Bugiri pupils, teachers embrace new digital learning platform
The Commissioner of Education in-charge of Private Schools, Mr George Mutekanga, launching the new digital learning platform (ilearnx) at York Nursery and Primary School in Bugiri Municipal Council on October 22, 2024. Teachers say the development will simplify their work. PHOTO | RONALD SEEBE
What you need to know:
- Ilearnx, which was launched by the Commissioner of Education in-charge of Private Schools, Mr George Mutekanga, is being piloted in Bugiri municipal schools at York Nursery and Primary School as a model school, before being extended to Iganga municipality and Jinja City.
Teachers and pupils in rural schools within Bugiri Municipality have welcomed a new digital learning platform (ilearnx) which is aimed at connecting vulnerable learners to quality education delivered by instructors in urban schools.
Ilearnx, which was launched by the Commissioner of Education in-charge of Private Schools, Mr George Mutekanga, is being piloted in Bugiri municipal schools at York Nursery and Primary School as a model school, before being extended to Iganga municipality and Jinja City.
Teachers say the digital platform will simplify their work, considering the ease with which to use a digital board. However, they have called for requisite infrastructures to support the process, including ICT tools and low internet costs.
Mr Aron Watila, a teacher of English at York Nursery and Primary School, says using digital boards to teach learners is “interesting”, but “unreliable” due to intermittent electricity supply.
“Sometimes, power can go off when you have just introduced the lesson, and when the school does not have any other source of power like solar or generator, the teacher is forced to end the lesson or switch to the old way of using a blackboard,” he said on Tuesday.
Bugiri Municipal Education Officer, Isaiah Were, said digital learning is “more practical” and makes pupils understand very fast, adding that it has previously been difficult to find a school in Bugiri implementing digital learning.
The Commissioner of Education in-charge of Private Schools, Mr George Mutekanga, says digital learning has come to phase out the old way of teaching using the old curriculum that is being used by upcountry schools.
He added that to make digital learning successful, there is a need to emphasise and improve teachers’ professionalism and training on digital learning because they are the implementers of the programme.
“That is why the government is emphasising that every teacher acquires a degree because advancement in education comes with new skills and knowledge,” he said.
The Minister for General Duties in the Office of the Prime Minister, Justine Kasule Lumumba, said the government will soon start assembling digitalised boards and other equipment that are used in digital learning.
