The literature further focuses on teacher factors which are posing barriers to UPE reforms. For example, Deininger (2003) identifies the shortage of teachers, which has been a key impediment to reform. He argues that ‘the dramatic increase in primary attendance between 1992 to 1999 was not accompanied by a commensurate increase in the number of teachers, thus resulting in a large increase in the student-teacher ratios’ (ibid., p. 300). He notes that ‘every trained teacher faces about 70 pupils … [which] suggests that [Uganda’s student-teacher ratios] are among the highest in the world’ (ibid). Relatedly, Dembele (2007) highlights the challenges which sub-Saharan African countries are facing in training and managing their teaching force. He notes issues such as recruitment policies, professional preparation and the need for in-service professional development. This is similarly highlighted by Wamala (2012) in his study of teacher competence. Wamala points out that as of 2009, only 63.9 percent of UPE teachers possessed the minimum Grade III teaching qualification, which indicates a high proportion of unqualified teachers under UPE.
Penny et al. (2008) address the challenges of teacher training. They note that although Uganda invested in the Teacher Development Management System (TDMS) and subsequently in the Primary Teacher Development and Management Plan (PTDMP), she continues to face the challenge of delivering adequate pre-service and in-service teacher training. This concurs with both Altinyelken (2010a) and Abiria et al. (2013). Altinyelken (2010a) highlights the inadequate support being provided to pre-service teachers for developing their skills of teaching reading, writing, listening comprehension and speaking in lower primary. She further notes that the curriculum for teacher education is considered ‘too theoretical, focusing on content and giving very little pedagogical orientation’ (ibid., p. 157). Similarly, Abiria et al. (2013) note the lack of background
training and ongoing professional development to help teachers address the diverse needs of local language teaching.
Ssentanda (2014) highlights the difficulty UPE teachers face due to inadequate training. He notes that they lack a clear sense of how to teach different elements of reading in English and even more so, in the mother tongue. He illustrates this using an example from a classroom observation. Citing a lesson in a rural school, delivered by a primary one teacher, he notes that ‘the teacher did not introduce the lesson, but simply titled this lesson ‘Reading’ on the chalkboard. She then wrote letters, syllables and words on the blackboard. After writing the letters, syllables and … two syllable words … the teacher began to read the letters and learners, without any prompting from their teacher, repeated all that the teacher read out’ (ibid., p. 12). He concludes that the teacher and the learners were just engaged in simple teacher prompts and chorus repetition by the learners.
Altinyelken (2010a) highlights the challenge posed by the pre-launch training for the thematic curriculum. She observes that her study participants criticised the training as ‘severely inadequate’ (ibid., p. 155), which they blamed on its duration being too short and the training ‘too hectic and hurried’ (ibid). Some teachers suggested that the trainers lacked sufficient knowledge about the new curriculum. Thus, a significant proportion of the teachers do not feel well-equipped to implement the thematic curriculum and consequently developed a negative attitude towards it. Her findings are supported by Penny et al. (2008) with reference to the 2000 curriculum. Penny and colleagues note that the 2000 curriculum was introduced into schools without adequate teacher training and insufficient new learning materials, ‘and with no overall implementation plan, no budget and no department or individual with specific line management responsibility for its launch’ (ibid., p. 272), which indicates a pattern of poor curriculum introduction under UPE.
The issue of teacher capacity also emerges significantly in the literature. Several scholars, for example, Chisholm and Leyendecker (2008), Altinyelken (2010b) and Dembele (2007) identify the lack of capacity among teachers in sub-Saharan Africa, in the persistence of ‘traditional’ and ‘outmoded’ styles of teaching such as ‘chalk and talk’, ‘teacher-centred’ and ‘lecture-driven’ pedagogy, despite the introduction of new
pedagogies. Similarly, Abiria et al. (2013) attribute the difficulties which teachers in Northern Uganda face in plurilingual teaching to their lack of capacity. They observe that teachers lack the understanding of how to navigate the restricted oral use of a relevant local language to explain complex concepts, which leads them to feel pressured to make an abrupt change to English only, which undermines the implementation of the local language policy.
As regards teacher management, Altinyelken (2010a) notes that it has stretched the capacity of teachers and influenced them negatively towards UPE reforms. She highlights the tendency under UPE, where the least qualified teachers are assigned to teach in lower primary, which pits them against the technicalities of the thematic curriculum, bi-lingual teaching and the challenge of high pupil numbers. Furthermore, she notes their heightened workload, since deployment in lower primary follows the class teacher system, where each teacher is assigned a classroom and given the full responsibility of delivering all learning areas. Her argument is supported by Ssentanda (2014) who illustrates that the class teacher system complicates teachers’ efforts to create a conducive learning environment. He explains that ‘learners see the teacher calling /b/ [ba] in a Luganda lesson and after just an hour or less, in an English lesson, the same teacher tells them to call the same letter [bi]’ (ibid., p. 10), which confuses the learners.
Teachers’ beliefs, absenteeism and low morale have also emerged in the literature as significant obstacles to UPE reforms. Guerrero et al. (2013) note that absenteeism reduces the opportunity for pupils to learn, as well as increases inequality, since poorer pupils are more likely to be in a classroom where the teacher is absent. Altinyelken (2010a, p. 157) notes that in 2004 absenteeism under UPE averaged 27 percent, which was a ‘considerably higher rate in comparison to other countries that had similar surveys in the same year’. For example, it was 15 percent for Bangladesh and 17 percent for Zambia, which highlights the magnitude of Uganda’s challenge. Furthermore, Byamugisha and Ogawa (2010) point out that absenteeism is often exacerbated by the failure of teachers to teach even while present at school. Ssentanda (2014) highlights the challenge of teachers’ beliefs with regard to mother-tongue teaching. He notes that ‘there’s a widespread view among teachers … that teaching mother-tongue as a subject hinders the acquisition of English’ (ibid., p. 17). Consequently, the time set aside for teaching
mother-tongue is often used to teach other curriculum subjects including English, which poses an impediment to the local language policy.