Government to recruit 4,700 secondary teachers
What you need to know:
Recruitment. The recruitment comes at a time when the government had placed a ban on the recruitment of more secondary teachers.
KAMPALA. The government is set to recruit 4,700 secondary school teachers and non-teaching staff for 100 new and old grant-aided secondary schools beginning next month.
Also to be recruited are hundreds of enrolled nurses, steno secretaries, laboratory and library assistants as well as senior accounts assistants or bursars, according to a June 29, circular issued by the ministry of Education permanent secretary.
The circular that was issued to the selected schools indicates that each of the new 100 grant-aided schools are to receive 27 staff, including one head teacher, one deputy head teacher, 19 teachers and six non-teaching staff. This means of the 2,700 staff out of the 4,700 meant for the new grant-aided schools, 2,100 will be teachers and 600 non-teaching staff.
Of the 19 teachers each of the 100 new schools are to get, three will be graduate teachers (Arts) and eight diploma teachers (Arts) while four are to be graduate teachers (Sciences), and four diploma teachers (Sciences).
The other 2,000 teachers are meant to cover existing staff gaps and boost the teaching of both Sciences and Arts in the old grant-aided secondary schools.
Mr Benson Baritazale Kule, the acting commissioner of secondary education, told Daily Monitor in an interview that the recruitment follows President Museveni’s directive that every sub-county should have a government-aided secondary school but in a phased approach.
“It was from that directive that we carried out an investigation which indicated that 278 sub-counties have schools that can be government-aided. That is why in this Financial Year 2017/2018, we are starting with selected sub-counties without any public school,” Mr Baritazale said. He said the choice was based on sub-counties without any government-aided school, community-based schools, faith-based schools, and the catchment areas around the feeder primary schools in those areas. Distance from the nearby secondary school was also factored in the choices.
The recruitment comes at a time when the government had placed a ban on the recruitment of more secondary teachers. But Mr Baritazale explained that the ban did not cover recruitment of new teachers for new schools, neither on the replacement of teachers who have passed away.
“In some of the existing schools, we have been recruiting on replacement basis and for the new schools, we have been recruiting new teachers,” Mr Baritazale said.
Mr Herbert Kiguli, the commissioner of human resource management in the ministry, said they would require about Shs18b for the 2,700 new staff to be recruited for 100 new grant-aided secondary schools. He said the money was available and call for application and interviews for the new staff would be conducted between August and September. Money for the other 2,000 teachers in the old grant-aided secondary schools is yet to be secured.
Directive
Mr Benson Baritazale Kule, the acting commissioner secondary education, told Daily Monitor in an interview that the recruitment follows President Museveni’s directive that every sub-county should have a government-aided secondary school but in a phased approach.
