By Obbo Yusuf
Kitgum: Acholi heads of schools want government to give short time contracts to government teachers, consider transfers of District Education Officers and inspectors of Schools as a way of impacting seriousness in them while on duty to attract good performance among government schools
“Because they are well assured of the job and the government monthly payment, they are less concerned of the good grades which is not the case at Private schools where one is given a job and paid basing on his output, government teachers are able to sleep and forget their task because monitoring them is less ” said Gyagenda Khamis principal Kitigum Core PTC
25 years ago Universal Primary Education UPE was a hot cake for the Ruling government NRM with a local slogan “Bona Basome” literally meaning Education for all. Its aim was to have more educated young people.
UNEB statistics of 2022 indicate that 832,654 candidates registered for PLE Of these, 583,768 (70.1%) were UPE beneficiaries, and 248,982 (29.9%) were private. The proportion of UPE candidates increased by 1.7 per cent. the 832,654 registered candidates, only 811,810 sat for the examinations on November 8 and 9, 2022. About 20,844 (2.5%) were absentee candidates. The percentage of absent candidates had been declining steadily, but this time, increased by 0.8%.UPE beneficiaries still had the highest number of absentees at 17,253 (2.96%) and only 3,687 (1.48%) from private schools.
While releasing the 2022 PLE results, Dan Odong the UNEB executive director attributed Private schools good performance to much attention given in by teachers and learners which is incomparable to those of government schools .
In her media address while releasing the 2022 PLE results the first lady and minister for Education Janet Museveni attributed the poor performance of government schools to parents who leave roles of supporting their children to perform well to teachers and government which she also linked to the many school dropouts.
“We all know that government facilitates the learner for seven years, but they have not done enough. We can’t say that you have not passed and tell you where to go. That’s a choice for the child’s family to make, but we encourage them to repeat or go for vocational training” said Janet Museveni Kataha
She added: “There’s a tendency that everything must be done by the ministry of education when children don’t perform well. Education is shared by the government and families, not just the teachers, schools, ministry, and government.”
Government aided school Poor performance has attracted northerners to many alternatives and now School Head teachers in Acholi region have tasked government to consider giving short time contracts to government teachers in order to awaken them from sleep on duty.
The concerns were reported to the Education policy review commission that is sharing views with Education stakeholders on how best the education system of the country should be.
Gyagenda Kahmis the principal of Kitgum Core PTC a teacher’s training school has informed trusted news Uganda reporter that if Uganda wants to make it’s education system better, it should be more Action oriented than speech oriented by firing all the un serious teachers out of the system.
Gyagenda says government has given a lot of freedom to teachers and they have forgotten about their work.
“Teaching should be made like army Everything should be done properly and in time with respect to commands, government should give short time contracts to government teachers as a one way to track those that are not serious on duty yet they are paid well,Private schools are able to beat government schools in performance because teachers are employed on conditions, monitored and motivated to make them produce excellent results. This is different from our government schools, once a teacher gets to the government pay roll he/she goes back to sleep after all at the end of the month his/her salary is well assured “says Gyagenda
Before the introduction of the Universal primary Education (UPE) in 1996 government schools were performing very well and the top performers used to come from Government schools but currently the trend totally changed giving way to Private schools.
While sharing with Trainers of teachers at Kitgum core PTC ,Commissioner Clarence Olongamuri tasked the trainers to explain as to why there is poor performance among government schools yet all teachers go through the same training schools and colleges.
The deputy principal for Kitgum Core PTC Loka Bernard Benson responded that it’s so due to environment accorded to the teachers.
“when teachers go for deployment ,those who access Private institutions receive good motivation ,they are paid for every good work done, at the end when results are out the best teachers are appreciated which is not the case in government schools where teachers only wait for their Monthly salary ” Loka Bernard Benson said
He added that the kind of supervision in private schools is different from those of Government where teachers are paid by government directly ,the responsible offices put to monitor their work have limited authority than private schools where a teacher is fired if he /she fails to deliver required expectations .
Teachers have also asked government to issue tough guidelines to private schools as most schools only focus on Academics and forget about other programs like co circular actives like games and sports a thing they attach to be one of the trick private schools use to beat government schools in performance.
“As government schools reserve time for games and supports and all learners take full participation as required by the ministry of education and sports, the private schools use this chance to keep busy in class work. And that how they beat us in Academics, we therefore call upon government to look into this ” said Gyagenda Khamis
In Nwoya district the acting Head teacher for Purongo seed secondary school Mr Ogwal Benon Obwoya frankly told the commission that in Nwoya district teachers apply to teach at government schools with intensions of accessing government pay roll and after satisfaction they become reluctant over their mandate since they are well assured of a monthly pay from Government.
Mr. Gyagenda Khamis said tgovernment should focus on allocating resources required for her schools, give enough powers to heads of schools and education officers in the districts in order to improve on supervision and then District Education officers and Inspectors should also be given transfers just like other government officers to truck records of these officers basing on performance.
The Education policy review Commission has pledged to respect the views of Acholi people on how best they think the education system should be and promised to share the matters raised to the responsible bodies of government for the good of the Education system .
Currently the government is still considering the ideas of parents providing meals, scholastic Materials and provide uniforms, leaving the fees part for government in order to improve learner’s outputs .
