Introduction and context

The purpose of this report is to summarise the process and findings from a two-day Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Symposium, held in Kampala from July 19th – 20th 2018. The first of its kind in Uganda, the objective of the Symposium was for key stakeholders to identify realistic, affordable and sustainable priorities for the ECCE sector in Uganda to take forward.

“The child is born with a brain like a blank sheet of paper. But when this child comes on this planet earth, then the environment around that child starts writing on that paper… who’s responsibility is it to provide that environment that is going to write on that blank sheet of paper?”

Opening remarks on the Symposium

Not literate at P2 level

The timing of the UK aid-funded Symposium coincided with a review of the 2007 Early Childhood Development (ECD) policy and the development of a draft ECCE policy by the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), with the support of the Global Partnership for Education. The draft policy is the basis for the development of a costed action plan to scale up government engagement in regulating and supporting the sector.

Not literate at P2 level

by Dr Daniel Nkaada, Director of Directorate of Basic and Secondary Education

Literate at P2 level

Over 150 participants representing the breadth of the ECCE sector – from teachers, district officials, NGOs and private-sector providers, to central Ministry agencies, and Parliament – took part in the two days of discussions.

Not literate at P2 level

The Symposium was structured to enable participants to engage with evidence of the context of the ECCE sector in Uganda, based on findings from new research conducted by Cambridge Education, RTI and ARK EPG, and to examine existing national and international delivery models.

Ultimately, participants were given the opportunity to draw on the discussions to prioritise activities to achieve better ECCE in Uganda.