult shift to scenario-based questions that demand everyday civic literacy.
When Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) added 15 minutes to this year's O-Level History and Political Education paper, it was more than an administrative fix. It was a declaration that Uganda's Competency-Based Curriculum has finally arrived in the examination room.
For decades schools rewarded memorisation. Recite the migration of the Bantu. List the causes of Maji Maji and others questions. Now UNEB is asking learners to apply knowledge: interpret a scenario, connect colonial administration to present governance, explain the difference between a traffic officer and a lollipop man, or identify the electoral material that helps a voter recognise their candidate.
That is what the 2025 PLE Social Studies paper did, and what the 2026 UCE History paper has cemented. The question is no longer "what do you remember?" but "what do you understand about the society you live in?" That is precisely where traditional journalism becomes relevant again.
Last year, History and Political Education posted the weakest performance among humanities at Uganda Certificate of Education, with nearly 13,000 candidates; about 3% failing to attain basic competence. UNEB Executive Director Dan Odongo attributed it not to intelligence, but to the difficult shift to scenario-based questions that demand everyday civic literacy.
That literacy cannot be crammed. It is accumulated from observation, discussion at home and the information environment. The PLE results show the gap. Of 807,313 pupils who sat SST in 2025, only 15.9% found no challenge in answering, 67.8% struggled through, and 16.3% failed.
The questions that troubled them were not abstract. Name the material on which voters identify candidates of their choice- the ballot paper. State one way the work of a traffic officer differs from that of a lollipop person- one directs traffic, the other helps children cross safely. These test practical civic knowledge.
A 13-year-old who spends phone time scrolling TikTok entertainment will struggle. Not because TikTok is harmful, but because its algorithm is brilliant at giving him what he wants, not what the curriculum says he needs to know to be a competent citizen. The CBC assumes a child who watches, reads and questions the world. Our current information diet often produces the opposite.
A Lifeline for Newsrooms
For newsrooms, this should be a moment of clarity. We have spent five years lamenting dwindling audiences. TV news is ageing, print circulation is falling, and news sites cannot retain the young. We have blamed trust, bias and negativity, and we are partly right.
The deeper truth is actually structural. We are competing for attention on platforms designed to reward entertainment over importance. We will never beat a dance challenge at its own game. The algorithm is simply powerful.
The new curriculum however, offers a different game. If every PLE and UCE paper will now test applied current affairs, civic processes and the link between history and present-day governance, then every parent, teacher and learner suddenly needs a reliable source of current affairs that is not fictional, sensationalised or tailored to affirm prejudice. That, by definition, is traditional journalism done well.
The CBC needs journalism to make sense of the world it asks children to interpret. Journalism needs the CBC for a guaranteed, generational audience.
Can Schools Provide the Audience?
Yes, but only if we stop seeing schools as places to advertise and start seeing them as a constituency to serve. The question is not whether schools can provide listenership, readership and viewership. It is whether we can provide a service schools find indispensable. That requires three shifts.
First, from breaking news to explainer journalism. The CBC does not reward who broke the news first, but who explained it best. A five-minute radio explainer on what the Electoral Commission roadmap means, a 300-word newspaper graphic on local council budgeting, or a 90-second TV illustration on road safety roles is more useful to a P7 or S4 learner than a verbatim political statement. The currency is no longer speed, but clarity.
Second, from an adult audience to a family audience. We treat children as non-consumers until 18, yet exams expect a 13-year-old to demonstrate civic knowledge. We need a deliberate children's current affairs diet: weekly school bulletins in English and local languages, newspaper pull-outs aligned to study competencies, and family-time radio slots. Distribution can still follow them online, but media houses must now move from CSR to core editorial strategy.
Third, from social media presence to media literacy partnership. Instead of complaining about TikTok, newsrooms should partner with the Ministry of Education and UNEB to teach media literacy as a competency itself: how to distinguish a ballot from a sample, verify a claim, or separate reporting from storytelling. Teach that early and we create a generation that chooses verification over virality for life.
Uganda has more than 10 million primary and secondary learners, plus parents and about 300,000 teachers. That is a larger, more stable and more loyal audience than any viral moment can deliver; an audience that needs us not for entertainment, but for competence.
We have spent a decade asking how to get young people to come to us. The curriculum asks a better question. How do we go to where young people are required to learn? Answer that well and we may not just improve exam performance. We may save the newsroom itself.
Paul Kayonga is a journalist at NBS Television