CSTS-Mastercard Foundation Uganda eLearning Initiative for Education Institutions

Institutional and Personnel Capacity BuildingThis intervention focuses on facilitating efforts on capacity development and change management in the education institutions…Read More Gender and Vulnerable GroupsThe Gender and Vulnerable groups function is a key in ensuring that the initiative is gender sensitive, supports, and includes the most vulnerable groups…Read More Online Learning and Mgt Systems Understanding the operation and use of Learning Management Systems (LMS) is key to users taking full advantage of the platforms…Read More Digital Pedagogy & Instructional DesignThis intervention area focuses on building the capacity of instructors in digital pedagogy and instructional design, content development, and online acquisition…Read More
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Cyber School Technology Solutions is implementing the Uganda eLearning Initiative, in partnership with Mastercard Foundation, to benefit 95,000 young people across 21 Educational Institutions (EIs), with 12,500 transitioning into the world of work. The Initiative commenced in November 2021 and is being implemented in two phases. Phase one targets seven EIs, five universities, and two technical vocational training institutions. In Phase two, we will scale to fourteen higher EIs. These EIs are across the different regions of Uganda.The Challenge

Despite efforts made to incorporate ICT into mainstream curriculum, Uganda’s education system is still rooted in the traditional rote approach with very limited scope for the application of concepts- notably the problem of access to modern technology platforms to keep pace with learning and teaching in the 21st century. The education system continues to confront key challenges at all education levels: access to, quality of, and relevance of education.

The COVID-19 pandemic demanded that we rethink the trajectories to diffuse eLearning or any other means to augment or replace our traditional classroom-centric educational delivery systems. According to the Ministry of Education, more than 73,000 learning institutions closed, resulting in 15 million learners and 600,000 refugee learners being out of school during the COVID-19 pandemic. This crisis exposed us to a new need for more equitable access to online education.

However, the majority of EIs do not have the capacity to deliver complete online programs. This presents an opportunity to use eLearning to improve delivery and create resilience. The ultimate intention of the initiative is to build the resilience of EIs to move beyond survival by empowering them to cope through deepening eLearning, skilling instructors and students in the use of digital technologies to teach and learn, while deliberately including lower-income youths, refugees, women, and people with disabilities.

Our Approach
Institutions of higher learning need to adapt to the ever-changing educational landscape to meet the diverse needs of their learners as well as equip them with the relevant skills to transition into meaningful and dignified work. To facilitate this, the Uganda eLearning Initiative for EIs will:

Support EIs to successfully implement eLearning, this will increase their resilience against situations preventing in-class learning as well as enable them to extend their services to new and a variety of audiences;
Address the skills mismatch between the young people graduating from EIs and employability by integrating work readiness and entrepreneurship skills into the technical skills curriculum;
Enhance support systems to deepen inclusive education and employment for persons living with disabilities.

Outcomes

Increased access to market-responsive education and training systems through integration of work readiness and entrepreneurship skills;
Enhanced quality online education and skilling in EIs.