On the morning of the 28th of September 2017, the Ugandan National Teacher Policy (NTP) was approved and presented at the 101st Education Sector Consultative Committee Meeting in Kampala. UNESCO-IICBA and UNESCO Project Office in Kampala were invited to the meeting. The Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) gave the special thanks to UNESCO’s support after their presentation.

The NTP was one of the key activities supported by UNESCO through CapED Programme in the Ugandan Education Sector. The analysis phase can be backtracked to 2013 when the Teacher Initiative for Sub-Saharan Africa (TISSA) study, conducted by the Government of Uganda through MoES with the technical support from UNESCO, revealed several challenges in the teacher sector in the country. Facing the fact that the existing provisions tackling the issues were scattered in numerous documents and not up-to-date, TISSA report recommended to update and consolidate the various teacher policies into a comprehensive national teacher policy.

The aim of the NTP is to provide a framework to professionalize and standardize the teaching profession and enhance the development and management of teachers. Focusing on four thematic objectives and policy actions, namely Standard and Qualification, Training, Management and Cross-cutting issues, four policy priorities were provided:
• Establishment of the National Teachers’ Council by an Act of Parliament to professionalize the teaching profession;
• Establishment of the Uganda National Institute of Teacher Education to provide leadership in Continuous Professional Development and the training of tutors;
• Development and implementation of standards for teaching, institutional leadership and a Teacher Qualification Framework that can be harmonized with the regional framework; and
• Mainstreaming cross-cutting issues into teacher training, management and utilization and teacher practices by particularly taking advantage of the policies in other ministries.

In line with the implementation principle of professionalism, effectiveness, accountability, innovation and creativity, and efficiency, an implementation framework was provided by the NTP to clarify the roles and responsibilities of MoES and other Educational Stakeholders, as well as the financing for its implementation. This NTP will serve as an umbrella for the various frameworks developed under CapED programme coping with teacher professionalization, teacher management and teacher development in Uganda.