On Friday, 1st August 2025, the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda (CCFU) convened a regional conference at Flight View Hotel in Gulu City, bringing together over 40 heritage club teachers (patrons) from the districts of Gulu, Kitgum, and Moyo. The conference provided a platform for reflection, learning, and strategic dialogue on the progress of heritage education over the past 14 years and its future in Uganda’s secondary schools.
The discussions centred on evaluating what has worked well for heritage clubs, identifying persistent challenges, and exploring new opportunities arising from recent curriculum changes. Teachers also examined the potential of higher education pathways such as the Bachelor of Cultural Heritage Studies to benefit heritage club members and strengthen the continuity of heritage education.
In his opening remarks, Fred Wabwoka, CCFU’s Heritage Education Programme Coordinator in Gulu, welcomed the participants and commended their commitment to promoting cultural heritage in schools. He encouraged them to use the opportunity to share experiences, raise concerns, and learn from the diverse insights of fellow patrons and presenters.
Teachers highlighted several achievements of the programme, including increased visibility of heritage clubs through signposts in schools, student participation in debates, music, dance and drama activities, exhibitions, and cultural site visits. Other positive developments mentioned were the training of patrons, expansion of clubs to more schools, and the provision of toolkits, membership cards, and other learning resources.
Nonetheless, the patrons also cited ongoing challenges. These included limited time allocated for heritage activities, resource constraints, negative attitudes from some teachers, lack of administrative support, cultural biases and rivalries among students, and high turnover of trained club patrons.
Despite these hurdles, participants expressed appreciation to CCFU for organising the regional engagement, describing it as insightful and empowering. They also applauded the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) for recognising the importance of culture by integrating it as a generic, skill-based component in the lower secondary curriculum, especially at A-Level.
To further strengthen and sustain heritage education, the teachers proposed several recommendations. These included appointing assistant coordinators to support regional activities, providing modest incentives to motivate patrons, distributing brochures and booklets on the Bachelor of Cultural Heritage Studies to schools, airing radio talk shows to raise awareness, and facilitating inter-school interactions among heritage club members.
CCFU’s Heritage Education Programme is grounded in the belief that Uganda’s cultural heritage is a vital asset for national development. In collaboration with NCDC, the Foundation successfully introduced a chapter on “Culture and Ethnic Groupings in East Africa” into the History and Political Education subject for lower secondary schools. This content aims to ignite young people’s interest in their cultural roots through the formal education system.
Since the programme’s inception, CCFU has trained over 460 teachers to lead vibrant heritage clubs in more than 230 secondary schools across 30 districts. Additionally, more than 150 history teachers have been retooled to effectively deliver the revised curriculum content on culture and identity.
