Curriculum change in Uganda: Teacher perspectives on the new thematic curriculum

The politics of mother tongue education: The case of Uganda

“…Note that not all teachers at any given school received this training before MT education and thematic curriculum teaching were rolled out (cf. Altinyelken, 2010). Uncoordinated teacher transfers affect MT teaching in schools in that, when a trained teacher is transferred from a school, such a teacher will not necessarily be replaced with another trained teacher.…”

The contribution of rural institutions to rural development: Study of smallholder farmer groups and NGOs in Uganda

“…This lack of or poor education is related to extreme poverty in rural areas of Uganda by reducing productivity and earning capacity as well as increasing vulnerability to extreme poverty (Grogan, 2006). The weakness of education services in rural Uganda are related to the fact that the country lacks trained people ready to live in rural areas, lacks resources and infrastructure to plan and deliver effective education services to rural population (Altinyelken, 2010). For instance "schools under trees" are still common which among others affect access and quality of education.…”

An investigation into the relationship between the 1997 Universal Primary Education (UPE) policy and regional poverty and educational inequalities in Uganda (1997–2007)

“…Previously, the medium of instruction was English in urban schools, while the local language was the language of instruction in the rural schools (GoU 1992;Odaet et al, 1997;Tomasevski 1999). In the new thematic curriculum, English is the language of instruction in schools in which there is no predominant local language or area language (Altinyelken 2009 Since language is at the heart of the thematic curriculum, implementing the 'child-centred' approach is problematic due to the linguistic divergences and the absence of effective District Language Boards or materials in local languages to implement the local language in schools. Kisembo (2008) observed that the linguistically diverse classes make it hard for teachers to teach using an agreed local language as a medium of instruction thus hindering communication during teaching and learning.…”

“…Although the language policy under the thematic curriculum is intended to allow the early-years of education in the pupils' mother-tongue, this language policy is undermining equality of access, as speakers from minority ethnolinguistic communities are facing a kind of social stigma that, their mother tongue is inferior to the dominant languages because minority languages are not taught to minority language speakers in cosmopolitan areas. These minority languages are excluded on account that they do not have orthographies or lack teachers (in the case of Kiswahili) - (Altinyelken 2009). The equity focused approach in education calls for inclusive policies that address the diverse needs of student populations and take into account factors such as poverty, language and location (UNESCO 2010).…”