If the future is digital, are rural youth learning digital skills early enough?

What the report says

The Independent Uganda published a July 20, 2026 commentary by Fatumah Birungi arguing that Uganda’s rural learners are being introduced to digital skills too late, even as artificial intelligence and digital transformation reshape education and work. Birungi, identified as Partner – Program Communications at the Mastercard Foundation Uganda, uses her own experience growing up in a rural community to illustrate how limited access to computers, internet and smartphones can delay basic digital literacy until higher education or employment.

The article says digital exclusion often begins in school because digital literacy is not treated as a core part of Uganda’s education system. Citing a UNICEF digital readiness assessment of secondary schools conducted with the Mastercard Foundation, Birungi reports that about 80% of schools had computer laboratories, but the average access level was one digital device for every 63 students. She also cites findings that 39% of secondary schools are off-grid and 41% have unreliable electricity, while a separate study in rural northern Uganda found more than 17,500 primary schools offline.

Birungi argues that digital literacy should start in primary school and continue as a compulsory subject in secondary education, covering basic computer use, typing, online safety, information literacy, internet navigation and content creation. She says this would also justify sustained investment in school infrastructure and teacher training.

The commentary points to organisations including the Mastercard Foundation, Outbox, Refactory Academy, Women in Technology Uganda, Enabel and the World Bank as already supporting advanced digital skills. Birungi’s central concern is that rural youth may struggle to benefit from such programmes unless schools first provide foundational skills.