By Kellen Owente
School head teachers have said the first New Vision Education Expo, which begins this Friday, will help revive the sector.
The expo, which will run from January 27 to 29 at the Uganda Institute of Information and Communications Technology in Nakawa, Kampala, comes a year after schools reopened following a two-year COVID-19-triggered closure.
The fair is designed to bring all actors in the sector in one place to share opportunities and knowledge to contribute to the recovery of the sector and discuss the current educational reforms.
The expo, whose theme is, where education and the world of employment meet, is also planned to link training and industry needs so institutions can produce the quality of labour needed in the market.
Baduru Aluma, the head teacher at Kei Seed Secondary School in Yumbe district, said the expo could strengthen the roles of all stakeholders in the children’s education in the post-COVID-19 pandemic period.
“I am eagerly waiting for this expo because, after two years of closure of educational institutions, I think each of us will be reminded of our roles and the tasks ahead of us to ensure that we improve the education sector,” he added.
Protecting girls
Aluma said he hopes that the expo will equip all stakeholders, including parents and teachers, with the knowledge and skills for protecting girls and fighting drug abuse among teenagers to secure their future.
“These challenges are overwhelming in some regions and indeed the whole country,” he stated. “I request that we use this expo to tackle these challenges and seek solutions,”
A 2021 study by United Nations Population Fund shows that 354,736 teenage pregnancies were registered in 2020, and 196,499 in the first six months of 2021 in Uganda. Between 2020 and 2021, schools were closed as Uganda sought to contain the COVID-19 disease.
While some of these children have returned to school as mothers, many have dropped out of school. Some schools are struggling with educating these teenage mothers.
Rev. Francis Mugisa, the head teacher of Bishop Rwakaikara Primary School in Kagadi district, said the expo comes at the right time as the sector seeks solutions to the problems created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
One-stop centre
The expo has been organised as a one-stop shop for everything education. It will include exhibition stalls for the service providers in the education sector to showcase their products and services. There will also be training sessions, which will cover key topics focusing on all levels of education – kindergarten, primary, secondary and tertiary.
Some of the topics will include the new lower secondary school curriculum and the opportunities it seeks to create for the learners, parenting, early childhood development education, career guidance and counselling, vocational education and opportunities and university training.
Rose Nangwala, the head teacher at St. Katherine SS in Lira district, said the expo will be useful to various stakeholders, especially parents and learners, as it will deal with the new lower secondary school curriculum.
“Many parents haven’t understood the curriculum,” she adds. “There is a lot for parents and students at this expo. Students need to know what higher institutions of learning have for them,”
Edward Kanoonya, the head teacher at Kololo Senior Secondary School, said expos like this one provide stakeholders with the necessary information to make the right decisions.
The Vision Group editor-in-chief, Barbara Kaija, said the expo partly seeks to prepare students for the world of work. “We are looking forward to having a big expo to serve as a one–stop centre for everything education,” she added.
