More than 5,000 secondary school teachers have been trained in digital skills under a Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) programme, the regulator said as Uganda joined the world in marking World Teachers’ Day on Monday, October 5.
The ICT Teachers Capacity Building Programme has run since 2011 through the Uganda Communications Universal Service and Access Fund (UCUSAF), in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Sports. It has reached teachers in more than 1,300 government-aided secondary schools where UCUSAF has set up ICT laboratories, UCC said in a World Teachers’ Day supplement published in New Vision.
According to UCC, one of the programme’s biggest outcomes has been helping establish ICT as an examinable subject in secondary schools.
This year’s World Teachers’ Day marks 60 years since the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. It is running under the theme “Standing with Teachers: 60 years of Protecting the Profession, Advancing its Status and Shaping Our Futures.”
UCC tied the programme to the Ministry of Education and Sports’ Digital Agenda Strategy 2024/25 to 2030/31, which calls for more ICT skills across the education sector. The commission argued that computers and connectivity alone will not close the digital divide unless teachers can use them confidently in class.
One of the teachers who went through the programme is Faisal Kamulegeya, now an ICT teacher at Kololo Secondary School.
Kamulegeya trained to teach Geography and Political Education. When Political Education was dropped from the curriculum, he switched to ICT despite having little computer experience. He says the training gave him the confidence to make the move. He later upgraded his qualifications in ICT and Geography and is now paid at the level of a science teacher.
“The ICT laboratory support under RCDF and now UCUSAF has also transformed my classroom delivery, taking learning from abstract concepts to practical, hands-on experiences,” he said.
UCC said it plans to deepen its work with the Ministry of Education and Sports to help teachers use emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, responsibly in their teaching.
The commission’s Executive Director, Nyombi Thembo, and the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr Kedrace Turyagyenda, recently attended a stakeholder review of the ministry’s Digital Agenda Strategy.
