The Executive Director of the National Council for Higher Education, Prof Mary Okwakol, has called for major reforms in nursing and midwifery training, saying Uganda’s health education system must shift from exam-oriented learning to competency-based training that produces work-ready graduates.
Okwakol said the training of health workers should focus on equipping students with practical skills, competencies, attitudes and professional behaviours required in the healthcare sector.
She noted that competency-based training is intended to ensure graduates are able to perform their duties effectively without requiring additional retraining after completing their studies.
“The training is expected to equip students with competencies, knowledge, skills and attitudes that can enable them to perform their duties professionally,” Okwakol said.
She revealed that the NCHE has already developed standards to guide institutions in designing competency-based curricula for nursing and midwifery programmes.
According to Okwakol, the reforms are aimed at aligning health training with workplace demands and improving the quality of healthcare delivery across the country.
“The first reform is that we have developed standards as the National Council for Higher Education, and those standards are to guide institutions to develop competency-based curricula,” she said in an interview with Nile Post.
Okwakol emphasised the need for institutions to involve not only academic experts, but also practitioners in the health sector and professional bodies during curriculum development to ensure graduates meet industry expectations.
“We expect institutions to engage practitioners in the field and professional bodies so that when students graduate, they are work-ready and do not need retraining,” she said.
She also disclosed that student assessment methods will be revised to place greater emphasis on practical competencies rather than theoretical examinations alone.
Under the proposed reforms, students will be assessed continuously at the end of each course unit to determine whether they have mastered specific competencies, practical skills and professional attitudes.
“The assessment is going to change from what it is now. It will not only assess knowledge, but also practical skills and competencies,” Okwakol said.
She explained that the new approach seeks to reduce reliance on final examinations at the end of a programme and instead focus on continuous competence assessment throughout the training process.
“We do not want the system to remain exam-oriented, but rather competence-oriented,” she added.
Okwakol said the cumulative assessment process will help institutions produce healthcare workers with the technical abilities, professional ethics and behavioural competencies required in modern healthcare systems.
The reforms come amid growing concern among stakeholders about the quality of practical training among some health graduates and increasing calls for stronger alignment between academic instruction and workplace demands in Uganda’s health sector.