Celebrating teachers working in refugee and host communities in Uganda

In refugee-hosting communities, teachers work in complex and demanding environments that call for creativity, patience, adaptability, and sound professional judgment. They must make thoughtful decisions behind every lesson to address diverse learner needs, often in large classrooms with limited teaching and learning materials and under challenging working conditions.

One important way of standing with teachers is to help them keep learning and improving throughout their careers and to put what they learn into practice in the classroom. The PlayMatters consortium is working in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Sports, refugee-hosting district local governments, and NGO implementing partners to strengthen ongoing learning and support for teachers across the education system.

Through this support, teachers have opportunities to try out and improve the ways of teaching that make lessons more active, practical, and playful. They also receive helpful feedback, discuss and find solutions to classroom challenges with fellow teachers, share experiences, and learn from one another

For teachers like Ronald Komakech, a Primary Five teacher at Koro Primary School in Yumbe District, the chance to experience and use learning-through-play approaches changed how he thinks about teaching and learning.

“I thought teaching was mainly about explaining lessons and helping children remember what they had learned. With learning-through-Play, I have discovered that children can learn better when they participate in activities and work together,” he says.

Ronald’s experience illustrates an important point: professional learning is most valuable when teachers can take what they learn into their classrooms, try it out, reflect on what happens and adapt it to their learners.

Teachers like Ronald make small but significant differences in the lives of children they work with. By bringing children from both refugee and host communities together to learn, play and work alongside one another, teachers also help build understanding, friendships and stronger communities.

The impact on these children is often seen in small but meaningful moments: a child who gains the confidence to speak in class, a learner who solves a problem independently or a newcomer who finds friendship and a sense of belonging. These achievements may not always appear in examination results, but they can strengthen children’s confidence, love of learning and future opportunities.

In the refugee hosting districts of Adjumani, Terego, Obongi, Yumbe and Madi-Okollo, circulars issued to schools directing head teachers to strengthen school-level continuous professional development are a promising sign of efforts taking shape to stand with teachers through ongoing professional learning and support.

Mr Robert Dima, the District Education Officer, Adjumani, highlighted how the district is strengthening systems to help teachers continue learning, sharing experiences and supporting one another beyond formal training sessions. The district has identified 14 champion teachers to support peer learning, joint monitoring and school-to-school exchange visits.

 At the recent launch of the PlayMatters 3.0 project organised by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Kampala, Mr Max Okiror, Assistant Commissioner in the Teacher Education and Training Department (TETD) at the Ministry of Education and Sports, emphasised the importance of using evidence from the project to strengthen quality assurance and integrate effective approaches, including learning-through-Play, into existing teacher education and teacher support systems.

His remarks highlight the importance of connecting program learning with existing education structures so that effective approaches can contribute to wider system-level practice and the continued professional development of teachers.

Happy World Teachers’ Day 2026 to all teachers working to shape our shared future.

The writer is a Senior Project Coordinator - International Rescue Committee (IRC) (PlayMatters)