Teacher training universities are urging the government to provide more financial support as they embark on aligning their teaching programs with the recently introduced lower secondary competence-based curriculum by the National Curriculum Development Center (NCDC) in 2020.

Heads of schools of education in these institutions emphasize that while they have taken significant steps to realign their programs, the implementation requires substantial physical and financial resources that are currently lacking.

"The implementation requires a lot of both physical and financial resources, which we don't have at the moment," remarked a school of education administrator.

They are advocating for a comprehensive rollout of a competence-based curriculum across all levels of learning, criticizing the current piecemeal approach that is affecting the adequate training of teachers.

In January last year, the National Council for Higher Education directed all universities and tertiary institutions to align their programs with the competence-based curriculum introduced by the education ministry through NCDC in 2020. Institutions such as Makerere, Kyambogo, and Kabale have commenced implementing this directive, with Makerere initiating efforts as early as 2021.

"We immediately developed a new curriculum for primary, nursery, and secondary levels to orient all teachers teaching learners at those levels in a competence-based curriculum," explained Prof. Anthony Mugagga, Principal of CEES at Makerere University.

The institutions have made revisions to their programs to ensure they are more competence-based, integrating community needs through needs assessments in program review and development.

However, challenges such as a lack of physical and financial resources persist. "The materials are still a challenge because it needed us to hike our budget as a college but we received the same budget we got prior to this," Prof. Mugagga noted.

Resistance from some trainee teachers and staff accustomed to the outdated content-based curriculum also poses challenges. Additionally, some institutions report minimal support from NCDC, highlighting potential policy gaps.

The NCDC acknowledges resource constraints but emphasizes the need to maximize available resources for effective training. "We work by the conditions of the day. Whatever is available must be maximally used rather than not training," stated a curriculum developer at NCDC.

The lower secondary competence-based curriculum has been operational for four years, with the first cohort preparing for UNEB exams under this curriculum this year. Meanwhile, NCDC continues its efforts to develop a similar curriculum up to A' level.