The Ministry of Education and Sports has dropped the proposal to impose internship on student teachers and instead opted to maintain only school practice, after many experts in the education sector questioned the practicability of implementing both internship and school practice.
The government’s latest position was revealed by Brighton Barugahare, Assistant Commissioner Policy Analysis- Ministry of Education and Sports while appearing before Parliament’s Education Committee to respond to the various questions and concerns raised by various stakeholders during the consideration of the National Teachers Bill, 2024.
“While internship and school practice are different in meaning and practice, Government agrees to drop this requirement due to practicability concerns which were raised and were extensively discussed in meetings,” Barugahare said.
In August 2024, the Ministry of Education and Sports, tabled before Parliament the National Teachers’ Bill, 2024 in which Government sought to be given exclusive rights to post all students seeking to train as teachers in Uganda for internship, despite the glaring failure the policy is facing in the health sector.
Kedrace Turyagyenda, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education noted that there should be comprehensive school practice that will enable teachers come out with the prerequisite competences to be effective teachers and one of the practical way of doing it was to start school practice in in first year so that they do it for the three years.
