The Ministry of Education and Sports confirmed on 3 September 2026 that third term started on Monday 14 September and runs for 82 days until Friday 4 December 2026 for pre-primary, primary and secondary schools on the national curriculum. The ministry issued the statement to kill a social media rumour that schools would reopen in October, and reminded schools that any change to the calendar needs written authorisation from the Permanent Secretary. For anyone selling stationery, uniforms, textbooks or boarding supplies, those two dates set the shape of the next four months.
Where the calendar puts your money
Term-time trade for a school retailer comes in three waves. The first is the reporting week, already behind us for this term. The second is the mid-term top-up, when boarders replace lost geometry sets and finished exercise books. The third, and the largest, is the long break. The Kampala City Traders Association told the Daily Monitor that sales of scholastic materials, school uniforms and textbooks take off just after 31 December, once festive spending is over and families turn to the new school year.
That matters for cash. Stock bought in October for the January rush sits on the shelf for ten weeks. Stock bought in the second week of January arrives after the first wave of buyers has gone elsewhere. The retailers who do well buy in two tranches: the slow-moving, high-value lines (textbooks for set classes, boarding trunks, mattresses) in November when suppliers are quiet, and the fast-moving consumables (exercise books, pens, mathematical sets) in the last week of December when the demand is certain and the price has settled.
Plan from your own sales history, not from the supplier's list
Suppliers will offer you a bundle. Your own till records tell you what actually sold last January and in what sizes. Pull three reports before you order anything:
- Sales by item for December 2025 and January 2026, so you see the real ranking of what moved.
- Stock on hand today by location, so you do not reorder a line that is still sitting in the second shop.
- Gross margin by item, so you know which lines carry the shop and which ones only bring footfall.
If a product has variations, work at the variation level. Uniform sales are not one number; they are a size curve, and the sizes that run out first are the ones that lose you the whole sale because the parent buys the full set elsewhere.
Boarding schools in Greater Kampala stagger their dates
The ministry's statement also directed boarding schools in Kampala, Wakiso, Mpigi and Mukono to spread their opening and closing dates over two to three days to ease traffic. For a shop near a school cluster this spreads the rush: closing day on 4 December becomes a three-day window, and the January reporting dates will be staggered in the same way. Staff rosters and float can follow that pattern instead of one chaotic morning.
A simple timetable for the next four months
- October: review last year's January sales and stock on hand; clear dead stock with a small discount while the term is still running.
- November: place the first tranche with suppliers for textbooks, boarding goods and uniforms; agree delivery for the first half of December.
- First week of December: closing day sales of boarding essentials; count stock immediately afterwards while the shelves are quiet.
- Last week of December: second tranche of fast consumables; set reorder levels so a sell-out in the first week of January triggers a purchase the same day.
- January: sell, watch the size curve daily, and move stock between branches instead of buying twice.
Keep the price list honest
Parents comparing prices across Kikuubo and the suburbs know the going rate for a ream of paper. Where you can win is availability and speed: the whole list in one place, the right sizes in stock, a printed receipt that the school bursar will accept. That is a stock problem before it is a marketing problem, and it is solved in October, not in January.
Sources
- https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/no-date-change-schools-to-reopen-september-14-as-government-warns-against-unauthorised-calendar-shifts-5582988
- https://www.pulse.ug/story/education-ministry-third-term-2026-start-date-2026090312354987024
- https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/business/prosper/retailers-brace-for-a-quiet-festive-season--4844340
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