Legislators have tasked the Ministry of Education and Sports to review the National Teacher Policy (NTP) which requires teachers in Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE), saying that the required bachelor’s degree is unrealistic.
The Minister of State for Higher Education, John Chrysostom Muyingo faced legislators and justified the requirement of Degrees for nursery teachers.
Officials of the ministry of education and sports led by Dr. John C Muyingo appeared before the Parliamentary committee of education to respond to the petition by members of the Pre-Primary Teachers Training Institutions Association-Uganda (PPITA) to Parliament on access to early child care education. Muyingo defended government position on requirement of a degree for all teachers
The education ministry’s Commissioner of Early Childhood Education, Joseph Kikomeko explained that the policy is the only legal instrument that can leverage the sector to achieve the overall objective of the National Development plan 3 which requires government to institutionalize training of ECDE caregivers.
He added that before the policy was introduced they did the necessary benchmarking in countries like Canada, Uk Kenya, Zambia, Australia, Norway, Singapore among others which have a similar policies
However legislators insisted that children aged between three to eight years do not require to be taught by degree holders. They argued that the required bachelor’s degree is not attainable because even diploma holders are under-utilized
MPs expressed disappointment with the ministry’s submission, saying that there is lack of goodwill to address the plight of the ECCE sector. They wondered why government is over ambitious yet degree holders are not earning salaries which are commensurate with their qualifications.
Currently, Uganda has only Kyambogo University which offers a bachelor’s Degree course in Early Childhood Development. Government has pledged to undertake deliberate efforts to sponsor all eligible certificate holders in the country to upgrade or diploma in Education and allow them to have the required bachelor’s degree in 10 years.
