Teachers oppose sitting PLE
The Uganda National Examinations board chairperson, Prof Mary Okwakol (left), hands over the 2016 PLE results handbook to Education minister Janet Museveni in Kampala on January 12 last year. Teachers have rejected Nakaseke District chairperson Ignatius Koomu’s suggestion requiring them to sit PLE. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- Asked why they are objecting being re-examined, Mr Baguma argued that it will undermine their profession and questions the credibility of the district education service mandated to recruit the teachers.
- State minister for Primary Education Rosemary Seninde condemned Mr Kooma’s plans saying they frustrate teachers’ efforts in educating the country’s citizens.
- In 2016, the district demoted 23 primary head teachers to the level of classroom teachers and transferred more than 30 over poor performance. This followed a council decision to have all head teachers whose PLE results show more than 30 per cent failure rate demoted.
Teachers have warned that they will withdraw their labour if the Nakaseke District chairperson, Mr Ignatius Koomu, does not reconsider his earlier position to have them resit Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE).
In a letter to Education minister Janet Museveni, Mr Filbert Baguma, the Uganda National Teachers Union general secretary, asked government to block Mr Koomu from subjecting Nakaseke’s 844 primary teachers to sit PLE.
“We have requested her to intervene. If government chooses not to respond, the day the chairperson puts the date for the examination is the day the teachers will lay down their tools until he publicly apologises to the teaching profession,” Mr Baguma said yesterday.
Asked why they are objecting being re-examined, Mr Baguma argued that it will undermine their profession and questions the credibility of the district education service mandated to recruit the teachers.
According to Mr Baguma, the pupils’ learning and performance depends on the teacher’s input and what the parents, environment and community contribute.
Condemned
State minister for Primary Education Rosemary Seninde condemned Mr Kooma’s plans saying they frustrate teachers’ efforts in educating the country’s citizens.
“We do appreciate that everybody is coming up with an initiative to improve teachers’ teaching. But it is wrong to bring up something, which will antagonise the teachers and schools. We have a district service commission, which recruits teachers....as a district chairperson, he doesn’t have that mandate,” Ms Seninde said in a recent interview.
Ms Jennifer Niwagaba, a teacher at Ngoma Primary School, yesterday told Daily Monitor that she sat PLE in 1977 and is not ready for another set.
Demoted
Mr Kooma last month said the teachers in his district would be asked to sit PLE to ascertain those with the skills to teach.
In 2016, the district demoted 23 primary head teachers to the level of classroom teachers and transferred more than 30 over poor performance. This followed a council decision to have all head teachers whose PLE results show more than 30 per cent failure rate demoted. The district had registered only 326 pupils in Division One out of 4,395 pupils.
Mr Koomu argued that many school heads started businesses and hardly supervise their duty stations.
