Skip to main content

Home/ Teachers Without Borders/ Group items tagged uganda

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Teachers Without Borders

allAfrica.com: East Africa: Uganda to Teach Swahili in Schools - 1 views

  •  
    Uganda will introduce Kiswahili as a compulsory subject in primary and secondary schools this year as a way of integrating fully with the other EAC partner states. Uganda joins Rwanda in the list of regional countries seeking to boost their language use as they seek opportunities in the integrated EAC where English and Swahili are the main languages of communication.
Teachers Without Borders

Education |P6 in Uganda pupils cannot do fractions - report - 2 views

  • Although the introduction of Universal Primary Education (UPE) has boosted enrollment in primary schools (Uganda boasts 8.3 million children in primary schools compared to 2.3 million before 1997), numerous pupils continue to perform poorly at one of the most important aspects of basic education.
  • The report stated that, “Few primary six pupils demonstrated skills in other competences of ‘measures.’ Only about a third of the pupils (35.2 per cent) could for example tell the time shown on the clock face and merely 4.1 per cent of the pupils could apply the concept of capacity in real life situations.”The tests sampled pupils in 1,098 schools from all the districts in Uganda between the ages of nine and 15 and over.
  • Findings indicate that the main reason why pupils cannot practically apply what is taught in class is the teachers failure to identify the weakness of the pupils in the various areas of study.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The report says: “the cause of this is failure to use assessment to diagnose pupils’ and to guide teaching and inadequate practice as these pupils do their work. Primary Six pupils, whose teachers had a university degree or Grade III teaching certificate, performed better than those whose head teachers had a Grade V teaching certificate. Pupils with head teachers who reside at school performed poorer than those whose head teachers live outside the school.”
  •  
    It is evident that the sources of these problems must be sought in earlier grades, and even in the experiences of Ugandan pre-schoolers. Compare them with what I describe at http://replacingtextbooks.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/higher-mathematics-for-children/ for children in the US. There are excellent materials on fractions online. See http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Open_Education_Resources for links to some sites that have as many as 100,000 e-learning resources available. Even if students do not have computers, teachers who can access these lessons can adapt them for the classroom or for individual practice, and share them with teachers who do not have Web access. On the issue of fractions, see also http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/TurtleArt/Tutorials/Fractions for an approach that requires no computers, but will be enhanced with software activities fairly soon. If your students have trouble with these exercises, and you can tell us why, we will work with you and them to develop materials that meet their needs. You will also have to tell us if there are circular Ugandan foods that we can use in lessons for children who are not familiar with European/American cakes, pies, and pizza. ^_^ When you have a 4.1% success rate on a particular topic, and thus a 95.9% failure rate, it cannot be said that individual teachers have failed to recognize individual difficulties. This is evidence that the entire curriculum is misdesigned. I assume that this is some part of the holdover colonial education system from before independence, designed originally for European children, with no relation to the prior experi
Teachers Without Borders

allAfrica.com: Uganda: Local Pupils Lag Behind Kenya, Uganda - 0 views

  • Dar Es Salaam — Though children attending private schools have been found to perform better than those going to public schools, their performance was far from better, a survey by Uwezo East Africa has established. Surveys conducted in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda on quality of primary education showed that in Tanzania and Uganda, pupils attending private schools performed relatively poorly.
Teachers Without Borders

allAfrica.com: Uganda: All Teachers Colleges Close, Citing No Cash - 0 views

  • All the 45 government-aided primary teachers colleges in the country have closed due to lack of funds to meet their operational costs less than a month after the term opened. Students were sent home on Monday and some who had remained at the institutions left yesterday. "We have no option," said Mr John Arinaitwe, the Principals Association of Uganda (PAU) chairman. "We have sent the students home to avert possible strikes because they are apparently doing nothing here."
  • Government pays a unit cost of Shs1,800 daily for each student in a college. The money covers the students' meals, medical care and stationery.
  • A senior principal, who preferred anonymity to speak freely about their predicament, said the government has for a long time been releasing money in instalments, making the institutions accumulate debts. "We have too many debts and the suppliers can no longer give us things on credit," he said. "If you give me money in halves, do you want me to teach half of the syllabus or you want me to teach half of the term?
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The action taken by the colleges comes a day after private secondary schools implementing the free education scheme also threatened to close at the end of this month if capitation funds are not disbursed to them.
  •  
    Uganda: All Teachers Colleges Close, Citing No Cash
Teachers Without Borders

Developing Locally Meaningful Indicators for Child-centered Psychosocial Programming in... - 0 views

  •  
    Defining Success: Developing Locally Meaningful Indicators for Child-centered Psychosocial Programming in Uganda
Teachers Without Borders

Ugandan Teachers fight for Living Wage | Teacher Solidarity - 0 views

  • Teachers in Uganda are striking for a salary increase which will provide them with a living wage Teachers in Uganda earn as little as $96 a month under conditions where inflation is running at 20+%. The teachers – who are members of the union Ugandan National Teachers Association (UNATU) are demanding a 100% rise. Teachers are among the worst paid government employees in the country – yet Yoweri Museveni – President of Uganda since 1986 – says that an increase for teachers is not a priority. Instead the government is prioritising infrastructure which will allow it to become one of the world’s top 50 oil producers.
  • Teachers have been subjected to harrassment, verbal abuse, arrests and forced apologies at the hands of the security services.
Teachers Without Borders

allAfrica.com: Uganda: Rwanda Wants 1,000 English Teachers - 0 views

  • Kampala — RWANDA needs close to 1,000 English teachers following the country's switch from French to English as the language of instruction in schools.Rwanda wants teachers from Uganda and other neighbouring countries to support its switch to English.
  • "The Education Service Commission in collaboration with the ministry of education of Rwanda announced that the government of Rwanda has embarked on a massive recruitment of teachers of English," he wrote. "Teachers (will be sourced) from within and outside Rwanda; including the East African Community region."
  • owever, other sources say English teachers are needed across the country, giving an estimate of between 500 and 1,000 vacancies."ILMI is ready to hire talented instructors to teach English and/or Business English to government officials and business executives in Rwanda," read an announcement on ESL-Jobs, an online jobmart.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Rwanda has accordingly embarked on building the English language teaching capacity of all primary and secondary school teachers by organising and conducting English language training.
  • However, Rwanda's remuneration of teachers is not far better than Uganda's. According to an article published in the New Times, Rwanda's daily newspaper, last year, primary teachers in public institutions earn between Frw20,000 (about sh73,666) to Frw62,000 (about sh228,365) per month depending on their experience.
  • Until October 2008, education in Rwanda was dispensed in a mixture of its three official languages: local Kinyarwanda; French, which is spoken mainly by educated elite; and English, which was added in 1994.
  • Outside major towns, a vast majority speak only Kinyarwanda. Part of the government's rationale for the switch was that it intended to join the Commonwealth club of mainly former British colonies, which it did in late 2009.
Voytek Bialkowski

Katine: End discrimination against women | Katine | guardian.co.uk - 0 views

  • The Guardian's work with Amref shows that education is central to helping women protect themselves. Educated women know their rights and can stand up for them. Rose, aged 13, goes to school in Katine, where she has been taught about contraception and sexual health. She said that many of her friends feel pressured to have sex because they get money for food and clothes from their boyfriends. Two of Rose's friends became pregnant while they were still at primary school. But Rose understands that the choices she makes now will affect the rest of her life, and she is determined to concentrate on her studies so that she can stand on her own two feet in the future.
  •  
    Article reflecting on the effect of 2006 peace talks in Uganda. Draws a connection between sexual education for young girls & independence, continuing education.
Teachers Without Borders

allAfrica.com: Uganda: A Successful Year in Education - 0 views

  • The increased funding has enabled the education ministry to implement a number of projects. The ministry distributed over sh8.8b to the Universal Secondary Education programme to purchase laboratory equipment.
  • The construction and renovation of 217 secondary schools countrywide started this year. The 217 schools are part of the 1,400 schools which will be repaired under a World Bank funded project. About 4,297 classrooms, 41 administration blocks, 144 libraries, 405 science rooms and 71 staff quarters are to be constructed.
  • In a bid to improve quality, the P6 and P7 curriculum was reviewed. The new upper primary curriculum is to focus on "what a child can gain from a lesson, other than what a teacher can complete in a syllabus". Illustrations like graphs and tables have been simplified.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • For close to 15 years, national examinations in Uganda were synonymous with late deliveries and leaking of question papers, missing papers, and cheating. However, this year's examinations have arguably been the best organised. The examinations body hired over 7,000 scouts on top of thousands of invigilators and supervisers, who ensured the exercise's success. However, cases of candidates sitting using candles at night and late deliveries of examination material were reported in some examination centres.
  • New pledges for 2011 The Government has issued several pledges that it says will be implemented come next year. The pledges include the following: The number of government sponsored students in public universities to increase from 4,000 to 6,000. Free A' level education, which is to cost over sh85b next financial year Rolling out the long-waited tuition loan scheme for privately sponsored university students Construct and renovate more teachers houses, classrooms, science laboratories and latrines About 20,000 teachers will get jobs in the Government over the next five years Government to offer housing loans to teachers who have taught for about 20 years.
  • Poor quality in UPE schools UPE has led school enrollment to soar from two million pupils in 1997 to almost 8 million today. However, it came with other challenges which include lack of lunch for pupils, low pay for teachers, inadequate accommodation, laxity in school inspections and teacher absenteeism.
  • e National Council for Higher Education closed Lugazi University over alleged failure to meet the minimum standards in the last four years of its operation.
  • For over two weeks, lectures were suspended at Kampala International University this year when students rioted, protesting a new rule subjecting them to fines if they delay to pay tuition fees.
Teachers Without Borders

allAfrica.com: Uganda: Doom Looms As Govt Admits Failures in Teaching Profession - 0 views

  • Education experts are warning that the absorption of poor academic performers for training as teachers is a recipe for disaster for Uganda's future.
  • Our analysis of scores of prospective new entrants at Primary Teachers' Colleges across the country reveals that most of those admitted obtained low grades in the 2010 O-level examinations, raising questions about their academic competence.
  • "It is a challenge. I would think that teaching should take the cream of the students but people don't want to join because the profession is looked at as an area for low [academic] performers," said Ms Margaret Rwabushaija, the Uganda National Teachers' Union (UNATU) chairperson.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Concerns about low remuneration and declining social status of teachers in the country, contrasting their privileged and high esteem in the past, has forced bright students to shun the profession, observers say.
  • Until this financial year, a primary teacher earned a monthly salary of Shs200,000 - without allowance - although that gross pay has now marginally increased to Shs260,000.
  •  
    Our analysis of scores of prospective new entrants at Primary Teachers' Colleges across the country reveals that most of those admitted obtained low grades in the 2010 O-level examinations, raising questions about their academic competence.
Konrad Glogowski

Educators in Exile - 0 views

  •  
    Much of the literature surrounding education in emergencies focuses on the impact of armed conflict on children. Surprisingly little focuses explicitly on teachers, and yet it is commonly acknowledged that the biggest influences on the education a child receives are the knowledge, skills and attitudes of their teacher. Through field research from Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, the study examines the role and status of teachers in emergencies. It identifies the issues refugee teachers face and makes recommendations on how policy can better address their particular needs and protect their rights, and thus improve access to and quality of education to populations affected by an emergency. The research findings also include data on South Sudan and the status of teachers returning there from exile.
Teachers Without Borders

The East African:  - News |How long do East African pupils remain in school? - 0 views

  • Tanzania and Burundi, for instance, have recorded a 99 per cent enrolment rate into the first grade of primary school.The pertinent question is: How effective are these funds in retaining children in school? Once enrolled, how long can the pupils be expected to last in the education system, and how many years of schooling, on average, are actually attained by East African pupils?
  • However, East Africa is faring badly a 9.1 years, equivalent to a pupil completing primary school, but dropping out of high school. The average number of school years actually completed regionally was a mere 4.7 years. The scenario is particularly dismal in Burundi, where on average pupils completed only 2.7 years of school.
  • According to the Global Education Digest 2010 published by Unesco, in the late 1990s, developing countries began to recover some of the educational ground lost in the 1980s, when enrolments stagnated or even declined in sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In fact, the pace of progress accelerated since 2000 and if trends between 2000 and 2008 continue, the increase in school life expectancy in the current decade will be three times the level achieved in the 1970s.In sub-Saharan Africa, school life expectancy nearly doubled from 4.4 years to 8.4 years in the past 30 years. Despite this progress, the region has the lowest number of school years — almost half of the number of years in North America and Western Europe (16.0 years).
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • As pointed out by the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, primary education without transition into secondary and tertiary levels can only lock a country in a basic factor-driven economy.
  • n Burundi, for instance, government commitments to providing universal primary education appear to be directed towards enrolment.From an enrolment rate of 36 per cent in 1999, the country recorded a full 99 per cent of girls and close to 100 per cent of boys enrolled in primary school nine years later. School drop-out rates are high however, as only 45 per cent of Burundian children complete a full course of primary education.
  • Girls in Rwandan primary schools outnumber boys: 97 per cent of girls compared with 95 per cent of boys are enrolled in primary school. Slightly more than half (54 per cent) of Rwandan children complete primary school. Secondary school enrolment in the country stands at 21.9 per cent, the second lowest in the region.
  • he situation in Uganda is similar — 98 per cent of girls and 96 per cent of boys are currently enrolled in primary school. Completion rate of primary school is 56 per cent. The transition rate into secondary school is low, however, with most pupils unable to progress past the final grade of primary school — only 21 per cent of girls and 22 per cent of boys make it into secondary school.
  • Kenya lags behind other East African countries in primary school enrolment — 82 per cent of girls and 81 per cent of boys of primary age are enrolled in school.
Teachers Without Borders

allAfrica.com: Uganda: Ministry Transfers 60 Head Teachers - 0 views

  •  
    "Kampala - Some 256 secondary school teachers, including head teachers, have been transferred in a shake-up that Ministry of Education officials say is to enhance efficiency. According to Mr Francis Agula, the assistant commissioner secondary education, the transfers were based on the need to improve skills of teachers and replace those who retired on request or on medical and domestic grounds."
Teachers Without Borders

Experts discuss the challenge of achieving universal, quality education | Bac... - 0 views

  • “Kids are enrolling in school in much greater numbers than ever before,” she said, “but that really masks the fact that they’re actually not learning very much. One example is that in Uganda, half the kids in third grade can’t read a single word.”
  • “We know how to train teachers. We know how to put in curricula. We know what the right things to do for kids are to give them all the right skills,” added Mr. Wong. “But the investment required, and the time and the commitment, is not there if you don’t have the political support.”
  • A Brookings Institution analysis of the wealthiest philanthropic donors in the United States found that global education was a very low priority for them. Ms. Winthrop said she believed this was because a focus on enrolment – which is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal on education – has “lulled people into thinking that the global education agenda is done, check, we can cross that off the list.”
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “It’s not just [about] putting them into school…. It’s making sure they’re coming out with the right skills that make them employable and make them so creative and innovative that they might actually go ahead and start their own business.”
Teachers Without Borders

allAfrica.com: Uganda: Rethink Archaic Education System - 0 views

  • For many pupils and parents, the dreams of joining the so-called best schools have been shattered because they did not score the required points. Now, they must fight tooth-and-nail to find a place in other schools.
  • At the root of all this is an archaic colonial education system, which no longer has a place in our situation today. In developed countries, an exam-based education system for primary pupils has long been abandoned.
  • promotion to secondary school should be on the basis of continuous assessment. Also, let the government increase capital expenditure to secondary schools. Most schools have the space to expand their facilities but they lack capital. As the number and the performance of pupils continue to increase every year, the facilities should be able to increase at the same pace.
Teachers Without Borders

allAfrica.com: Uganda: Education Minister Warns Against Hiking School Fees - 0 views

  • Kampala — The government has warned school head teachers against hiking school fees as the new term opens. Closing a two-day Senior One selection exercise at Mandela Stadium-Namboole on Friday, Education Minister Namirembe Bitamazire said the habit of increasing fees by top schools deny hundreds of students a chance to join their dream schools.
  • "We don't say that they shouldn't increase but let the increment be reasonable, justifiable and they must seek our permission. Our target is to see that all Ugandan children acquire quality education regardless of their parents' financial predicaments," she said.
  • This means that at least 155,716 students will not be admitted despite having garnered the required aggregate for admission. But the Commissioner for Secondary Education, Mr Francis Agula, said the number of admission could be raised to 350,000 due to expansion of existing education facilities in some schools and establishment of new ones.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Ms Bitamazire also urged head teachers to supplement the theoretical teaching with vocational knowledge to enable students attain survival skills. "It doesn't really help to speak good English when you cannot practically do anything .These (vocational skills) many despise are the ones that change people's lives," She said
Teachers Without Borders

Pop-top purses helping Ugandan women start over - CNN.com - 0 views

  • Washington (CNN) -- Think of pop-tops, and a soda can might come to mind. But Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe sees pop-tops as a way to help hundreds of women in Gulu, Uganda, start a new life. Nyirumbe sells women's purses made out of the aluminum tabs, and so far she has sold more than 500 purses for about $3,000. All of the proceeds go to the people who made them -- her students at the St. Monica's Girls' Tailoring Center. Eight years ago, Nyirumbe started the school in Gulu to help poor young girls and women caught in the middle of the decades-long Ugandan civil war. Many of the women had become mothers after they were abducted and raped by rebels in the Lord's Resistance Army. Nyirumbe's school feeds and rehabilitates more than 300 mothers and their babies each year. It also provides free medical care and teaches the mothers valuable life skills, such as sewing, cooking and cleaning.
1 - 20 of 33 Next ›
Showing 20 items per page