Tech transition or economic trap? Victoria University VC demands rapid AI integration in schools

KAMPALA — Uganda risks producing a generation of economically obsolete citizens if the Ministry of Education does not immediately dismantle its outdated rote-learning structures and integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the national curriculum.

The blunt warning was delivered by Dr. Lawrence Muganga, Vice Chancellor of Victoria University and a member of the National AI Taskforce, during a mid-June appearance on UBC Television’s Good Morning Uganda Extra.

Muganga argued that digital literacy can no longer be treated as a secondary luxury or a peripheral subject for tech enthusiasts, but must be codified as an essential competency alongside reading and writing.

“We can no longer afford to treat digital literacy as an extra, especially when it comes to our children,” Muganga stated. “We must prepare them for today’s realities and tomorrow’s opportunities, not yesterday’s world.”

The structural shift: 35% corporate AI adoption by end of 2026

The call for structural curriculum reform comes at a time when the domestic private and public sectors are digitizing far faster than the classrooms feeding them.

Data highlights a rapid shift in corporate operations, with approximately 35% of Ugandan companies projected to fully embrace AI infrastructure by the end of 2026. Automation has already penetrated 15% of processes across various economic sectors.

Crucially, major state institutions are already running active automated operations:

• The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) is deploying data-driven systems to flag compliance anomalies and streamline tax collection.

• The Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) is using localized tools to optimize investor profiling and registration pipelines.

• The National Meteorological Centre relies on machine-learning models to improve climate tracking and weather forecasting accuracy.

Muganga noted that while global trends indicate AI will create millions of new high-value jobs, it will simultaneously destroy routine-heavy employment. For Uganda’s youth to capture the emerging opportunities, he urged immediate instruction in foundational technical skills like prompt engineering—the precise skill of structuring text prompts to optimize AI outputs.

Institutional localism vs. The infrastructure gap

While public reception to Muganga’s proposals has been largely positive among urban professionals and education analysts, his policy recommendations face deep skepticism regarding implementation feasibility.

Critics and rural educators point to severe structural bottlenecks that make nationwide AI training highly inequitable:

Implementation Bottleneck	The Reality on the Ground
The Urban-Rural Digital Divide	While private universities in Kampala deploy virtual reality hubs, thousands of sub-county seed schools lack stable grid electricity, basic computer labs, or internet connectivity.
Teacher Capacity Deficits	The vast majority of secondary school instructors under the new Competency-Based Curriculum are not trained in basic digital file management, let alone machine learning logic or prompt engineering.
Competing Fiscal Priorities	In many local governments, district education budgets are routinely diverted or secondary to basic structural needs like pit latrines, desks, teacher accommodation, and rural food security.

Victoria University tests the blueprint

To prove the viability of his proposed educational overhaul, Muganga’s administration at Victoria University has moved ahead with localized implementation. The university recently launched a free nationwide AI training program designed to equip ordinary citizens and corporate employees with practical automation skills.

The university’s broader model emphasizes work-integrated, experiential learning where curricula are directly audited by private sector actors to ensure skills match the fast-changing demands of the digital economy.

However, policy experts note that single-institution initiatives cannot fix a systemic national crisis. Without massive capital investments from the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance to subsidize countrywide fiber-optic connectivity and hardware distribution, standardizing AI literacy risks widening the economic gap between the capital and the rest of the country.

Muganga remains firm that defensive hesitation is not a strategy. “AI is already here, and people are using it,” he concluded. “The future belongs not to those who fear technology, but to those who master it. For Uganda’s children, the time to start is now.”

You can watch the full media discussion and panel analysis on the broadcast here via UBC Television Uganda Live, which highlights the growing conversation around national digital transformation and economic readiness for 2026.