Leveraging technology to support teaching and learning in Uganda
Racheal Adriko Spillberg · 2024
As technology use in sub-Saharan Africa has grown more prevalent, economic opportunities have become more available and plentiful (World Bank, 2024). Policymakers agree that economic development requires an educated workforce (Anna Valero, 2021). They acknowledge that proper workforce development places education at the center of talent generation (Radcliffe, 2023). While the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to unwind in the background on a global scale, this research attempts to intervene on the local, regional, and national levels in Uganda. Uganda experienced the most prolonged interruption of schooling in the world due to the pandemic. Between 2020 and 2021, roughly 15 million learners missed school, and about 30 percent might never return (Kwasi, 2023). Posing a more immediate economic fallout, "About 548,000 teachers [in Uganda] either took pay cuts or lost their jobs" (Kwasi, 2023). Social scientists are now beginning to understand precisely how these prolonged interruptions to Ugandan schooling have affected the country's society and economy over the longer term. This paper represents just one humble step in widening our understanding of the possibilities and pitfalls of technology interventions to right the course of development within the education sector in Uganda.Teachers remain at the center of change in the education sector, and those who can effectively use technology have been proven to facilitate instruction better (Costley, 2014). However, even in schools with an abundant supply of computers, institutions, and personnel require more than the readily available hardware to close the education gap or improve teaching and learning processes (Kibirige, 2023). This paper deals with how to leverage technology within Uganda's education sector. The subject deserves further attention. Technology could significantly enhance and expand students' education opportunities in Uganda. The study used mixed methods aligned with a Participant PAR (PAR) methodology and gathered qualitative data from a focus group, multiple surveys, an online content forum, and many one-on-one interviews. --Author's abstract