Uganda’s education ministry weeds out 30,000 fake teachers

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Over 30,000 teachers have been dropped by the Education and Sports Ministry is in the going teacher’s verification and registration exercise.

According to the Ministry, some of the teachers had forged academic papers and appointment letters.

Dr. Jane Egau Okou, the Commissioner in charge of Teacher Education and Instruction, says affected persons are not allowed to teach in any school, adding that relevant authorities have been notified.

She says it has taken them along time to weed out such teachers because most of the affected are primary school teacher hired by District Service Commissions.

“We have known that they are there but we have not been able to get them before. This is one of the reasons we put in place the teacher registration exercise. We wanted to weed out these ghost teachers who are everywhere.”

According to Dr. Egau, unqualified teachers are one of the reasons that Uganda still registers low learning outcomes.

“Teaching is not for anyone. Teachers are trained to make learning plans, to determine whether learners are learning and even how to put issue across. It’s not a matter of standing in front of class room and talking. These fake teachers are one of the reasons we have low learning outcomes,” she said.

Alex Kakooza, the Education Ministry Permanent Secretary, says unqualified teachers are one of the challenges the education sector faces. “We face a challenge of not having qualified teacher not just in primary schools but even in ECD centers. This is a serious issue that we trying to solve as a ministry,” he observed.

The teacher registration and verification exercise is expected to end in December 2019. So far, 80,000 teachers have registered. Dr. Tony Mukasa Lusambu, the Commissioner for Basic Education at the Education ministry, says teachers should go ahead and register.

******

URN