Govt should take over nursery education — expert
Aug 24, 2023
Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in Uganda is currently in the hands of private proprietors. These are often called nursery schools or early childhood development centres.

Dr Charles Luwagga, the programmes and sponsorship director of ChildFund Uganda speaks as childFund education and early Learning specialist Lukiya Kinobe looks on. (Photo by Maria Wamala)

Maria Wamala
Photo Journalist @New Vision
Education experts have proposed that the only way to enhance quality early childhood education is through investing in the training of teachers in this field and meeting their remuneration.
Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in Uganda is currently in the hands of private proprietors. These are often called nursery schools or early childhood development centres.
Dr Charles Luwagga, the programmes and sponsorship director of ChildFund Uganda wants the government to take over ECCE.
“The Government should take over, regulate, finance and provide quality assurance in Early Childhood Care and Education like it is for primary, secondary and vocational institutions,” Luwagga says.
Luwagga made the call on Wednesday when several non-governmental organisations, including ChildFund Uganda, Unicef and Plan International were invited to Parliament’s committee on education and sports to aid Parliament’s decision on the Pre-Primary Teachers Training Institutions Association Uganda (PPTTIA) regarding the proposed changes in pre-primary education policies and regulations.
Earlier petition
In February last year, Faith Loru (Napak District Woman MP) tabled before Parliament, a petition by members of the Pre-Primary Teachers Training Institutions Associations of Uganda.
Nada Elattar UNICEF ECD manage reacting during the session. (Photo by Maria Wamala)
The petitioners expressed frustrations faced by stakeholders in ECCE in Uganda due to the lack of proper policy and disregard for available legal frameworks in handling the matters.
Notably among them is that ECCE is not evenly accessed since it is predominantly privately led and its provision is highly influenced by income status since it is solely financed by parents.
They also highlighted the complete lack of standardized ECCE teaching-learning materials such as teacher’s guides, resource books, pupils books and the fact that the government has only one single ECCE training institution (Kyambogo University) that does not attract a good number of students on its program.
The petitioners also underscored the fact that Uganda does not have adequate trainers to train teachers and teacher trainers in ECCE pedagogy at all levels and that there aren’t enough caregivers even at minimum levels with certificate qualifications to manage the enormous number of children in need of Early Childhood Care and Education.
ECD caregivers don’t need degrees
On the proposal for the government to have caregivers have degrees and diplomas, Unicef ECD manager Nada Elattar said that without standards, it is difficult to harmonise and monitor. The education ministry's Division of Education Standards (DES) requested Unicef to support the development of very clear standards and guidance for early childhood care and education (ECCE), Elattar said.
“This includes the provision of a salary range for caregivers. Currently, there is no standard salary, there is no range. It is very broad. This sometimes creates conflict in the field where caregivers leave one organisation to do work for another organisation because they pay more,” Elattar said, adding that there needs to be a set salary range for all development partners to adhere to.
“It is very hard for Unicef to have two implementing partners paying ECD caregivers different salaries,” she said.
On the Government proposal to have caregivers have degrees and diplomas, she said “this should be a longer timeline to achieve this.”
“You do not need to have a diploma or a master’s degree to be an ECD caregiver or a preprimary teacher. We feel that the ten-year phase-out is too ambitious. We feel there should be a longer timeline.
A cross section of Parliament’s committee on education and sports session. (Photo by Maria Wamala)
“We also feel there should be some flexibility because we want to ensure that the standards are realistic and achievable. One thing we have discussed with DES is to have minimum standards that are realistic and then a gold standard to aspire to. Having something that is a little bit graded, so that we are not going for the gold and being frustrated that we cannot achieve it, she said.
Lukiya Kibone, the Education and Learning Specialist at ChildFund Uganda said there is need for Government to consider expanding the training, assessment and continuous professional development of Early Childhood Care and Education teachers to all government-chartered public and private institutions as a strategic step that can significantly contribute to the improvement of Early Childhood development in Uganda.
“There should be continued engagements between the private sector in the implementation of the teachers’ policy. Such engagements could include establishing a joint task force to develop the legal framework, conducting regular consultations and exploring partnerships that benefit ECCE institutions, educators and children,” she said.
Margaret Makoha, a member of the committee on education and sports and the chairperson of the Parliamentary Forum for Children compared the lack of investment in early childhood development to a house that is built on a weak foundation, saying it will ultimately collapse.