Thousands of nursery schoolteachers risk being pushed out of the classroom because the certificates they hold cannot be used to upgrade to the qualifications now required of them. Under new education standards, teachers must upgrade or lose their jobs. But for many, the problem starts with the very papers meant to prove they are trained. The institutions that issued them are not recognised by the government, so the certificates cannot count toward further study.
Alice Nakamoga, a nursery teacher from Wakiso, found this out when she tried to enrol for a diploma in pre-primary education. She was told her certificate came from an unaccredited institution and was worthless for the upgrade.
“I don’t know what to do now,” she said on the sidelines of a ministry workshop on early childhood education policy. “It seems the paper I have used for years as a teacher is fake. I cannot upgrade to the diploma or degree required by the ministry.”
Nakamoga is not alone. Government has rolled out scholarships to help certificate-holders progress to diploma level at public colleges, but uptake has been low.
Dr Safina Mutumba, assistant commissioner in charge of pre-primary education at the Ministry of Education and Sports, said the ministry had been puzzled by the low numbers of nursery teachers upgrading. She added that on digging deeper, they found that many teachers applying for upgrading were ineligible, as their original training had come from institutions that were never properly accredited in the first place.
Available data shows the gap between opportunity and uptake has been worrying. For instance, in 2023, government offered 1,980 scholarships to nursery teachers, but only 683 enrolled, a take-up rate of 34.5 percent. The following year, the picture worsened, as of 2,300 scholarships offered in 2024, only 605 teachers enrolled, just 26.3 percent.
The problem traces back to how nursery teacher training developed. Primary school teachers have long followed a structured pathway supervised by government, anchored at Kyambogo University and a network of Primary Teachers’ Colleges.
Training for nursery teachers, by contrast, was left almost entirely to the private sector with little oversight. Institutions used that gap to set their own curricula and admission requirements, and many issued certificates without accreditation from any recognised body. Years later, teachers who built careers on those papers are learning their qualifications do not officially exist.
In 2019, government issued a National Teacher Policy requiring all teachers, from nursery through secondary level, to hold at least a bachelor’s degree, with a ten-year window to comply. Teachers who miss the deadline risk being phased out altogether.
The newer Early Childhood Care and Education Policy draws a sharper line between two roles nursery schools had long blurred together: teachers, who handle structured learning for children aged three to six, and caregivers, who provide basic care, safety and stimulation, mainly for younger children, without teaching duties. Both roles now require registration and licensing.
Dr Mutumba said that for teachers whose training came from unrecognised institutions, the ministry is preparing guidance to reclassify them as caregivers rather than remove them from schools entirely.
The Assistant Commissioner added that over time, the ministry envisions creating pathways for these affected persons under the National Qualifications Framework, including mechanisms to recognise prior learning, that will let them work toward properly recognised qualifications.
Because the pre-primary sub-sector is largely private and historically under-regulated, exact national figures on teacher qualifications are hard to pin down. What research exists is grim. A survey of more than 4,000 early childhood teachers, cited by Dr David Kabugo, formerly of Makerere University’s Institute of Teacher Education and Research, found 78 percent lacked basic qualifications.
Separate ministry-linked data suggests only about half of pre-primary teachers have relevant training. In Kampala, few teachers hold degrees as most have only certificates in nursey teaching, some hold Grade III teachers certificates, with a smaller share holding diplomas.
Meanwhile, Uganda Radio Network understands that even teachers with recognised qualifications often cannot afford to upgrade.Robinah Mukasa, a nursery schoolteacher, said most teachers at this level work in private schools earning between 200,000 shillings and 300,000 shillings a month, sometimes less, leaving little to self-finance further study.
“One other reason why nursery teachers are not upgrading is that they don’t have the finances to enable them to. Most of them are women, and they don’t see any benefit to upgrading given the salary they are earning, and government is not recruiting nursery teachers currently,” she noted.
Jossy Busiku, the Chairperson of the National Private Education Institutions Association (NPEIA) in Kampala, called upon government to expand sponsorship and other options that let teachers upgrade without quitting their jobs.
Pushback on the degree requirement
The blanket degree requirement for nursery teachers has drawn sustained opposition. Private school proprietors, teacher associations and some MPs argue the standard is unrealistic, as the sector is dominated by private providers, how limited public funding for early childhood education remains, how low pay is across the profession, and the practical, play-based nature of early learning itself.
Parliament debated softening the rule during deliberations on the National Teachers Bill, with proposals to ease the degree requirement for pre-primary teachers or give the National Teachers’ Council more flexibility in setting standards. Those efforts failed. The Bill that eventually passed did not include the softened provisions.
Supporters of the higher-qualification push, including university academics and some ministry officials, argue early childhood education is the foundation of the entire school system, and that better-trained teachers produce better learning outcomes, pointing to international practice as precedent-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
