500 teachers blocked from curriculum training

At least 500 secondary school teachers from Wakiso and surrounding districts were yesterday blocked from attending the training on the new lower secondary curriculum that commenced yesterday at Trinity College Nabbingo, Wakiso District.

The teachers, who had braved the morning downpour to be part of the training organised by the National Curriculum Development Centre(NCDC), had allegedly fluked the training that was meant for only invited teachers from 465  private and public secondary schools in Wakiso District.

Mr John Okumu Emorut, the manager for secondary education at NCDC, said due to limited resources, they had invited 2,000 teachers from selected schools in Wakiso District. Mr Okumu said although each participating school was meant to send four teachers, some sent about eight.

He said other teachers came from districts such Mpigi, Mukono and Mityana.

“Some of them came as far as Mityana District. Our obligation is to train all teachers in the revised lower secondary curriculum but within our means. The number was bigger than what we had invited. We considered those whose names were submitted by selected schools before December 1,” he said.

He added: “They reported on Monday afternoon but this morning, we have been screening participants and we managed to flash out teachers who were not supposed to attend this particular training.”

Mr Okumu said when the new secondary curriculum was rolled in the country in 2020, they started training teachers country wide, a strategy that he said was hectic, which prompted them to concentrate on regions.

Going forward, he said, similar trainings will be conducted in different parts of the country depending on the availability of resources.

Mr Okumu, however, said NCDC will need Shs12 billion to be able to train at least four teachers from each secondary school in the country.

On the issue of the teachers grappling with the new lower secondary curriculum, Mr Okuku said the challenge is poor attitude.

“They think education is about competition. Some of them are still using the old method of teaching where student cram what is taught for purposes of good grades instead of understanding what they are learning. Adoptability is slow, especially in some private schools,  but we shall continue engaging them,” he said.

Mr Patrick Wesige, an Entrepreneurship teacher at Kasangati High School, who is among the 2,000 teachers attending the training at Nabbingo, said implementing projects necessitates resources, which schools and students lack.

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