The corpus has already made the argument: school fees are estate planning. Education carried about 25.5 percent of measured wealth transmission between generations, roughly double what bequests carried, in Pfeffer and...
The corpus has already made the argument: school fees are estate planning. Education carried about 25.5 percent of measured wealth transmission between generations, roughly double what bequests carried, in Pfeffer and Killewald's 2017 decomposition. And the pressure is not imagined. More than 60 percent of Ugandan adults are very worried about school fees, per World Bank Global Findex data. This article is not the argument. It is the mechanics. One evening of setup, about two hours, and the pot runs itself for a year at a time.
Most families size the education pot by feel, which means they size it for this year's fees. The pot's real job is the whole trajectory: from the class your child is in now to the level you intend to fund, at the fees those future classes will actually charge, not the fees they charge today.
Do it per child, on one page each:
Here is the worked example for one child entering P1 in 2027 at a mid-range private day primary, moving to a boarding secondary at S1. The base fees are illustrative, anchored to real ranges: the World Bank puts Ugandan private school costs at roughly $420 to $680 per year, about UGX 1.5 to 2.5 million, and many Kampala schools charge well above that. Substitute your own school's circular.
| Year | Class | Fees per term (today's rates) | Per term with 10% annual uplift | Annual total (3 terms) | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | P1 | 600,000 | 600,000 | 1,800,000 | | 2 | P2 | 600,000 | 660,000 | 1,980,000 | | 3 | P3 | 600,000 | 726,000 | 2,178,000 | | 4 | P4 | 700,000 | 932,000 | 2,796,000 | | 5 | P5 | 700,000 | 1,025,000 | 3,075,000 | | 6 | P6 | 700,000 | 1,127,000 | 3,381,000 | | 7 | P7 | 800,000 | 1,417,000 | 4,251,000 | | 8 | S1 | 1,200,000 | 2,338,000 | 7,014,000 | | 9 | S2 | 1,200,000 | 2,572,000 | 7,716,000 | | 10 | S3 | 1,200,000 | 2,830,000 | 8,490,000 | | 11 | S4 | 1,200,000 | 3,112,000 | 9,336,000 | | 12 | S5 | 1,500,000 | 4,280,000 | 12,840,000 | | 13 | S6 | 1,500,000 | 4,708,000 | 14,124,000 |
All figures in UGX, rounded, example only. The total is about UGX 79 million over 13 years. At today's prices the same ladder costs about UGX 37.5 million, so the honest uplift roughly doubles the target. That is the number families refuse to write down, and refusing to write it down is how S4 becomes the year a child changes schools mid-course. You do not need UGX 79 million now. You need the trajectory on paper so the monthly feed and the instrument choices below are sized against reality.
The pot is not one account. It is money at two distances, and the corpus has already done the instrument critique in Unit Trusts for Family Money and Education Policies Decoded. Applied:
Money needed within three years goes to a money market unit trust with a CMA-licensed manager. It earns a real return, mid-2025 funds were paying roughly 11 to 12 percent annualized, with the UAP Old Mutual Money Market Fund at 12.01 percent in June 2025, and it pays out in two to five working days, which is exactly the shape fees money needs. Confirm in writing that you are entering the money market fund, not an equity fund wearing the same brand name.
Money needed beyond three years, the S1 boarding jump for a child now in P2, the S5 and S6 years, goes to longer instruments: treasury bonds through a CSD account, or a balanced fund you will not touch until the named year. An education endowment policy earns a place only if you are specifically buying its one real feature, the completion guarantee if the parent dies mid-plan, and only after you have seen the surrender terms and the charge split in writing, because early surrender in these products routinely returns less than you paid.
What the pot never sits in: the everyday mobile money wallet or the general bank account. Fees money that sleeps in the general wallet gets eaten by the general life.
The monthly feed is next term's uplifted fees divided by four, per child, summed. From the example table, year 8 needs about UGX 585,000 a month; year 1 needs 150,000. Set a standing order or automatic mobile money push dated one day after salary lands, so the pot is fed before the month starts negotiating. If income arrives in lumps, the rule inverts: the pot takes its share the day the lump lands, before anything else, as the School Fees Season Protocol sets out. Minimum top-ups are not a barrier; licensed managers accept additions from UGX 10,000 to 50,000.
An unwritten pot is a negotiable pot. Half a page, signed by both spouses or the responsible adults:
Education Pot Rules, [Family Name], [Date]
1. The pot pays: term fees, the school's official requirements list, national exam fees, one school trip per year per child.
2. Fees are paid direct to the school's bank account, referenced with the child's name and student number. Cash passes through no one's hands where the school accepts transfer.
3. Withdrawals need two authorizations: [Name] and [Name].
4. The pot never pays: household shortfalls, December, loans to anyone, business float, or fees for children outside this plan unless both authorizers agree in writing and set a cap.
5. If a term genuinely cannot be met, we talk to the bursar before the deadline, not after.
Rule 2 is quietly the most protective. Money paid direct to the school cannot be diverted in transit, and the school's receipt is your record.
Every November, before the January squeeze, sit with the one-pagers: confirm next year's circular against your uplift assumption, adjust the standing order, check the fund's net yield is still competitive, and confirm each child's trajectory still matches the school you intend. November, because January is when unprepared families borrow at money-lender rates for a cost they have known about for twelve months, and the Ministry of Education's term calendar tells you exactly when the wall arrives.
Build Step 1 for one child: the trajectory table, today's real fees, the 10 percent uplift, the honest total. Forty-five minutes, one page. Everything else in this setup is plumbing; that page is the decision.