CONTRIBUTION OF PRIMARY TEACHER EDUCATION CURRICULUM TO QUALITY PRIMARY EDUCATION IN UGANDA

With the frequent changes in education environment caused by dynamic economy, politics, and global trends among others, primary teacher education should keep abreast with these trends. However, in Uganda this has not been the case. While government designs new curriculum for primary schools, the changes in teacher education curriculum seem to be slower. Teacher educators are not familiar with the new trends in education such as ICT in teaching and learning, gender, learner centered education etc. The teaching materials are not easily available in the teacher training colleges because of shortages of funds. The study sought to: analyse the curriculum of Primary Teacher Education (PTE) since 1990, assess the challenges Primary Teacher Colleges (PTC) experience in the preparation of quality teachers and analyse the extent to which PTE curriculum is responding to the new trends in primary education. Using mainly interviews and focus group discussion, this paper explored the relationship between teacher preparation and quality of teachers produced. Findings showed that the curriculum of the teacher training colleges is not tailored to the requirements of the primary curriculum. In addition PTE faces many challenges that affect the preparation of teachers.