KAMPALA
Parliament on Thursday (April 23) passed the National Teachers Bill, but in a major relief for thousands of educators, legislators scrapped the controversial requirement for a mandatory bachelor’s degree for teacher registration.
The decision, reached during a heated plenary session chaired by Speaker Anita Among, follows months of anxiety within the education sector. Instead of making the degree a fixed legal requirement, the House voted to empower the Minister of Education to determine qualifications through flexible statutory instruments.
A section of Members of Parliament stiffly resisted this clause arguing that a rigid degree requirement would unfairly lock out experienced teachers who entered the profession through the Grade III and Grade V certificate and diploma pathways.
“It would be unfair to force those already in the profession to upgrade within 10 years when their pay cannot support it,” argued Erute South MP Jonathan Odur.
Echoing these concerns, MP Joseph Ssewungu (Kalungu West) demanded that if the government eventually insists on degrees, it must be prepared to foot the bill. “The cost should be borne by the government, and the salary must be commensurate with that qualification,” Ssewungu said.
In another significant win for teachers, Parliament also dropped the proposal for a mandatory one-year internship after graduation. The Education Committee argued that “school practice” undertaken during training is sufficient, noting that an extra year would be “unfair and costly” for new entrants.
Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka, who presented the harmonized positions of the select committee, agreed to collapse Clause 28, replacing it with a more adaptable provision that allows the Ministry to tailor standards for different education levels—from pre-primary to post-primary.
New Penalties and Licencing
While the House was lenient on academic papers, it was uncompromising on professional conduct. The new law introduces a four-year renewal cycle for teaching licenses, linked to mandatory Continuous Professional Development (CPD).
The Bill also bites hard on quacks and ethical offenders. Under the new legal framework:
• Unlicensed Teaching: Anyone caught in a classroom without a valid license faces up to sh5m in fines or suspension for a year.
• Ethical Violations: Teachers convicted of gross ethical misconduct face up to five years in imprisonment.
• Foreign Teachers: Educators from outside Uganda must now pass a mandatory competence test before they are cleared to work in local schools.
The Bill now awaits the signature of the President to become law, marking the beginning of a new era for the regulation and professionalization of the teaching service in Uganda.
