EDUCATION | CURRICULUM | DEVT

KAMPALA - All roads will on April 26 and 27 lead to Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala as Uganda hosts an international conference on curriculum development. 

Organised under the theme Reconceptualising Curriculum in the 21st Century for Socio-Economic Transformation, the event will bring together stakeholders in education from across the world to share experiences and best practices on curriculum-related matters. 

First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Mrs Janet Museveni, is expected to preside over the event as a chief guest. 

The conference will help in promoting curriculum research and development nationally and globally. 

It is especially important as Uganda implements a range of curriculum reforms at the different education levels in a bid to address the development needs of the country and produce graduates that are relevant to the job market.    

According to Grace Baguma, the director National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), the event is also part of NCDC’s golden jubilee celebrations. 

She made the revelations during a press conference at the NCDC headquarters in Kyambogo on Sunday. 

The event was attended by a number of key personalities in the education sector, including Ministry of Education and Sports officials, publishers and development partners. 

“The conference will tackle eight thematic areas, including the 21st-century curriculum (design and development, implementation, assessment and evaluation, innovations, skills and pedagogies); Localisation and decolonisation of the curriculum in Africa; the ICT revolution in education; and Competency-based curriculum development and implementation,” she said. 

Grace Baguma

Others will include quality education for socio-economic transformation, stakeholders’ involvement in education, global trends in educational reforms and the current and future financing for curriculum development and implementation. 

Facilitators   

Baguma noted that the conference shall have keynote addresses from some of the best researchers from within and out of Uganda, including Professor Mahmood Mamdani (Makerere University/ Columbia University) Prof. Charles Ongóndo (Kenya), Prof. Muyinda Birevu (Makerere University) and Dr Alex Twinomugisha from the World Bank in Washington DC. 

Also participating will be Sheikh Manssour Bin Mussallam of the Organisation of Educational Cooperation, Dr Goretti Nakabugo the country coordinator for Uwezo, Prof. Rosinani Hashim from the Islamic University of Malaysia and Dr Ahmad Ssengendo from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.  

According to Dr Richard Irumba, the deputy director of research, consultancy and library services at NCDC, over 83 scientific papers will be presented and discussed at the conference.  

He said participants are expected to come from over 12 countries including Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, South Africa, Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the hosts. 

Irumba said the conference will be blended with over 400 participants attending physically and over 100 participants attending virtually.