The economic growth of a nation is highly dependant on the availability of a well-trained and skilled workforce.

Teachers across the world play a critical role in the preparation of young men and women for their work life. However, most teachers lack the appropriate skills to prepare students for the ever evolving work ecosystem. Teachers need to be trained right from college and continuously re-skilled and upskilled especially in the current dynamic global environment hence the criticality of the continuous professional development of teachers.

Limited learning and knowledge advancement opportunities, cost barriers for traditional learning methods, and reluctance by school management to release teachers for in-person learning, have resulted in less than ideal teacher capacity which denies quality education for pupils.

The COVID-19 pandemic has widened the gap between rural and urban learning whereas urban schools and households are able to leverage digital learning platforms or video streaming platforms for learning unlike rural students and teachers.

In partnership with UNCDF, the Continuum Financial Group (CFG) aims to demonstrate the opportunities of digital tools for teachers’ e-learning. E-learning holds the potential to enhance teachers capacity and bridge the rural-urban divide by targeting rural learners.

CFG, working closely with the Teacher Instructor Education and Training (TIET) Department of the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) is currently implementing a project aimed at digitalizing the continuous professional development of teachers.

The first phase of the project is the digitalization of the Certificate in Teacher Education Proficiency (C-TEP), a course designed by TIET targeting instructors for teachers and administrators in Teacher Training Institutions (TTIs), i.e. National Teachers’ Colleges (NTCs) which train diploma teachers for secondary schools, and, Primary Teachers Colleges (PTCs) which train certificate teachers for primary schools. Under this, the course participants will go through a self-paced online study using the U-Learn digital platform, developed by CFG with the support of UNCDF.

The Digitalization Journey

For any initiative to succeed, it is necessary to involve every stakeholder in the planning and delivery so that they can buy into the initiative and own it. The journey to digitalization of the continuous professional development of teachers began with ensuring that all the stakeholders are involved. The MoES and particularly the TIET department were involved in the content development, since the TIET is responsible for the training of teachers.

The MoES established a team to take the lead on the project composed of the Senior Education Officer in charge of Primary Education, the Senior Education Officer in charge of Secondary education and an Education Officer. The overall working team is constituted by five members, the three MoES officers and two officers at CFG (i.e the project lead and the education coordinator).

Working with the Ministry of Education and Ministry accredited consultants, the working team held a workshop to update the CTEP modules, which had been developed over six years ago. The team went ahead to make the content suitable for a self- paced digital learning experience by adding audio-visual features and a question and answer section to the modules.

UNCDF and CFG also involved the National Information Technology Authority of Uganda (NITA-U), a government body that is mandated to drive the use of ICT to enhance the delivery of public services, as a stakeholder for hosting the U-Learn platform. The agency experienced a ‘run-in’ for hosting services from several government departments and institutions ignited by the COVID-19 crisis, which has delayed hosting of the U-learn platform. Nonetheless, the system is expected to be up and running by the end of July 2021.

CFG will embark on training the different stakeholders including the MoES officials in TIET departments and staff in TTIs on how to use the system. The trained officials will then champion the initiative in their institutions and provide the necessary support to the course participants when the course begins.

Anticipated Outcomes

Once the system is up and running, teachers will have access to information needed to upgrade their skills and knowledge. They will be equipped to support learners in a new way and this will ensure continuous teaching and learning. Other players in the education space such as educational institutions who would like to deliver online courses will also be able to make use of the platform at a minimal fee. The income earned will help to keep the system running which addresses sustainability concerns.

The system will also improve efficiency, operations and management of NTCs and PTCs since it will ensure availability of timely information and statistics about teachers such as frequency of login, learning, access to learning content and scores. It will enable the trainers of teachers to take a more facilitative role and ensure professional learning. The MoES will be able to track progress in terms of who is attending the C-TEP course and who has completed the course. Such information will help the ministry in making promotion and hiring decisions.

Navigating Challenges, Repositioning for the Future

Whereas there are opportunities, there are also some challenges. For instance, most of the content experts are not familiar with online teaching and learning platforms. It took a long time for them to understand how to prepare the content for the system. In addition, since most of the content experts are course facilitators for the face to face training, there were some reservations for going completely online for fear of being eliminated from the arrangement of C-TEP training. They preferred a blended approach to training where teaching and learning take place both online and face to face.

Preliminary studies show that not all teachers are able to afford the necessary data to access digital teaching and learning platforms over the Internet. They also face challenges with the digital infrastructure’s availability and accessibility; most teachers lack devices such as computers and smart phones which are needed to access the digital learning platforms as well as improve digital literacy skills. It is important to note that not all teachers are digitally literate.

The need to strengthen teacher’s digital literacy and the use of information and communications technology as a tool in teaching and learning needs not to be over emphasized. Uganda requires a competent teaching force that is ready to respond to the changing needs of the 21^st century learner. The development agencies operating in the education space in Uganda should also invest heavily in content development and equipping teachers with devices.