The Permanent Secretary in Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports, Kedrace Turyagyenda, has said universities must urgently shift to competence-based training to match the country’s new lower secondary curriculum and equip learners with practical skills for employment.
Speaking during the launch of the PLEDGE project at the National Council for Higher Education, Dr Turyagyenda said the initiative will support universities to redesign curricula and improve teaching methods, particularly in agriculture-related programmes.
The project is being led by Mountains of the Moon University in partnership with the National Council for Higher Education.
Dr Turyagyenda said agriculture remains Uganda’s leading source of employment and requires practical-oriented training to improve productivity and skills among graduates.
She noted that Uganda introduced competence-based learning in lower secondary schools in 2020 and the first cohort of learners under the new curriculum is now completing Senior Six and preparing to join universities and tertiary institutions.
“The reason why we are going competence-based is because we want tangible results, not theory, not results on paper, but the capacity to perform,” she said.
According to Dr Turyagyenda, the Minister of Education and Sports directed universities and the National Council for Higher Education more than a year ago to begin retraining lecturers and professors to align teaching with the competence-based system.
She said universities participating in the PLEDGE project will receive hands-on training, which they are expected to extend to other staff within their institutions and across the higher education sector.
Dr Turyagyenda warned institutions against reverting students to what she described as outdated knowledge-based learning and cramming methods when they join universities.
“We don’t want them to fall back into the old knowledge-based cramming and things that cannot work for them anymore,” she said.
She added that competence-based learning should not only apply to agriculture and science courses, but also social sciences and other disciplines, with universities expected to integrate practical community-based learning into teaching.
The Permanent Secretary said lecturers will be required to engage more with communities and practical fieldwork to help students apply classroom knowledge to real-life challenges.
She expressed optimism that the project will strengthen higher education training and improve the quality of graduates entering Uganda’s labour market.
The Executive Director of the National Council for Higher Education, Mary Okwakol, has called on universities to shift from theoretical teaching to competence-based education in order to produce graduates capable of addressing Uganda’s socio-economic challenges.
Speaking during a higher education conference on competence-based education and training, Prof Okwakol said universities are under increasing pressure to produce graduates who are innovative, adaptable, entrepreneurial and able to respond to global and national challenges.
She said countries across the world are grappling with climate change, unemployment, insecurity, environmental degradation and rapid technological transformation, requiring institutions of higher learning to rethink teaching and research methods.
“Competence-based education and training remains one of the most effective approaches for strengthening relevance and quality of education,” Prof Okwakol said.
According to her, the approach focuses on practical skills, critical thinking, problem solving, innovation and application of knowledge to real-life situations.
Prof Okwakol said the National Council for Higher Education believes universities must move beyond theoretical instruction and instead focus on producing graduates whose competences match labour market demands and national development priorities.
She revealed that the council has already developed and disseminated standards to guide higher education institutions in implementing competence-based education and training.
The Executive Director added that the council has in recent weeks conducted five regional training sessions targeting trainers from universities and tertiary institutions across the country.
“We expect that those persons that were trained will take the responsibility of training their colleagues in their respective institutions,” she said.
Prof Okwakol said the conference had brought together academia, industry players, researchers and development partners to share experiences and explore strategies for strengthening competence-based learning in higher education.
She reaffirmed the council’s commitment to implementing reforms under the PLAIN project and other competence-based education initiatives.
According to Prof Okwakol, the council is currently supporting the development of a national policy on greening sectoral skills in higher education, establishment of an inter-sectoral supervision board, and development of a green competence framework to guide institutions in delivering sustainable skills training.
She said the council would continue providing policy guidance, quality assurance, stakeholder coordination and technical support to ensure higher education contributes to Uganda’s green growth and socio-economic transformation agenda.
Prof Okwakol noted that key conference themes including curriculum innovation, green skills development, sustainable agri-food systems, digital transformation, entrepreneurship and environmental sustainability are critical to Uganda’s development priorities.
She also expressed appreciation to the European Union and other development partners for supporting higher education reforms in Uganda.
Mountains of the Moon University Pushes Agricultural Training Reforms
The Vice Chancellor of Mountains of the Moon University, Professor Pius Coxwell Achanga, has called for sweeping reforms in Uganda’s agricultural training system, warning that the current approach is failing to tackle youth unemployment and improve productivity in the sector.
Speaking during the rollout of the PLEDGE agricultural training project, Achanga said universities must shift from theory-based teaching to practical, competency-based training that equips graduates with hands-on skills.
“Agriculture students must be within farms, touch the soil and provide solutions to farmers,” Achanga said.
He argued that despite Uganda producing agriculture graduates for decades, poverty and unemployment remain widespread, especially among young people.
Achanga identified land fragmentation as one of the major obstacles to commercial agriculture, saying the continued subdivision of land limits large-scale production.
“Land is being chopped into pieces and this affects large-scale agricultural production,” he said, adding that large commercial farms continue to perform better because they maximize value from bigger acreage.
The Vice Chancellor also criticized the limited practical exposure given to agriculture students, saying many graduates leave universities without real farming experience.
According to Achanga, the university is aligning its programmes with the government’s competency-based curriculum reforms being implemented by the Ministry of Education and Sports under First Lady and Education Minister Janet Museveni.
He said universities that fail to migrate to the new curriculum by 2027 risk losing permission to admit students.
Under the proposed reforms, agriculture students are expected to spend more time in farms and practical learning environments instead of classrooms.
Achanga also called for increased investment in agricultural research and innovation, particularly in student-led projects such as tissue culture technology aimed at producing disease-resistant and high-yield crop varieties.
He said agriculture training should cover the entire value chain, including production, marketing and value addition.
“Agriculture is not only about planting and harvesting. Students must understand marketing and value addition,” he said, citing coffee processing and recycling coffee husks into manure as examples.
The PLEDGE project, supported by the European Union, the Government of Uganda and several European universities, is intended to transform agricultural training through practical learning models.
Achanga said the project is worth about one million euros, approximately Shs4 billion, and involves 13 partner institutions, with Mountains of the Moon University serving as the lead coordinator.
The university has already identified 350 farms in the Rwenzori region, from which 80 will be transformed into model placement and training farms for students.
He said the farms will operate as controlled learning centres equipped with proper record keeping and modern farming systems to provide students with measurable practical experience.