Government through NDP I and II undertook education as a priority; particularly primary education, to improve the literacy and numeracy rates in the country. Through initiatives such as Universal education, increased teacher training, deployment and renumeration, literacy rates have since grown to 86.1 percent nationally (UBOS 2024). 

According to the NRM manifesto 2021, the primary school enrollment had risen to 10.7 million in 2020 up from 8.26 million in 2016.

Despite these achievements, there are notable challenges in translating increased education access into meaningful learning. The 2021 Uwezo National Learning Assessment revealed that 11.6 percent of P3 to P7 pupils were unable to read a P2 level story while 10.8 percent of the same bracket couldn’t complete numeracy tasks. This points to gaps in the quality of primary education which affects the Human Capital Development of the country.

This brief investigates the training of teachers; both in-service and pre-qualification, which appears to take on a cascading model with priority of expert training given to higher level teachers who are then expected to teach others. Teachers also encounter challenges due to insufficient training and the lack of resources for effective instruction. In addition to strengthening both in-service and pre-qualification training, Government should establish continuous professional development frameworks.

For more insights on the evaluation of teacher training, visit:

https://eprcug.org/publication/bridging-the-learning-gap-reforming-teacher-training-in-uganda/