Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Education and Sports is in the final stages of phasing out Grade Three and Five teaching qualifications in the 2021 academic year.
Currently, the Grade III certificate is the minimum qualification for primary school teachers, Grade V certificate for Secondary school teachers, while Early Childhood Development-ECD teachers and caregivers are certificate holders.
As part of the initiatives to raise the quality of teachers and teacher education in Uganda, the education ministry through the 2019 National Teacher Policy resolved that all teachers from pre-primary should have a minimum qualification of a Bachelor Degree.
To implement the objective, the policy recommended the creation higher institution of learning named Uganda National Institute of Teacher Education-UNITE to take on the role of handling teacher education, a task currently done by Kyambogo University as inherited from the Institute of Teacher Education Kyambogo-ITEK.
Professor Betty Ezati, chairperson of the UNITE establishment taskforce notes that they have been laying the foundation for the establishment of the institution and now they are ready to kick start implementing the establishment of UNITE.
Professor Ezati says that during the first phase if all factors are favourable, they have resolved to start with the secondary level which is more ready with the availability of needed human resources and infrastructure and already designed programmes.
She adds that under the first phase, UNITE will be taking over the five-diploma awarding National Teachers Colleges-NTCs located in districts, Mubende, Kaliro, Arua, Gulu, and Kabale, in addition to National Instructors’ College Abilonino – NICA. The takeover means that starting from the academic year 2021, the institutions will stop admitting diploma students.
Carol Kavuma, the UNITE establishment taskforce coordinator says that after developing more programmes and improving infrastructure, UNITE will take a second phase that will see the degree programme being rolled out to Primary Teachers Colleges. She however notes that currently, they don’t know how long this will take.
Kavuma adds that in the meantime, PTCs will continue to admit students at Grade III certificate level so as not to create a vacuum in the system.
The move to raise the minimum qualification of teachers in Uganda has been criticized by several educationists, teachers, and policy makers noting that having a degree might not be the basic solution to the current teacher education challenges in the country.
However, other players highly welcomed it saying it’s aimed at enhancing competence to effectively deliver quality learning outcomes and leadership at all levels of the education cycle and improvement of the teachers remuneration across the board.
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