Homeschooling Is Illegal - Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka

The Attorney General, Kiwanuka Kiryowa has revealed that all parents and guardians who have chosen to homeschool their children are doing so illegally because the laws in Uganda require them to take their children to school.

His remarks were in response to a question raised by Hon Molly Kamukama (Rwampara DWR) who wondered why Government didn’t consider regulating homeschooling during the drafting of the National Teachers Bill, 2024, yet this is a practice that has gained ground in Uganda.

 “It is illegal. The law requires you to take the child to school, that is the law. Because you see we are saying if you are teaching people you must be qualified as a teacher to teach children. Now we are discussing homeschooling. What I can tell you is that homeschooling technically is illegal but it is a policy issue that the Ministry of Education, if MPs are saying it is happening, we need to discuss and say, how do we regulate homeschooling? But as it is right now, the law requires you to take children to school,” said Attorney General, Kiryowa Kiwanuka.

“While we were meeting several agents, there was an issue of home schooling, home scholars were also asking, what is their position as far as the Bill is concerned? Are they on their own or is it going to consider them? There is a group and they are very many that are doing homeschooling and they want to join the main education sector. So I don’t know whether we should just block our ears and handle only formal education or we should also look at them,” said Hon Molly  Asiimwe Rwampala woman member of Parliament.

The Attorney General, Kiwanuka Kiryowa has defended the requirement for all teachers in Uganda to have Bachelor's degree as minimum requirement, saying teachers who fail to obtain these qualifications within 10years after the policy is adopted will be dropped and replaced with teachers who would have been obtained these requisite qualifications. He made the remarks while appearing before Parliament’s Education Committee, where he was responding to concerns raised by various stakeholders into the National Teachers Bill 2024, where many educationists wondered why Nursery teachers should be required to have degrees before teaching learners, yet this sector is dominated by private sector with little to no Government investment.

 “And I think from the assessment that has been given and done by Government, we aren’t lacking in this qualification. When this law was made, we didn’t have qualifications of teachers with degrees, now we have them. So people who are in Government now, must work to transition themselves and they have been given a period of 10years to transition. But obviously, if they don’t transition in 10years and the law remains as it is, they will be dropped because then the people who have degrees will come in,” said Kiryowa.

 The Attorney General’s remarks were in response to a question posed by Irene Linda Mugisha (Fort Portal City Woman MP) who wondered why Government that hasn’t invested or doesn’t own Pre-primary schools, having left this sector to the private is demanding to have Nursery School teachers to have Bachelor’s Degree as their minimum qualification yet nothing was mentioned in the teachers Bill on minimum pay for these teachers to enable them upgrade their qualifications. Mugisha wondered why Government doesn’t consider the option of instituting professional payment to motivate these teachers to upgrade their qualifications, for instance, ensuring that if a teacher gets a Bachelor’s degree, they will automatically be paid higher to enable these teachers to slowly upgrade their qualifications rather than forcing them.