Schools underutilizing teachers on payroll

KAMPALA, UGANDA | THE INDEPENDENT | A significant number of government-paid secondary school teachers in the country are not meeting the required teaching hours. Over half are underutilized, with some not teaching at all, while schools continue to hire additional teachers through the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) arrangement.

According to the Ministry of Education and Sports, a teacher is required to handle 20 to 24 lessons per week, while those teaching at both A-Level and O-Level are expected to have a minimum of 18 lessons per week.

However, data from the Education Service Commission validation report shows that 16,343 teachers on the government payroll (representing 54.4%) are underutilized, as they fail to meet the required teaching load. Even more concerning, 1,255 teachers (4.2%) had zero or missing lessons in the school timetable, yet they continue to earn salaries.

“…(With low teaching load) you find that a teacher is teaching for only two days a week” wrote Rose K. Izizinga, a member of the Education Service Commission, while presenting her pertinent observations in the validation report. According to the report, 348 teachers are assigned only one to four lessons per week, while 1,890 teachers handle at least nine lessons per week.

Additionally, 3,572 teachers teach between 10 to 14 lessons per week, and 9,278 teachers are responsible for 15 to 19 lessons per week. Furthermore, 11,553 teachers (30.8%) conduct 20 to 24 lessons per week.  The report further highlights cases of teachers being posted to schools where their subjects are not even offered, while other schools in need of their expertise are left with no choice but to hire PTA teachers to fill the gaps.

For example, one school quoted in the report had a music teacher who had not conducted a single lesson since 2019 due to a lack of students enrolling in the subject. Despite this, the teacher was promoted to education officer in 2020 and reposted to the same school.

In another case, a History/Political Education teacher was found to be teaching “Life Skills”, with only two lessons per week. Meanwhile, other schools with high student enrollment had only one History teacher, raising concerns about why the underutilized teacher was not transferred to a school where their expertise was actually needed.

In her remarks on the findings, Rose L.K. Izizinga, a member of the commission, pointed out that some schools have very low enrollment yet a large number of posted teachers. She cited Rwamiramira Community SS in Kibaale, which was found to have 192 students but 26 staff members.

Beatrice Byakutaga, another member of the commission, also noted that some teachers are transferred to teach subjects that are not even included on the school timetable. As a result, she explained, they end up teaching subjects they are not qualified in just to create a teaching load.

Overburdened Teachers in Some Subjects

The report also highlights a stark contrast—while some teachers have no assigned lessons at all in their respective schools, others are managing more than 40 lessons per week. Data shows that 2,189 teachers are overloaded, handling more than 24 lessons per week.

James Bato, the deputy head teacher at Kitante Hill School, noted that teachers handling certain technical subjects often face heavy workloads. He specifically highlighted technical subjects, Kiswahili, other languages, and Physical Education (PE) as areas where teachers tend to be overburdened.

“Besides these specific subjects, some schools with many class streams have teachers taking on excessive workloads, while those with fewer students naturally have lighter loads,” he added.

However, he emphasized that schools regularly submit teacher workload data to the Ministry of Education, which, alongside factors like student enrollment, should allow the government to monitor and address workload imbalances.

According to him, it is unlikely that a teacher can be officially deployed and have no teaching load at all. However, he acknowledged that gaps in the system exist, which some individuals may exploit. He also suggested that in cases where a teacher appears to have no assigned workload, it is possible that they may have absconded from duty.

Filbert Baguma, the UNATU General Secretary, attributes the issue to failed government systems, stating that it should be an easy problem to solve. He highlights that over the years, the government has introduced various tracking systems, including the Education Management Information System (EMIS), Teacher Management Information System (TMIS), and Teacher Employment and Learning Application (TELA), all designed to monitor the location and workload of teachers.

As Baguma noted, systems like TELA, for instance, allows schools to upload timetables, meaning that the Ministry of Education should be able to monitor teacher activity in real-time. This would make it easy to identify teachers who are not teaching or those with very few lessons, allowing them to be transferred to schools where they are most needed.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kedrace Turyagenda, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education, noted that the ministry has been reviewing data from the Directorate of Education Standards (DES) and is planning to rationalize the deployment of teachers soon.

She explained that based on the review, any teacher with a significantly low workload—such as six, eight, or ten lessons—will be considered redundant in that particular school and will be reassigned to institutions where their services are more needed.

Additionally, she emphasized that the ministry will not tolerate schools that employ PTA teachers in subjects where government-paid teachers already exist but have a minimal workload. According to her, schools must first fully utilize the teachers on the government payroll before justifying the need for additional PTA staff.

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