Last Mile Connectivity Deterring Access to Education: Baseline Evidence from the DECEDA Project

This study examines the baseline state of digital infrastructure, connectivity, and teacher digital competencies in Uganda’s rural primary schools prior to the implementation of the Digitally Enabled Community-Centered Early Childhood Development Approach (DECEDA) project, a community-centered intervention funded by the Uganda Communications Commission through the Universal Service and Access Fund. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, the study collected quantitative survey data from 104 teachers and 31 head teachers across 31 schools in 30 districts spanning Uganda’s five regions, complemented by 78 key informant interviews and direct classroom observations; quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations, while qualitative data were analyzed thematically, with triangulation enhancing validity. The findings reveal three interconnected deficit patterns: first, digital infrastructure is critically inadequate, with most schools lacking ICT laboratories, functional devices, dedicated IT staff, and written ICT plans, reflecting systemic institutional planning failures; second, internet connectivity remains inaccessible and unaffordable, with mobile data the dominant yet unreliable connection type and most schools operating without dedicated internet budgets; and third, teacher digital competencies are critically low, with most teachers lacking formal ICT integration training, confidence in digital tool use, and access to peer learning communities, with deficits unevenly distributed across regions and gender. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that last-mile connectivity challenges in Uganda’s rural primary schools are multidimensional, requiring coordinated policy, institutional, and capacity-building responses; the study provides the first comprehensive, multi-regional school-level baseline of this kind in Uganda, offering actionable evidence for policymakers, development partners, and school leaders in pursuit of inclusive digital education.