The government has issued new National Teacher Policy that requires anybody teaching children in Uganda to have at least a university Bachelors degree.
It doesn’t matter whether one is teaching in a government or private school, as long as one is teaching in Uganda, the minimum qualification shall be a degree from a recognised university.
Those who do not have degrees have been given a grace period of ten years to study and acquire them, meaning that whoever will not have the degree by the end 2029 will be breaking the law if they engage in teaching.
Sources in government have indicated that the minister for higher education John C. Muyingo is working around the clock to ensure the policy is implemented without major hitches.
One of the issues that Muyingo is understood to be working on is how to finance the upgrading by teachers, majority of whom will certainly and genuinely claim not to have the money to sponsor their degree studies.
The ministry, working through the Uganda National Institute of Teacher Education-UNITE is already designing the mechanism of mass enrollment of teachers to start upgrading.
Although the in-service training for teachers was introduced in 1994 in a project dubbed Teacher Development Management Systems-TDMS, with the aim of supporting and enhancing the professional development of teachers, it is now feared that there will be a rush of applications for the programme as peole want to save their jobs.
Through the TDMS project, teachers use holiday times to go and upgrade their academic qualifications and keep at their duty stations during the term. This allows them to train without acquiring study leaves or affecting the teaching-learning process at their respective schools.
Equally important is that the teachers remain in employment and earning their salaries throughout the study period. Sources told ugandaupdatenews.com that there is no turning back or easing on the new policy, and the only hitch is about a rush on the TDMS program with an avalanche of applications for the next intake, but that too will be managed.
– ugandaupdatenews.com
