Parliament’s Education Committee has backed the proposal by the government requiring all teachers to possess a Bachelor’s Degree as part of their eligibility to teach in Uganda, despite several educationists calling for Nursery School teachers to be exempted from this requirement.
The Committee’s position was revealed by James Kubeketerya (Bunya East) while presenting the report on the National Teachers Bill 2024, where he said that the requirement will ensure the standardisation of Uganda’s education sector.
“Clause 28 should be amended to provide for eligibility for registration of teachers as a degree in education or a relevant degree and a postgraduate diploma in education for pre-primary, primary and secondary teachers,” remarked Kubeketerya.
The Ministry of Education defended its proposal arguing the requirements are intended to standardise the academic qualification of teachers which in the long run will help the Government to progressively remove the differences among teachers that are linked to salary scales and disparities.
The government also stated that the degree requirement complies with the global teaching requirement policies and the sustainable development goals.
“The Bill intends to ensure that the teaching profession is regulated and standardized and the requirement of a Bachelor’s degree for a teacher will go a long way in achieving this. The Committee however observes that persons who have done or are doing a Bachelor’s degree which has a component of teaching subjects and opt to teach are not covered under the Bill. These persons go ahead and do a Post Graduate Diploma in Education and are eligible to join the teaching profession. The Bill should thus cover thus category of persons,” said Kubeketerya.
In the minority report authored by Joseph Ssewungu (Kalungu West), Kayemba Ssolo (Bukomansimbi South) and Linda Irene Mugisha (Fort Portal City Woman Rep.), the trio rejected the proposal to impose the requirement of a Degree on Nursery teachers, saying currently, teachers who attained degrees in Uganda are still paid the same rate as their counterparts with lower qualifications.
“Pre-primary education is run by Government agencies, or persons. While the Government provides for Universal Primary Education and Universal Secondary Education, it doesn’t cater for Pre-primary education. That implies, that it doesn’t recruit teachers for Pre-primary. Based on this, the Government shouldn’t require a degree in an area where they do not have a hand,” noted Ssewungu.
The authors of the Minority report also rejected the requirement for continuous professional development for teachers, arguing that this directive raises questions on the affordability of continuous professional development for teachers, considering their monthly pay, and asked the Government to cover this cost in case the proposal is approved.
Unlike other professions like Advocates, Accountants, Surveyors etc, teachers aren’t well remunerated. For instance, a primary teacher earns about Shs400,000 per month and a Nursery teacher earns about Shs200,000 per month which doesn’t cover most of the basic needs of a teacher.
“The government should fully cover the costs of continuous professional development for teachers, if not, it shouldn’t be a mandatory requirement for teachers, which causes cancellation of licenses,” they argued.