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Kabale University launches center to improve access to education
Officials gesture at the launch of the C-CODE center at Kabale University in Kabale Town on February 7, 2024. PHOTO/ROBERT MUHEREZA.
Kabale University Wednesday launched a Center of Competence for Digital Excellence (C-CODE) to promote e-learning in order to overcome infrastructural challenges and congestion at the tertiary institution.
University Vice Chancellor Prof Joy Kwesiga said “the program will also help students in rural areas to access higher education through e-learning programs that are currently supported with the establishment of the e-library.”
“The center has already benefited several primary school teachers that enrolled for bachelor’s degrees. This program will save time spent by the learners on travelling from rural areas to the university campus,” she noted.
She added that: “This will also provide a conducive learning environment for pregnant or breastfeeding mothers besides securing their marriages since they will study while staying at their homes.”
Kabale University C-CODE academic leader, associate professor Phelix Businge said they wrote a project proposal that was jointly funded by the EPFL of the Swiss government, Mohammed VI University in Morocco and Kabale University at a cost of Shs300million.
The proposal was aimed at building the necessary infrastructure to produce quality, digital educational content such as massive online courses besides providing the trainees of Kabale University with appropriate theoretical and hands-on instruction in the technical and pedagogical aspects of digital education.
Officials gesture after the launch of the C-CODE center at Kabale University in Kabale Town on February 7, 2024. PHOTO/ROBERT MUHEREZA.
Kabale University secretary Johnson Baryantuma Munono said the C-CODE program will benefit all the 6,664 students enrolled at the institution.
He further hailed the brains behind the success of the program since it is only implemented at Kabale University in the whole of Uganda.
Kabale Municipality lawmaker Dr Nicholas Kamara, area Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Godfrey Nyakahuma and the Chief Executive Officer Research Education Network of Uganda and Mesh Technology joint venture Brian Masiga congratulated the university for its technological advancement.
“I will use my position in parliament to lobby government for the appropriation of enough funds to strengthen e-learning in Uganda. I studied my master’s degree in public health and a diploma in diabetes studies online and this means that any Ugandan can attain the desired academic qualification online like I did,” Dr Kamara observed.
