Prodjects undertaken

Summary of the Assignment

Across the Globe, Africa, and Uganda in particular, teachers remain core to any educational processes. While the use of ICTs in education has for some time been advocated, the recent global health pandemic has scaled the interest in adoption of ICT by policy makers, development partners and those directly involved in the delivery of education services as the likely post-covid-19 strategy for promoting learning.  IICBA has previously stated that good teaching is probably the most critical part of a solid education and the critical importance of teaching is also acknowledged by educators, practitioners, ministers of education, teacher unions, and society at large. The ways teachers are recruited, trained and deployed across schools play a key role in learning outcomes and in reducing inequalities. A high-quality teacher education is of critical importance for the quality and relevance of education at all levels, and to the high status of the teaching profession itself. UNESCO-IICBA strongly believes that there is a need for teacher education programs to work towards high standards in terms of the pedagogical integration of ICTs.

The advent of Covid19 has disrupted education in an unprecedented way, with some 191 countries closing their schools. This has affected 1.5 billion students and over 63 million primary and secondary teachers worldwide. Uganda has also experienced a lot of disruption in its education system where over 15 million learners enrolled in the education system in Uganda were sent home in March 2020. School closures put affected the gains that have been made by the education sector especially affecting the poorest and most marginalized children and youth. Governments have had to act rapidly to meet the challenge to continue providing quality education in this new environment, where face-to-face pedagogy is no longer possible and where teachers lack skills related to ICT, distance education and education in emergencies. Many teachers and teacher educators’ world over have also found themselves working online and remotely because of the COVID19 crisis even though a big number lack the required skills in the delivery of ICTs for teaching and learning.

Many efforts are being fronted by Education Development Partners to establish alternative teaching and learning approaches. This is in line with MoES covid-19 response objectives; 1) to minimize the adverse effects of COVID-19 on learners, teachers and the education system at large; 2) to promote coordination among education stakeholders and other agencies for a more effective response; and, 3) to enhance the capacity of Ministry of Education and Sports, DLGs and stakeholders to promote protection of learners and support continuity of learning.

The UNESCO – Teachers Task Force in its call to action, recommends providing adequate professional support and training to teachers to ensure that learning continues. Through the UNESCO Capacity Development for Education Project (CapED) for Uganda which seeks to “Strengthen national capacities in Uganda to plan and manage the teaching profession”, and in collaboration with UNESCO’s Institute for Capacity Development in Africa, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is undertaking an assessment of In-service Teachers’ Skills and Competencies in the use of ICTs for Teaching and Learning, whose results will lead to the development and moderation of an Online Course for Teachers.

Radix Management Consulting (U) Ltd was therefore contracted to work in collaboration with the UNESCO Kampala Project Office to undertake the assessment.

Purpose and Objectives of the Assignment

The purpose of the assignment is strengthening skills and competencies of in-service teachers in the use of ICTs for Teaching and Learning. It aims at promoting and improving the quality and diversity of ICT use towards the achievement of learning outcomes amidst the critical challenges that teachers and learners are facing with the Covid19 Pandemic. The assignment also assesses teachers’ preparation to utilize alternative teaching methods that can be contextualized amidst the Covid19 pandemic.

The objective of this survey is to assess ICT competency levels of targeted teachers in order to design appropriate capacity building interventions in line with the National Education Sector Contingency and response plan for Covid19 in Uganda.

Duration: July 2020 – October 2020

Summary of the Assignment

Debates over resource mobilization and sustainability of CSOs have been ongoing for decades. Mobilization of resources is recognized as one of the key foundation pillars for sustainable organizations. No organisation is self-sufficient in the resources needed to execute the mandate for which the organization is founded. Mobilizing resources has thus become such a key strategic activity of all organisations. CSOs need resources to undertake their activities. Moreover, in a world that is increasingly complex and competitive, sustainable resources form an invaluable pillar for the functioning of good organizations. Organizations need to have appropriate capacity to mobilize and manage resources.

CSOs now list strengthening their resource mobilization capacity as one of the top organizational priorities. Unfortunately, many CSOs lack adequate capacity in developing resource mobilization strategies. CISCOT has identified capacity gaps among its programme staff and leadership on resource mobilization as well as the absence of a sound resource mobilization strategy as a key priority area of attention. In its organizational set up, the oversight organs and the senior management team also need to have an understanding of resource mobilization as a key performance parameter.

The GIZ’s Strengthening Governance and Civil Society Programme (GCSP) which has been commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development is implementing the “Civil Society in Uganda Support Programme” (CUSP) through a Delegated Agreement with the European Union.

CISCOT exists to empower civil society and the public to fully and ably participate in the governance of the transport sector in Uganda. The ultimate goal is to promote an efficient and safe transport system in the country, augmenting the efforts and interventions of other state and non-state actors in the sector. The interventions of CISCOT are marked around creating public awareness and promoting the participation of the public and civil society to monitor and advocate for more effective policies, systems and institutions, as well as commensurate public budget investment for road sector development. 

Radix Management Consulting (U) was contracted to undertake a capacity assessment of the firm and then develop the capacity of CISCO in resource mobilization and train key staff and leadership and take lead in developing a resource mobilization strategy as a means to help facilitate the achievements of CISCOT’S strategic goals.

Objective of the assignment

The overall purpose of the assignment is to strengthen the capacity of CISCOT’S Management and Program staff in resource mobilization and developing a resource mobilization strategy.

Duration: November 2019 – October 2020

Summary of Assignment

This consultancy assignment was conceived by the Ministry with funding support from Education to basically addresses the stakeholders to the ‘how’ question in relation to the implementation of the Teacher education curriculum in Uganda.

Teacher education in Uganda is a mandate of different institutions and actors. In general, there are five categories of teachers/tutors in Uganda. First, there are pre-primary teachers who produced by both public and private institutions. There are those teachers who teach in primary schools (Grade III), Secondary (Grade V), Secondary (degree holders) and tertiary (Instructors and technical education teachers and Health Tutors). Needless to say, the lecturers of teacher education in Universities also need to be considered as part of the broader teacher educators. Primary School teachers are trained from the Primary Teachers’ Colleges (PTCs) and these are awarded a Grade III Certificate in Education which is the basic requirement to teach in primary schools.

Grade V teachers train from National Teachers Colleges (NTCs) and these receive the award of Grade V Diploma in Education. The next category are degree holders trained from universities. These are awarded Degrees of Education with some specializations in some cases like BA education, Bachelor of Arts in Education, Bachelor of Science in Education, and Bachelor of Primary Education among others. There are also different grades of BTVET teachers. First, those awarded Diploma in BTVET and are trained from the National Instructors’ College. Second, those awarded a Bachelor in Technical Education and are trained from universities.

TheCabinet of Uganda through the Ministry of Education and Sports on 1st April 2019 passed National Teacher Policy in order to streamline and sustainably address teacher related challenges. The Policy provides for a framework for streamlining, coordinating and mainstreaming interventions aimed at professionalizing the teaching profession. Some of the critical aspects for effective roll out and implementation of the various provisions of the Policy include the: establishment of the National Teacher Council; establishment of a National Institute of Teacher Education; and mainstreaming of crosscutting issues into teacher training, management and utilization and teacher practices among others. These are intended to guide and coordinate the undertakings of the various critical interventions for purposes of professionalizing the teaching profession in Uganda.

Therefore, Radix Management Consulting (U) Ltd was contracted by Ministry of Education and Sports through the Teacher, Instructor Education and Training (TIET) department together with Kyambogo University and in collaboration with Luigi Giussani Institute of Higher Education to undertake a comprehensive performance assessment evaluation to inform the effective planning, sequencing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Grade III PTE curriculum Policy interventions.

The overall purpose of this consultancy was to assess the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the current Grade III PTE curriculum to inform its review.

Duration: October 2019 – August 2020