He warned universities against sacrificing quality for expansion
Higher education institutions must continuously review their curricula and teaching approaches to ensure graduates acquire both academic qualifications and practical competencies required by changing economies, the acting Minister of Education and Sports, Dr John Chrysostom Muyingo, has said.
Dr Muyingo said Uganda's education sector must move beyond preparing young people to seek employment and instead equip them to create jobs, establish enterprises and develop solutions to emerging challenges.
“This is why the Competence-Based Curriculum and Education and Training (CBET) curriculum, which the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) is rolling out across our universities and tertiary institutions, should play a critical role in skills development,” Dr Muyingo said on Tuesday while commissioning a new classroom block at Makerere University Business School (MUBS) in Nakawa, Kampala.
According to NCHE, universities and tertiary institutions are expected to adopt competence-based training from the 2027/2028 academic year.
NCHE has also started assessing more than 700 programmes that have been aligned with the competence-based education and training framework ahead of their approval for implementation.
Dr Muyingo also urged universities to prioritise the quality of education as they expand infrastructure to accommodate Uganda's growing student population.
Prof Moses Muhwezi, the MUBS principal, said the new classroom block would help address the institution's long-standing shortage of classroom space, which has been worsened by rising student numbers.
Prof Muhwezi said although online learning had become an important part of modern education, physical classroom attendance remained valuable for effective learning.
“Online education is not bad, but physical attendance is much better because students are more likely to concentrate when they are in the classroom,” he said.
MUBS Council Chairperson Olive Birungi said the institution has more than 27,000 students, making expansion of learning facilities necessary.
The commissioning of the classroom block comes as universities and other tertiary institutions face growing enrolment, putting pressure on existing lecture rooms and other learning facilities.
Ms Birungi commended the ministries of Education and Finance for their financial support towards completion of the new structure, which was estimated to have cost more than Shs555 billion.
