It also aims to meet the needs of countries in the development of their education systems by:

1. Training planners and managers in skills to analyze and plan, manage and implement, monitor and evaluate.
2. Supporting institutions and improving administrative routines, organization, leadership skills.
3. Fostering an enabling environment through policy forums, international co-operation and networking.

 To date, more than 5000 experts and education officers have been trained by IIEP and the first batch of ten graduates from the Makerere chapter were hosted to a certificate award ceremony at the Makerere University Guest House yesterday evening.

On behalf of his fellow graduands, Mr. Cuthbert Mulyalya appreciated the Ministry of Education & Sports and the Assistant Commissioner, Education Planning, Mr. Godfrey Dhatemwa in particular for selecting their lot to be the pioneers of the course. He also thanked Mr. John Wabwire , Director, Planning & Development Department (PDD), Makerere University and IIEP Country coordinator for facilitating excellently during the 9months course. He acknowledged that after receiving this training, the participants were better equipped so solve Education Planning tasks in the Ministry hence less funds would be spent on hiring consultants.

Mr. John Wabwire, The National Coordinator IIEP and Director PDD thanked participants for staying the 9months course, which started in October last year. He appreciated their diligence throughout the course, despite the busy working schedules.

He noted that the African Chapter consists of six countries namely Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana and Malawi and the focus of this chapter is to provide the tools to improve planning, policy analysis and management processes in Africa. The training programme explores fields such as statistical tools for educational planning, the educational planning cycle, strategies and policy options, projects, budgets, and monitoring and evaluating educational quality and access. The course’s simulation & choices module was undertaken in Ethiopia, where a regional workshop to share participants’ experiences was also held.

Despite the challenges of time constraints on the parts of the participants, Mr. Wabwire commended them for coming second overall in Africa, where they were beaten to the first place by Malawi by a 0.5point difference. He thanked the sponsors for funding the course and choosing Makerere University through the East African Institute of Higher Education Studies and Development (EAIHESD) as hosts for the training programme.

Dr. David Onen, who spoke on behalf of the Institute’s Acting Director, noted that the programme was received with open arms at the Institute and appreciated the vote of confidence in Makerere University and EAIHESD in particular by choosing it to host the programme. He noted that the course provided an avenue for capacity building for the staff of EAIHESD as it lent a hands-on approach to the training programmes already being offered at the Institute. He then thanked Mr. Wabwire for ably facilitating at EAIHESD and the Ministry of Education and Sports for opening the door to the programme to be held at Makerere. He echoed that Uganda as s whole stood to benefit immensely from this programme and requested the Country coordinator to enable the pioneers complete further training, beyond the Certificate level. He then introduced Dr. Augustine Ezenne from the University of West Indies, Jamaica, who was visiting EAIHESD.

Mr. Godfrey Dhatemwa, Assistant Commissioner, Education Planning in the Ministry of Education and Sports , who represented his Permanent Secretary thanked the National Coordinator and participants for attending the training programme. He acknowledged that as an Assistant Commissioner for Education Planning, his Department stood to benefit the most as a good number of his staff had attended the inaugural training.

He opined that the programme will continue to build a skilled stock of Education Planners in Uganda and as such, Makerere University should be encouraged to partner more with IIEP to offer custom training programmes that are fit for policy makers. The custom programmes should be shorter and more intensive, seeing as we are dealing with employed participants. Mr. Dhatemwa challenged the National Coordinator and all stakeholders present to lobby for Makerere University to host the Regional Training Center (RTC) as India does for the Asian region. He challenged the participants to apply their newly acquired knowledge to improve the Education Planning sector and expressed his gratitude to UNESCO and IIEP in particular, whose impact has been greatly felt in the Ministry of Education and Sports. Mr. Dhatemwa then proceeded to hand over certificates of participation to successful graduands.

Click here to view the full Concept Note of the programme