KAWA Uganda

The Eastern Uganda region consists of the districts of; Manafwa, Busia, Bulambuli, Sebei region (Kapchorwa, Kween, Bukwo), Bududa, Butaleja, Mbale, Tororo, Kibuku, Palissa and Budaka, Teso and Karamoja. In the ICT sensitization workshop held in Mbale, most secondary School through group discussion singled out the following issues:

Challenges facing the use of ICT for teaching and learning in the Eastern region as expressed by the teachers in their district group presentations

The challenges of using ICT for teaching and learning in the Eastern region of Uganda in order of seriousness (with 1 as the most serious) are:

1. Lack/Unstable Power (100%):  Some schools are not connected to the National Power Grid. Solar power is unreliable during the period of heavy rains.
2. Negative attitude towards ICT for teaching and learning by school administrators, teachers (89%):  Most school administrators consider ICT/Computer studies as very expensive compared to other subjects leading to poor/lack of maintenance of the lab facilities and no expansion of the facilities. The negative attitude of teachers results in no integration of ICT in other subjects across the curriculum.
3. Limited number of computers as compared to the big student population (78%):  In most schools, students who don't offer either computer studies or Sub-ICT do not have the opportunity of using the computer labs.
4. No/slow/expensive Internet connection (78%): Most schools failed to sustain the Internet connection after the one year which was paid by UCC.
5. Inadequately trained ICT staff (67%): In a number of schools ICT is taught by teachers qualified in other subjects but have no formal training in ICT. Most ICT teachers with formal qualifications in ICT but with no second teaching subject are not on the government payroll. This negatively affects their commitment, effectiveness, and efficiency.
6. Lack of maintenance and servicing of the computer equipment (67%): This is due to the lack of technical skills on the part of the ICT teachers, the attitude of the school administrators that ICT is expensive and the fact that ICT teachers do not have administrative passwords to the computers provided by UCC.
7. Lack of projectors (33%): Most schools don't have projectors making the teaching of big classes a challenge.
8. Lack of computer lab technicians (33%): Computer lab technicians at school level would greatly help in providing the first level of technical support and accurately reporting the technical problems contributing to the sustainability of the computer labs established by the MoES and UCC.
9. Possible solutions to the challenges of using ICT for teaching and learning in the Eastern region as suggested by the teachers in their district group presentations.

The possible solutions to the challenges of using ICT for teaching and learning in the Eastern region of Uganda in order of importance (with 1 as the most important) are:

1. Sensitization of school administrators (78%):  School administrators should be sensitized on how to sustain and expand the computer lab facilities set up by the MoES and UCC and on how the integration of ICT in different subjects across the curriculum can greatly contribute to the quality of teaching and learning.
2. Train teachers of other subjects on how to integrate ICT in their respective subjects (78%): Integration of ICT in other subjects across the curriculum will not only increase the utilization of the ICT facilities already set up in the schools, it will make it easy to solicit financial support from other stakeholders like parents and old students to expand on the facilities e.g purchase of printer toner, printers, and projectors.
3. Provide more computers (67%): There is need to increase the number of computers and computer accessories to increase the accessibility of other students who are not offering computer studies or Sub-ICT and teachers of other subjects so as to facilitate the integration of ICT in other subjects across the curriculum. The MoES can ask schools to include a budget line for ICT in their annual budgets and to solicit financial support or donations from NGOs, parents and old students.
4. MoES should recruit more trained ICT/Computer Studies teachers (56%): This will address the problem of poor performance at UNEB exams in computer studies and ICT as currently in some schools, these subjects are taught by teachers who have no formal training in computer science/ICT who are unable to teach topics like website development and elementary programming.
5. Regular maintenance and servicing of computers: This can be achieved by asking the schools to budget for maintenance and servicing instead of waiting for the MoES and UCC. Better still, ICT teachers can be trained in technical maintenance and servicing of the computer labs as a more sustainable solution.
6. Provide standby generators (33%): The generators will provide alternative power in case of a power cut-off or when the mains power is unstable.
7. Spare parts for solar-powered computers (11%): UCC should provide spare parts for solar-powered computers and accessories as these are very difficult to find on the open market.