Education
Value of Play-Based Learning in Early Childhood Development Education
On Wednesday, 12th October 2022, Makerere University researchers from the College of Education and External Studies (CEES) hosted, virtually, a symposium on the recent research project that engaged Early Childhood Education stakeholders in North, Central and Eastern Uganda on scaling the school readiness initiative (SSRI) through play-based learning.
The International Development Research Centre Canada (IDRC) funded program titled “Strengthening school and community capacities in scaling school readiness through play-based pedagogies in pre and primary education.”envisions generation of knowledge and evidence to strengthen Early Childhood Education, strengthening curriculum and capabilities for teachers in Early Childhood Education development for Uganda and Zambia to ensure a strong education foundation for learners and promotion of Play Based learning in learners between 0 to 8 years.
While opening the symposium, Professor Anthony Mugagga the principal College of Education and External Studies (CEES) Makerere University shared his disappointment from some professionals who under look early childhood education teachers and consider them failures.It is on this basis that ten years ago, he started efforts to better Early childhood education in Uganda through research.
“I am happy that 10 years down the road, the College of Education admits students of PhDs, Masters and Diplomas of Early Childhood Education,” added Prof Mugagga.
He said the country has only about 5% graduate students as early child hood education givers, saying most of the caregivers are from S4 or Primary 7 students, a thing he said must change if we are to improve ECE. “Teachers who are constrained in learning cannot do a good job teaching the young children,” Prof. Mugagga said. He decried the policy of administering interviews for children joining primary one, saying it has forced teachers to teach pre-primary children with the primary curriculum in an effort to ensure they pass the interviews.
Prof. Mugagga concluded his remarks by thanking IDRC for funding this incredible study and the research team for the dedicated work done. He assured the team of his support in promotion of play-based learning in ECD centers in Uganda.
While giving his remarks, the Dean School of Education and the program Principal Investigator in Uganda Professor Bwanika Mulumba noted how the benchmarking for ECDE had been neglected in Uganda concentrating much on higher Education hence a challenge in production of unskilled learners in writing and reading for learners in tertiary institutions.
Professor Bwanika added that Ugandan schools and parents give children less time to play always cautioning them on academics and homework which hinders children’s cognitive skills and emotional wellbeing in response to learning. He hailed IDRC for the funding and the Zambia Open Community schools (ZOCs) that hosted the research team to benchmark in Zambia for the assessment tools developed to promote Play Based learning in Zambia.
Mrs. Cleopatra Muma the Executive Director ZOCs emphasized that the program is based on schools’ readiness for children, children’s readiness for school and parents’ readiness to work with schools in educating children. The project in Zambia has solved challenges of limited access to quality ECDE service especially among marginalized rural communities and inadequate knowledge and skills to ECD workforce hence enriching cross learning and strengthening linkage between centers of knowledge, government and all stakeholders.
While sharing experience on Zambia’s preparedness in response to ECDE, Dr, Edward Kansiime a research team member praised Zambia and ZOCs for moving swiftly and steadily in benchmarking and preparing for early childhood education play based learning where learning centers have equipped demarcated playing grounds on top of a well-developed digital assessment tool teachers use in guiding learners on their able gadgets.
Dr. Nancy Nabiryo an English and Literature specialist from School of Education Makerere University presented Findings from a systematic review of play-based learning in national ECD frameworks and baseline survey on play-based learning in ECDE centers in Uganda.
It is evident that parents and schools are not aware that children can learn effectively through play and play based learning has not been benchmarked and neither has it been much encouraged.
The government has not recognized the role of an effective ECDE in tertiary Education, Dr. Nabiryo ended by calling on government not to only regulate but to assiduously fund, benchmark and encourage play based learning across ECD centers in the country and also help out teachers through training to understand rights of the child and values of play in Early Childhood Education.
Dr. Alfred Buluma and Mr. Edward Kansiime also presented their projects on Infrastructure in Play Based Learning and Play based learning ECDE teachers ‘pedagogical practices respectively where learners were encouraged to use their own bodies and materials in learning. Both studies at least found that learners are using actions and the five senses in learning.
The project also captured gaps in ECDE that need immediate intervention which include pupils singing while sitting which limits full body activity, most ECDE teachers arenot well trained, congested classrooms by desks and too much play materials where some are actually not used, interpersonal skills and personality traits of curiosity and creativity not fully encouraged.
The project team thinks that it is prudent if workshops were put in place to sensitize teachers, parents, policy makers and implementers. Also, organizing of In-service teacher training, provision of an ECDE learning framework to some of the schools at least in every region and working alongside the inspectorate of Education for building linkage and sustainability of play-based learning in ECDE.
The symposium on scaling school readiness initiative (SSRI) through play-based learning brought together education enthusiasts from universities of Uganda and across the world. It is a joint partnership among Makerere University, University of Zambia, University of Arizona and the Zambia Open Community Schools organization funded by the International Development Research Centre Canada.
By Eutychus Ngotho Gichuru
The escalating fight between veteran US President Donald Trump and the powerful American institutions like Harvard University is politics, it’s bare-faced incursion into intellectual freedom that can reshape the international world of higher education, particularly for Africans. The latest “scandal,” Trump’s combative condemnation of colleges as liberal ideological hotbeds, amplified by legal intimidation and political retaliation against colleges like Harvard, is damaging America’s international reputation as the academic gold standard. Unless the trend continues, African scholars have long regarded American colleges as embodiments of intellectual liberty will seek further afield, such as China’s Tsinghua University, and redefine the landscape of scholarship.
Trump himself, bloated-check on his 2024 campaign and beyond, denounces elite universities as “woke” indoctrination centers. Demands to defund universities, ideological segregation, and laser-beam focus on diversity programs have chilled the atmosphere. Harvard, already on trial for affirmative action and accused of suppressing conservative thinking, is under greater scrutiny than ever. The Trump-endorsed Supreme Court win in 2023 over the case against racially discriminatory admissions, as a triumph for Trump and his faithful, has been exerting political pressure on institutions to fall in line. Politicization is destroying the very essence of intellectual freedom: freedom to pursue truth through means of open-ended inquiry, unhampered by interference.
For African students, it is shattering the American academic dream. America has been the preferred destination of African Muslims for many years, with 400,000 or more African students enrolled in American universities by 2023. Harvard stands for hope, intellectual activism, and interdependence worldwide. But when academic freedom is attacked, either in Muslim nations by executive fiat or group demonization, students question the system. The image of American universities as payoff politics centers rather than temples of knowledge is a great discourager.
Take the case of China, which has placed its universities at the world map. Tsinghua University, affectionately referred to as “China’s MIT,” features among the top 20 universities in the world with state-of-the-art research in AI, engineering, and global governance. China’s Belt and Road initiative has already prompted scholarship collaborations with Africa, awarding more than 50,000 African students scholarship annually. China provides an open alternative to America, in which political anti-foreigner prejudice and visa controls have tightened but in which Tsinghua’s insistence upon technical discipline and non-Western-inspired political scandal-mongering offers a sanctuary to those denied security and possibility.
Life for African students is a game. If the shine fades from American campuses, Nigerian, Kenyan, or Ghanaian students may be lured by the more appealing prospect of subsidized campuses and meritocratic competition culture of Tsinghua. Chinese universities, though not inexpensive, are another deal: intellectual seriousness untainted by ideational competition distorting American campuses. To Africans bureaucratically and financially strained in America, China’s streamlined visa process and subsidized schooling are appealing. Tsinghua welcomed 20% more African applicants in 2024, and the figures can only go up if America’s learning environment deteriorates.
This has far-reaching implications. Chinese-educated Africans will increasingly adopt the Beijing approach to geopolitics, enhancing China’s soft power in Africa. America will lose the intellectual and cultural capital that it has gained through decades of exportation of Africa’s best and brightest for studies in its institutions. Harvard-educated African leaders have led the innovation and governance driver in the continent; a transition to Tsinghua would funnel those networks into China’s quarter. In order to ensure academic freedom and global competitiveness, America should not politicize its colleges and universities. Institutional autonomy must be upheld by academics and legislative members in a situation where scholarship, rather than ideology, is the basis of higher education. For the students from Africa, the consequence is ominous: college selection not only determines their future but that of the continent. And if the Trump-Harvard soap opera continues chewing away at American scholarship’s trust factor, Tsinghua’s gates will swing wider and wider, and Africa’s best and brightest will walk through them with the U.S. in their rearview mirror.
About the Author
Makerere University has been selected to participate in Phase 2 of the e-Learning Initiative aimed at the development of a five-year digital pedagogy transformation roadmap (2025-2030).
This noble task championed by the College of Education and External Studies (CEES) through its expert team at the Institute of Open, Distance and e-Learning (IODeL) will shape the future of e-learning and digital education in Uganda.
In phase 2, the Mastercard Foundation commits to supporting e-Learning and digital transformation based on the needs of each institution. Makerere University’s consideration for Phase 2 follows the successful implementation of phase 1 of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program e-Learning Initiative (2021-2024), which registered remarkable achievements.
‘In a bid to consolidate the gains of phase 1 and transition into a digitally resilient and learner-centred institution, Makerere University has been selected to participate in phase 2 of the e-Learning Initiative. Led by the Mastercard Foundation in partnership with Arizona State University (ASU), phase 2 aims to support partner universities in designing and implementing a five-year digital pedagogy transformation roadmap (2025-2030),” highlighted Prof. Paul Birevu Muyinda, the Director of IODeL.
Speaking at the co-creation workshop held on 24th April 2025 at Speke Resort Munyonyo, Prof. Birevu Muyinda said: “During phase 1, Makerere University registered significant achievements in e-Learning. I am glad that you have convened here today during the e-Learning Digital Transformation workshop, to receive the dissemination results as we work together to prepare for phase 2, which focuses on the unique needs for each institution.”
Through phase 1, which aimed at enhancing the e-learning capabilities of partner institutions, Makerere University strengthened the existing Makerere University e-Learning Environment (MUELE), conducted onboarding workshops for the university leadership, trained teaching staff and students, and engaged teaching staff to develop content for online courses.
According to Prof. Birevu Muyinda, the specific achievements of phase 1 of the e-Learning initiative included the following:
- Training of 1,280 faculty members
- Development of 2,579 courses out of 2,560 representing 100.74%
- Development of four (4) support services modules
- Capacity building for over 7,000 students
- Training and recruitment of 32 e-Learning champions
- Upgrading of the Makerere University e-Learning Environment (MUELE)
- Acquisition of e-Learning infrastructure namely five (5) multi-media studios, a video streaming server and all in one printers.
The co-creation workshop for phase 2 and dissemination of results for the concluded phase 1, brought on board over 75 participants comprising members of Makerere University Management, the Principal and staff of the College of Education and External Studies, a representative from the Ministry of Education and Sports, student leaders, the media, the Directorate for ICT Support (DICTS), Mastercard Foundation, Arizona State University(ASU)-USA, and a representative sample of staff from academic and administrative units of Makerere University.
Facilitated by Arizona State University (ASU) working closely with IODeL, the interactive co-creation sessions involved taking into account the milestones from phase 1 and leveraging the successes, as well as coming up with proposed strategies for phase 2.
The co-creation workshop involved understanding the concept transformation road mapping, using a grid to identify the current state of e-Learning and digital transformation at Makerere University and the desired state, assessment alignment on shared vision for the current and the desired state, and identifying learner needs in line with the desired state, among other items.
The workshop adopted a holistic approach to digital transformation focusing on the following themes: teaching and learning, student services, instructional infrastructure, leadership and culture, and partnerships. For each cluster, the participants proposed immediate, short-term and long-term strategies with respect to digital transformation in those processes. With each group presenting during the plenary sessions, the co-creation workshop was a success. The ideas were captured instantly feeding into the proposal for the phase 2 e-learning digital transformation roadmap (2025-2030).
At this highly participatory workshop, reaching consensus was a key factor in determining the ideas that were included in the proposal.
In addition to the aforementioned clusters, some of the broader aspects that the co-creation teams highlighted should be prioritized included:
- Adoption of e-supervision of students
- Increasing enrollment of international students through e-Learning
- Reducing the digital divide among learners
- Ensuring digital inclusion with programs sensitive to learners with disabilities
- Capacity building programmes for administrative support
Opening the co-creation workshop, Prof. Buyinza Mukadasi, Ag. Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs) of Makerere University, conveyed the congratulatory messages from the University Council and Management on the successful completion of phase 1 and its remarkable achievements.
On behalf of the University Management, Prof. Buyinza said, phase 2 of the e-Learning Initiative should be a revolutionary phase, igniting Makerere University to be a key player in digital education and integration of technologies.
Reflecting on youth empowerment, Prof. Buyinza highlighted that phase 2 is student-centred with e-Learning and digital pedagogies addressing the needs of learners. In addition, Prof. Buyinza underscored that this approach will increase the number of students accessing quality education programmes at Makerere University at the national and international levels.
The Ag. Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs) commended the Mastercard Foundation for partnering with Makerere University to empower the young people through education and technological advancements. Prof. Buyinza acknowledged the collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation and Arizona State University (ASU) for building the capacity of faculty at Makerere University.
Emphasizing the importance of building capacity, retooling and reshaping the curriculum to produce graduates who meet the demands of the modern workforce, Prof. Buyinza re-affirmed that Makerere University is a learning institution committed to embracing new approaches. He recognized the Institute of Open, Distance and e-Learning (IODeL) for holding onboarding workshops for the University leadership, staff and students in phase 1.
Prof. Buyinza testified that the onboarding sessions changed his perception, and transformed him into a firm believer in positioning e-Learning to champion the digital transformation agenda at Makerere University. He disclosed that he is a “convert” to the transformative potential of technology integration, learner-centeredness, industry partnerships, and lifelong learning, key features of University 5.0.
He urged participants to utilize the co-creation e-Learning digital transformation workshop to define institutional needs and expectations, allowing for a more rapid and collaborative advancement into the “revolutionary” phase 2.
Building on the Prof. Buyinza’s submission, the Principal of the College of Education and External Studies, Prof. Anthony Muwagga Mugagga informed the participants that phase 2, which focuses on e-Learning and digital transformation should empower the faculty and university at large to provide inclusive education. He implored the co-creation team and stakeholders to come up with digital strategies for students who are visually impaired and those with hearing impairments.
Prof. Mugagga emphasized the importance of continuous learning and self-examination, stating that even a professor should strive to be open to new knowledge. With reference to Socrates’ philosophy, he suggested that a life devoid of learning is not worth living.
In a moving testimony, the Principal explained that he is always learning new ideas from his techy savvy son. Prof. Mugagga shared that his son continues to be instrumental in teaching him online safety principles and techniques. This experience underscored the generational gap in digital literacy and the importance of adapting to the evolving digital landscape.
The Principal expressed his hope to learn from the workshop, acknowledging that digital transformation requires everyone to be proactive in acquiring new skills.
On behalf of the students, Hon. Julius Kiganda, the Minister of Academic Affairs at Makerere University commended the organisers for including students in the e-Learning digital transformation workshop. Hon. Kiganda pledged active participation in the training to ensure that the interests of the students are effectively captured.
Evaluating phase 1, Ann Nielsen from Mastercard Foundation recognized that the institutions had built a solid foundation, prompting a transition into phase 2 to address the unique needs of each university.
“Phase 2 will prioritize scaling training and knowledge mobilization, offering opportunities for scholars to pursue learning design and technologies, graduate certificates, master’s degrees, and professional certificates tailored for individuals seeking instructional design knowledge.
“Mastercard Foundation will emphasize inclusive learning practices, collaborating with experts to ensure accessibility and equity. The Foundation aims to enhance digital infrastructure, focusing on student support systems, quality management, and data-driven decision-making in order to meet diverse learner needs,” Nielsen explained.
The Foundation revealed that the ultimate goal is to collectively impact policies across the continent, advocating for e-learning as a valid and accredited pathway to quality education. Recognizing the network’s growing maturity, the initiative aims to position participating universities as leaders and resources, fostering collaborative learning and co-creation.
The Foundation’s participation stems from a belief in the future of young Africans, seeking to equip them with education and skills to fulfill their careers by strengthening institutions and scaling innovative solutions through technology. The focus shifts from a reactive response to a sustainable and long-term initiative.
Regan Matsiko, the IT Officer at the Ministry of Education and Sports, highlighted the Ministry’s commitment to digital advancement, drawing on prior experience with the national digital transformation roadmap initiated by the Ministry of ICT. “This roadmap, built on five key pillars including digital scaling and infrastructure development, serves as a foundation for current initiatives within the education sector.”
Matsiko emphasized the Ministry of Education and Sports’ development of a digital agenda last year as demonstration of a proactive approach to integrating technology.
He commended the partnership with universities in developing e-learning programs. Matsiko noted a shift towards a more integrated structure within the Ministry, where the ICT department now includes a dedicated e-learning department working directly with university partners, demonstrating a unified push for digital transformation in education.
The voices from key stakeholders set the stage for an interactive and high participatory training session. Lara Rabala the facilitator of the training outlined the primary objectives. These included: To collaboratively envision e-learning-driven classrooms, not only for the host institution but also for external partners, aligning proposed initiatives with McKinney’s strategies and broader community programs.
She noted that a key focus will be on formulating recommendations that correspond with critical areas to drive the development of a roadmap and implementation plan.
Labala stressed that the aim is to establish a clear vision for the future, crafting a transformative roadmap and a practical implementation plan. This roadmap will serve as the foundation for a tangible proposal to attract funding and partnerships, articulating the vision and direction for key learning and behavioral transformation.
Trainees were encouraged to respect the past as the foundation for the present and future, while also imagining innovative possibilities. Trainees, regardless of their expertise, were urged to maintain curiosity, open-mindedness, and value every voice.
The co-creation sessions featured the following clusters:
- Teaching and learning: Digital strategy, pedagogical services, faculty development and staff support
- Student services: Engagement-enrollment, Administrative support and Academic Support
- Instructional Infrastructure: Connectivity, Educational technology, and Instructional design learning analysis
- Leadership and Culture: Internal stakeholders, Leadership structure, Governance models, Innovative Culture
- Partnerships: Development, Evaluation and External Stakeholders
Closing the co-creation workshop, Prof. Birevu Muyinda said: “The exercise has presented us with an understanding of the major activities to be undertaken and the key priorities.”
With the support of the Mastercard Foundation and other partners, Makerere University is focused to develop a comprehensive e-learning roadmap, driving innovation and excellence in education.
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