Universities plan full transition to competency-based learning
Accordingly, universities in collaboration with the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) have started preparing for their transition into higher education by tailoring programmes to competency-based learning.
Education managers from Various Universities and other officials pose for a group photo during the Capacity Building workshop for Higher Education Institution Managers on Wednesday, February 26, 2025, at IUEA in Kansanga, Kampala. (Photos by Miriam Najjingo)
Nelson Kiva
Journalist @New Vision
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The pioneers of the reformed lower secondary curriculum will in the next two years join the university considering that they have joined A'level after completing O'level last year.
Accordingly, universities in collaboration with the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) have started preparing for their transition into higher education by tailoring programmes to competency-based learning.
About 98% of the candidates out of a total of 359,417 candidates who registered for the 2024 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) in 2024 under the new curriculum qualified for the certificate, receiving a "Result 1" transcript and eligibility to Senior Five.
At a gathering of over 54 universities at a workshop organised at the International University of East Africa (IUEA) in Kansanga in Kampala on February 25, 2025, NCHE implored the academic registrars and quality assurance officers, among others in attendance to fast-track the review of their programmes to prepare for the transition of these leaners.
"It became very necessary to bring together the higher education institutions to determine how ready they are to ensure the smooth progression of learners from the lower secondary to the higher education system," Dr Vicent Ssembatya, director quality assurance and accreditation at NCHE said.
Director Quality Assurance and Accreditation NCHE Dr. Vincent SSembatya presenting during the Capacity Building workshop for Higher Education Institution Managers on Wednesday, February 26 2025, at IUEA in Kansanga.
He indicated that though most higher institutions have already adopted competency-based learning and assessment, but it is not necessarily in each of the programmes that they run.
"Not all the institutions are paying attention to the full-blown competency-based dispensation of new curriculum. So, it is necessary to bring them together with people from the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) to put our heads together and see how best we can ensure a smooth transition," he said.
Prof. Emeka Akezuawa, the vice chancellor of IUEA and the host, said that competency-based education is a wonderful thing since it emphasises competence and is very different from traditional education which thrives on remembering rather than capacitance.
"So, competency-based education is what we need today. The International University of East Africa recognised this way back in 2015 and we started to infuse competency in what we do in our curriculum, and we have driven that approach till today," Akeazuwa said.
He added: "And the evidence is in the things that we have produced over the years, in terms of innovations such as in e-mobility, such as electric motorcycles, electric tractors, in the things we produced during COVID-19.
From the expert point of view, Dr Maria Nakachwa Ssemakula from NCHE said it was high time for stakeholders to put their heads together to see if what they are doing resonates with what is happening in the lower secondary sector.
"Most important to note is that the higher education sub-sector has accommodated all learners from diverse backgrounds, be it knowledge-based, or competence-based. So on our side, it's not a completely new agenda in terms of aligning the curriculum to the secondary sub-sector," she said.
She added: "We are hopeful that our interactions will inform some reviews in our instruments, because we have an instrument on admission of students into the higher education sub-sector, we are looking at UNEB giving us the new grading system, and we kind of merge it to our grading system in Instrument 63 of 2007 and see how we review or even Just maintain the same."
"Not every change comes with changes, but there are some transformations that we need to look at as National Council," he said.
Christopher Muganga, a curriculum specialist from NCDC, indicated that the government is undertaking curriculum reforms at different levels to achieve self-assured education products and drive the country's transformation agenda.
"What we are looking for in the curriculum, is holistic education, and it has interwoven elements within it, and these are the key outcomes: the values, the subject components, the generic skills, the cross-cutting issues and all these," he said.
Education managers from various universities during the Capacity Building workshop for Higher Education Institution Managers on Wednesday, February 26 2025, at IUEA in Kansanga. 
He informed them that lack of finances is setting them back in terms of the push to reform the A'level curriculum.
"We need shillings seven billion to move but the finance ministry is telling us that there is no money," Muganga said.
Muganga celebrated that Uganda is leading the way in Africa in terms of competency-based curriculum envisaging economic transformation soon, driven by curriculum reforms.
To meet the demands of the curriculum reforms, which have equally affected assessment, UNEB called for utmost commitment from the stakeholders to meet the demands of the development.
Josephine Mutonyi from UNEB examination development secondary department called for an immediate attitude shift from the former approach which was content-based, to the current, competency-based assessment.
"What this one calls upon all of us as stakeholders, is to embrace the reforms and ensure that we have a more authentic assessment of the learners, knowledge, skills and attitudes. Authentic assessment requires that we look at the learners themselves and what they are doing," Mutonyi said.
She added: "Authentic assessment has clear standards which have been set and then the test tasks are put in place. It is no longer time for us just to bring out more of our content than the one which is competent. So this calls upon us to have more authentic assessment of the learners, skills, knowledge and attitudes, combined."
The biggest achievement observed in the last UCE exams, according to Mutonyi, was the much confidence exhibited by the candidates in different new curriculum projects they undertook.
Dr Martha Kyoshaba Twinamasiko from Mbarara School of Science and Technology (MUST) indicated that as universities, they were still figuring out how they will set weights, admission points and all admissions.
"I am glad that you have informed us that you have uploaded the new syllabus for A'level this could mean that also the grading might change," she said.
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