Ring of approval for use of phones, laptops in schools

Ms Museveni, however, said the use of the digital devices would be tightly regulated to ensure learners’ safety.

Until now, many schools have banned or heavily restricted the use of tablets, laptops and mobile phones by students.

“It is a welcome idea,” Mr Filbert Baguma, the general secretary of the Uganda National Teachers’ Union, told the Daily Monitor. “We are in the 21st century and use of ICT should be promoted right from pre-primary to the highest level of education because that is the way to go. This is already happening in countries like Rwanda. There is no shortcut.”

He urged the government to help teachers acquire the necessary gadgets so as not to be left behind by better-resourced pupils.

Mr Godfrey Birungi, who heads the Science Head Teachers and Deputies Association, a lobby group, said the move was timely, given global digital advances, including the use of artificial intelligence.

Mr Birungi, who is also the headteacher of Mbarara Senior Secondary School, however, called for clear guidelines to avoid abuse and misuse of digital devices.

 “I don’t have any objection to it but we need guidelines. Some students have been sneaking into schools with phones and people keep using them all the time which disrupts learning. We need guidelines on how to manage the process,” he said.

Mr Hasadu Kirabira, the national chairperson of the National Private Educational Institutions Association, urged caution on the use of mobile phones in schools.

“For the start, we can allow the use of laptops and computers to build an ICT-compliant society because they can be easily monitored, but for phones, we need to study it further. It is easy for them to form WhatsApp groups and engage in all sorts of discussions that may turn out to be a danger to themselves and the school as well,” Mr Kirabira said, adding, “Some students have even been using school phones to call their boyfriends pretending that they are talking to their parents.”

Ms Susan Amoit, a parent with children in primary and secondary school, said parents and teachers should do more to supervise children’s use of digital devices.

Tighter controls

During last week’s Digital Agenda Strategy launch, Ms Museveni stressed the need to strengthen cyber security as schools open up to teaching and learning facilitated by digital devices.

“Cyber security is very important because we must ensure that our learners and educators are not exposed to harmful or inappropriate material while using these digital technologies for genuine purposes,” Ms Museveni said.

The minister noted that the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, and the National Information Technology Authority have set up cyber security measures but urged schools and learners to abide by them.

She said more than 70 percent of Uganda’s population of 46 million people, is below the age of 30 and the youthful population needs to be well nurtured into an innovative and productive workforce. The digital strategy would leverage ICT, enhance education outcomes, and guard against future disruptions to learning, she added.

“We all recall that in 2020, the world suddenly faced very unprecedented challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic during which schools were closed and learners were forced to stay at home,” Ms Museveni said.

She added: “This disruption had a profound impact on our learners and the negative effects on our education and sports system are still being felt up to this day. The pandemic underscored the urgent need for us to develop and apply comprehensive digital and remote learning solutions.”

Dr Aminah Zawedde, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, said: “The world has moved on. When you go to the developed world, all these technologies have been embraced already. But we don’t want the country to be left behind.”

She added: “Of course, we still have a long journey to be able to walk the journey or [create] robots and renewable technology for operations, but we are also starting on this journey to be able to customise our solutions to the kind of environment that we are dealing with.”

Dr Zawedde reassured that access to devices will be in regulated environments.

“We are not saying that take your gadgets and behave in any way you want. But it is for a reason the same way a student has been taking a book to school and the book is being used for taking notes, is being used for drawing or whatever. That is the same way this device is going to be used. It will be used for purposes of research and learning exclusively.”

She revealed screen time and content accessed will be regulated.

“Parents should not be worried about what kind of content students are going to access during the school. But we expect the parents to equally be vigilant and supportive, even when the children are out of the home. Because these students are already using these gadgets at home but had not been allowed to bring them in the school setting.”

Vocational education

Dr Jane Egau Okou, the acting permanent secretary in the Education and Sports ministry, said investments over the past decade in vocational and technical education would continue.

She revealed that the government had borrowed Shs86 billion from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to expand nine technical institutes across the country to increase access to technical education.

They include  Minakulu in Oyam District, Moyo Technical Institute, Moroto Technical Institute,  Birembo War Memorial in Kakumiro District, Kitovu in Masaka District, Luyunku in Sembabule, Kabale Technical Institute, Nalwire in Busia and Nkoko in Mayuge District.

The head of IDB’s regional hub in Kampala, Dr Issahaq Umar Iddrisu, said cooperation with Uganda dates back to 1977.

“Since then, IDB has approved a number of projects for Uganda with a cumulative amount of over $1.6 billion. To further enhance this collaboration to the next level, the Bank is also currently working with the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and sector ministries in developing the country engagement framework which guides the bank’s intervention for the upcoming three years,” he said.

About the digital agenda strategy

The Ministry of Education and Sports launched the Digital Agenda Strategy and Digital Skills Framework that is aligned with the Digital Transformation Roadmap under the Digital Skilling pillar.

The Digital Agenda Strategy will be co-implemented by the Education and ICT ministries.

The strategy aims to close the digital divide by advocating for students to embrace digital technologies and access digital content in schools.

The digital roadmap that was launched in April last year is hinged on five pillars, including building digital infrastructure and connectivity; promoting digital services, boosting cyber security, data protection and privacy protocols as well as enhancing citizens’ digital skills through deliberate training.

How other countries regulate access to phones

Mr John Tereraho, the technical advisor at Save the Children Uganda, said the use of technology comes with opportunities and challenges and that some countries that have embraced the use of mobile gadgets in schools have equally put in place controls.

Mr Joshua Ewo Moi, the deputy head teacher of Aculbanya Secondary School in Kole District, who doubles as the Numeracy Curriculum Lead for Aliim Smart Phone School Programme, an online programme that facilitates online learning among refugees in different parts of the world, said countries like South Africa adopted the use of technology to improve learning outcomes but it is still regulated to ensure it serves the purposed it is meant to.   

According to the Wiley online library, young people’s use of mobile phones is expanding exponentially across Africa and that use in African schools is becoming increasingly apparent.

According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), the 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report titled, Technology in schools, a tool on whose terms stated that technology should only be used in class when it supports learning outcomes, and this includes the use of smartphones.

Unesco noted that both Bangladesh and Singapore banned smartphone use in class, but not in school, while France banned smartphone use unless strictly for pedagogical purposes or to support children with disabilities.

It further states that some countries have banned the use of specific applications from education settings due to privacy concerns.