Ugandan government struggles to find ICT trained teachers

The Ministry of Education says it is struggling to get computer literate teachers to train fellow teachers in government-aided secondary schools to promote e-learning.

While officiating at a one-day orientation workshop for 20 ICT teachers from 10 secondary schools across the country in Kigo, Wakiso District, on Saturday, State minister for Primary Education Rosemary Sseninde said: “We have been encouraging schools to embrace ICT and we know that some schools were given computers by the Uganda Communications Commission. You visit a school and find the computers are intact. They have never been opened.”

Ms Sseninde said government had anticipated solving this problem by generating a pool of skilled teachers from teacher training colleges and universities but now it is important for them to get partners ready to support government to close the gap.

The orientation workshop was organised by Nile Humanitarian Relief Agency and Turkish Light Academy for teachers in Wakiso District and four from Busoga Sub-region to introduce them to the Accessible Computer Technology project for the underserved students. The project is funded by Embrace Relief, a United States NGO.

According to the minister, her foundation, Sseninde Foundation, lobbied for the programme for 16 heads of ICT training from eight government secondary schools within Wakiso and four from Busoga Sub-region.

Mr Issa Kirarira, the executive director of Nile Humanitarian Relief Agency, said the project will be launched on February 6.

“This is a programme available to help students in secondary schools to learn how to use computers to understand what they have learnt from teachers,” he said.