Teacher education in Uganda: Policy and practice

Abstract

Teacher education is concerned with helping teachers acquire the attitudes, knowledge and skills they need to carry out their duties and responsibilities as teachers; and this is vital since teachers are central in the school system. Perraton et al. (2002, 7) argue that ‘teachers are vital. Unless we can get more teachers, and better teachers, we will not reach the target of making quality education available to all by 2015.’ Quality education is certainly impossible to achieve without teachers. So as more and more children join schools, more teachers will be needed. The number of children needing education will continue to grow because the world population is continuing to grow. Table 1 gives the population of people aged 5–14 in the different countries of East Africa.