Uganda's best teachers to be awarded today

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The First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Mrs Janet Museveni, will preside over the award ceremony for outstanding teachers.

The twelve exceptional teachers emerged as winners of the 2025 Teachers Making a Difference (TMD) project.

The ceremony will be held at State House, Entebbe, today (Wednesday, March 18).

“The First Lady has been magnanimous enough to host the TMD ceremony. Those who stood out will walk away with plaques and prizes. They will also have an opportunity to travel to Ireland for exposure to other classroom environments, practices and innovations. They will borrow a leaf to improve the quality of teaching in their own schools and communities,” Sydney Miria, the manager special projects Vision Group, said.

Between June and September, New Vision profiled 70 outstanding educators from across Uganda. For the second year running, this year’s edition included a special category, the Most Progressive Teachers Making a Difference alumni.

In this category, Miria said the project honours three past winners who have continued to innovate, inspire learners and transform their communities long after their initial recognition.

Teachers Making a Difference is part of the Ugandans Making a Difference (UMD) project initiated by New Vision Printing and Publishing Company in April 2008.

The project aims to recognise and reward individuals who are innovatively using limited resources to have a positive impact on their communities.

The initiative has remained one of the most outstanding programmes by the leading media organisation in the country over its 40-year lifespan.

Promoting education has been at the forefront of the company’s broader mission to support national transformation.

New Vision implements the project in partnership with agencies and organisations that share similar objectives. Since its inception, over 1,000 teachers have been recognised by the initiative.

The partners have included the Embassy of Ireland in Kampala, Trócaire, an Irish charity, and Travelcare, one of Uganda’s leading tour and travel management companies owned by an Irish investor.

According to Vision Group administrators, the involvement of the three partners significantly raised the project’s profile both locally and internationally. Since then, a total of 96 teachers have been recognised, with 53 sponsored for Continuous Professional Development programmes in Ireland as part of the award. Twelve of the 53 winners were sponsored by the Office of the First Lady.

“We realised that while other people were being celebrated, the teachers remained unsung heroes. When New Vision came out with the idea of celebrating the teachers who were making a difference with the available resources they have, we got partners like the Irish Embassy, Trocaire and Travelcare and decided to celebrate Ugandan teachers,” Miria said.

The participation of the Ministry of Education and Sports in the last three trips in 2022, 2024 and 2025 was notable, as ministry officials joined the delegations. This added value to the programme by enhancing intellectual engagement and enabling first-hand reporting of experiences back to the ministry in Kampala.

“Feedback from all the teams that travelled to Ireland is that the trip is very informative and beneficial to both their schools and their own professional development. They all recommend that the project should continue.”

To encourage continuous innovation, past winners of the Teachers Making a Difference project were assessed to identify those who have made the most progress in implementing lessons learnt. Alumni submitted reports on how they applied knowledge gained from the CPD programmes in Ireland or improvements made since receiving their awards.

A team of New Vision journalists verified the submissions on the ground, after which the most deserving alumni were profiled. An independent jury of eminent educationists evaluated the entries and selected the three most outstanding alumni for recognition.

“It was discovered that Alumni have improved performance, and it is our hope that this experience makes them better teachers and raise a better generation for Uganda,” Miria said.