Education
The Attorney General, Kiwanuka Kiryowa has issued a warning regarding homeschooling, declaring the practice to be illegal.
Homeschooling has recently become more popular in Uganda, with many parents and guardians opting to educate their children, particularly those in primary school, during school holidays.
However, on Wednesday, the Attorney General stated that parents or guardians who choose to homeschool their children are acting unlawfully, as this practice contradicts existing laws.
“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,” Kiwanuka said.
“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,” he added.
Kiwanuka, was appearing before Parliament’s Education Committee.
His remarks were in response to a query from Molly Kamukama, the MP for Rwampara District, who questioned why the government did not consider regulating homeschooling when drafting the National Teachers Bill for 2024, given its growing prevalence in Uganda.
“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?” Asiimwe wondered.
She added, “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.”
