(Published on Wednesday, December 22, 2021)
Apart from introducing authentic learning, the COVID-19 crisis has stepped up online learning
By Conan Businge
I f there is anything to gain from the COVID-19 pandemic, which left schools closed for almost two years and affecting 15 million learners, it should be the opportunity to change the country’s curricula at various levels.
Uganda, like most other governments across Africa, closed educational institutions in March 2020. Classroom teaching became unviable and provisions made to continue learning, but these disadvantaged some learners. For instance, educational programmes on television and radio were launched, but only accessible to those with television sets and radios. Online learning was also introduced, but utilised by only those with Internet access.
Necessity Is Mother Of Invention
Every cloud has a silver lining. For the COVID-19 pandemic, the First Lady and education minister, argues: “Many great changes and innovations are born in times of crises. For all policymakers, teachers and other stakeholders, it should not be business as usual.
“When schools reopen, ensure that authentic learning takes place. This is not a time to make our children cram as much as possible. It is a time to enable them to learn. Take special interest in each child, recognising that they are unique.”
Mrs Museveni’s argument is that all stakeholders should use this crisis to transform the country’s education system. The First Lady says with this crisis, we must learn from our shortfalls and make a difference.
Apart from authentic learning, there is now online and digital learning. Home-schooling, for the first time, was also widely used in Uganda.
These were part of the First Lady’s remarks at the closure of the annual education sector review, held in Kampala last week.
She cites a book by Dr Lawrence Muganga: You cannot make fish climb trees — Overcoming Educational Malpractice through Authentic Learning, as a good reminder of what the country needs to embrace.
The First Lady said: “This book points out the need for transformation in education systems of most Sub-Saharan Africa nations. He gives various reasons for the need for change, one of which is that over the years, systems and processes in other sectors have evolved, leading to transformation, while the education sector, which contributes a significant portion of the skilled workforce, has maintained the status quo.”
She adds: “This results in a workforce that presents a mismatch of the skills and competencies that lack relevance to the workforce in the economy. He refers to this mismatch that kills creativity and individuality, leaving many students frustrated and jobless after the long hard road of education as ‘educational malpractice’.
The First Lady adds: “The author makes the case for authentic learning, which focuses on practical experiences, based on real-life contexts. This places the student at the centre, as opposed to the popular teacher-centred approach to lesson planning and delivery, which forces students to learn through memorisation of isolated facts. These teachings are conducted presuming a homogenous class, with learners of similar interests, learning styles and abilities”.
In this book, Muganga argues that authentic learning involves a relatively modern approach, characterised by real-world tasks targeting essential skills, such as critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving, innovation, communication and collaboration.
More Opportunities From COVID-19
Apart from embracing authentic learning, the COVID-19 crisis has stepped up online learning in universities and some few schools. Authentic learning has been streamed into the curriculum which was supposed to start at the beginning of 2020. However, students have managed to do home-schooling using the same curriculum.
The First Lady believes that paying attention to Muganga’s arguments, the ministry has started a new curriculum for O’level, which embraces some of the values that he raises in his book.
The First Lady adds, “I am glad the revised Lower Secondary curriculum has taken into consideration the 21st century skills, the need for both formative and summative methods of examination assessment, and our teachers have been trained in these methods.”
Apart from the curriculum review, so many universities have embraced online learning, and a few secondary and primary schools are following suit. Schools and teachers also use radios and television stations to pass on information to students; unlike in the past. All these developments, education experts say, are taking Uganda to another level of learning avenues.
The First Lady, in her closing remarks, argued that it is the role of parents to ensure that the new changes in the sector, arising from COVID-19, are embraced, for the betterment of the country’s education.
Authentic Learning To Be Introduced In Uganda’s Education
She also noted that in May last year, she instituted the Education Policy Review Commission, which will investigate and inquire into the implementation of the decisions contained in the 1992 Government White Paper on Education; which include having student-centred education.
“We are confident that this work will go a long way in transforming our education system,” she explains.
What Others Say?
Dr Muganga, who is the vice-chancellor of Victoria University, says it is good that the country is gradually embracing authentic learning.
“For us to transform this country, I am humbled that the First Lady agrees that there has been a fundamental change in the way we handle our country’s education.”
Muganga, in an interview after the First Lady’s remarks, explained: “One of those things that we know from cognitive science research is that if you just memorise something and never use it, spit it back on a test or end of semester examination.”
He adds: “The odds are that 90% of that will be forgotten. One does not transfer to the other. And the real-world learning, which has to use flexible thinking and you have to know what kind of ideas you need to apply, that is what counts and we are not teaching for that when we teach to the test or examination that students have to take.”
He also explains, “For all of human history, the primary focus of education has been acquiring more content knowledge, and the only way to get it is through the teacher, right? You do not have to do that anymore. Today, content is ubiquitous, it is free, it is on every internet-connected device and it is growing exponentially and changing constantly. The world simply no longer cares about how much our children know. What the world cares about, is what they can do with what they know. Which is a completely different education problem.”
The vice-chancellor of Ndejje University, Prof. Eriabu Lugujjo, concurs with Muganga that the current times, indeed, call for a change of the country’s education system.
“We must evolve and change the way students are taught. By paying attention to authentic learning, we can make great strides in the education sector; not only at the university level, but at all levels of education,” Lugujjo explains.
He adds that the university has strongly changed its mode of teaching to embrace student-centred lecturing and giving more time to students to research on their own and defend their findings.
“We must accept that times have changed and that we need to think fast to embrace changes at all levels of education,” he explains.
More so, Peter Tusubira, a retired teacher and now inspector of schools; says the concept of authentic or experiential learning is one of the modes taught in the country’s teacher training institutions. Unfortunately, a few teachers ever embrace it.
He says this could have been caused by the structuring of the country’s curriculum and teachers’ assessment and appraisal systems. He feels that if there is a commitment from teachers and Government to make a major and much-needed shift to experiential learning, it will be vital in improving this country’s quality of education.”
“However, any teacher or school administrator needs to start embracing this experiential style of teaching. When I was a school head, I used to take my students through real practical styles of learning. It was never a mere rush for grades. We need to cement authentic learning in all our schools,” Tusubira adds.
The director of the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), Grace Baguma, also notes that with the new curriculum for lower secondary education, the mode of teaching is completely different from the old curriculum.
“We put the students at the centre of learning and we believe this will gradually change the mindset of our teachers in how the new mode of teaching and learning should be,” Baguma explains.
Baguma, who is a seasoned teacher, having taught at high school, tertiary institutions and university, says the revised O’level curriculum, whose start was disrupted by COVID-19, but is already rolled out, is competence-based, aimed at emphasising the development of the learners’ ability ‘to do rather than to know’.”
Baguma explains that the education ministry, through NCDC, undertook a review of the lower secondary curriculum, aimed at providing a learning environment, opportunities, interactions, tasks and instructions that foster deep learning by putting the learner at the centre of the learning experience.
The implementation of the revised lower secondary curriculum was to start in 2020 with students who were meant to be in Senior One. But all is not lost for the start of the lower secondary curriculum. The
First Lady has already guided Senior One and Senior Two classes of 2020 to be progressed to Senior Two and Senior Three, respectively. She has already advised that remedial lessons be provided to these classes during the first term of 2022, though they had been beneficiaries of home-study materials.
Reality Of Changing Jobs
Michael Niyitegeka, an information, technology expert, concurs with Dr Lawrence Muganga and the First Lady that these are changing times for the job market, a reason why the teaching and learning in academic institutions must also be shifted.
He says we are at the edge of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), the next phase of living; which is sparked by advanced technologies.
“Virtual reality and artificial intelligence influence many aspects of our lives and as these will continue to advance, so will be the way we work. We have the gig economy on the rise and that will, in the next five years, greatly influence how we work,” Niyitegeka says.
He adds that due to the speed of these technological advancements, students are expected to look for education institutions that appreciate the challenge to keep up with the technological changes of lives, lest they land in the growing skills gaps and resultant unemployment.
A report by the European Commission (EC) predicts that there may be 756,000 unfilled jobs in the European ICT sector by 2020, which is only set to increase as we move further into the 4IR.
Niyitegeka also notes that today’s graduates, before we even think about the future, are joining a workforce where the gig economy is having a big measure of the competition with the traditional jobs.
A gig economy, he explains, refers to digital platforms that allow independent freelancers to connect with individuals or businesses for short-term services. A case in point could be a youth home use items on the online platform, other than working for the company that sells the same products.
This gig economy includes consultants, independent contractors, freelancers and on-demand workers.
