The Uganda National Institute for Teacher Education (UNITE)a public institution mandated to coordinate and provide teacher education and professional development at all levels is set to the hold the inaugural three days International Teachers education conference from 30 September 2026 Conference: 30th -2 October 2026 in Kampala Under the theme:Teachers at the Heart of Reform: Transforming Teacher Education for Human Capital Development in the 21st Century.
UNITE Vice Chancellor Prof Betty Akullu Ezati said the event will bring together scholars, policymakers, teacher educators and practitioners to share research, experiences and perspectives on the transformation of teacher education.
“The conference seeks to contribute to dialogue on strengthening teacher education and its role in developing the human capital required for social and economic transformation.Teacher education is critical to the quality of education and the development of future generations. As education systems respond to new technologies, artificial intelligence, competence-based approaches, inclusion and changing social and economic demands, teacher education must also evolve,”She stressed..
According to her the ITEC 2026 provides an opportunity to bring together different perspectives and experiences to examine how teachers can be better prepared, supported and empowered to respond to these changes.
She further emphasised that the conference will explore issues including:preparing the 21st-century teacher;Teacher standards, regulation and quality;Technology and artificial intelligence;financing teacher education,Teacher welfare and Teacher education and human capital development.
Ezati said Uganda’s education system carries remarkable weight beacuase primary and secondary schools are filled with learners who represent this country’s greatest resource and its greatest responsibility but the quality of what they receive in those classrooms depends, more than anything else, on the quality of the teacher standing before them.
Dr. Dennis Mugimba Ministry of education Spokesman said government of Uganda has consistently recognized that teachers are the backbone of our education system.
“No curriculum reform, no infrastructure investment, no examination policy will deliver its intended outcomes without a well-prepared, well-supported, and professionally motivated teaching workforce. This is not rhetoric; it is reflected in the concrete steps our government has taken over the past several years,”he stated.
He however said the rol lout of the revised competence-based curriculum in our primary and secondary schools has placed new demands on teachers, demanding more from them in terms of pedagogy, assessment, and responsiveness to individual learners. We have undertaken the rationalisation and upgrading of teacher training institutions across the country.
“We have established UNITE as a dedicated national body for teacher education. And we continue to work towards stronger standards and professionalisation across the teaching profession at all levels,”he stressed.
According to ministry of education statistics,Uganda has approximately 185,000 primary school teachers and over 65,000 secondary school teachers serving more than 12 million learners across the country. Many of our teachers are working in conditions that test their resilience every day, large class sizes, limited instructional materials, geographically isolated schools, and learners who arrive in classrooms carrying the weight of poverty and other challenges.
“ITEC 2026 offers the Ministry something we genuinely value: an evidence base. We need research that is rigorous, contextually grounded, and practically actionable. We need to understand what teacher preparation models work in Ugandan conditions. We need to know how we can better support teachers through continuous professional development. We need to grapple with the implications of artificial intelligence and digital technology for how teachers teach and how learners learn. ITEC 2026 is precisely the kind of forum that can help generate and translate that evidence,”Mugimba explained.
