Ministry on the spot over dubious teacher recruitment

The Ministry of Education has withheld appointment letters for 54 teachers to new government-aided secondary schools over irregularities in the recruitment process.
In a dossier to the Education Service Commission (ESC), the ministry outlined nine grey areas and sought a meeting to understand why some teachers who were already on government payroll in other schools were appointed on accelerated promotion to new schools which had been taken over by government even before they had been confirmed on their previous jobs.

The ministry says while it had submitted an approved structure to the ESC, the commission recruited more staff than what the ministry had recommended.
“Twenty-four staff who had already been appointed in service were appointed on accelerated promotion. It has been established that the staff in question were in the new schools irregularly as the responsible authorised office didn’t sanction their transfer to new schools.
“In some cases, it is not possible that they could have served two schools effectively co-currently given that some of the schools are too distant apart. It is, therefore, likely that some of the appointees could have abandoned duty at their current schools,” the letter from the Education ministry’s human resource department, reads in part.
The letter titled ‘Emerging issues arising out of implementation of decision of ESC for grant aided schools,’ further says 15 staff who didn’t have clearance letters from the ministry assigning them higher responsibilities in the new government grant-aided schools were interviewed and appointed contrary to the guidelines.
Mr Vincent Kasule, one of the petitioners, said he had worked at St Peter’s Senior Secondary School, Mayungwe in Butambala District as deputy head teacher since 2016, but was shocked to find that he had been replaced with Mr Charles Senyonga, who was already on government payroll at Kamusenene Church of Uganda-founded school.
His pleas to be recruited as a classroom teacher have been fruitless.
Asked why he was not appointed, Dr Asuman Lukwago, the ESC secretary, referred this newspaper to the ministry of Education and the founding bodies of the respective schools. However, he acknowledged he had received several complaints about the recruitment, but added that he had no control over the matter.

“The founding bodies are our major stakeholders. If it is a Muslim or Church-funded school, when they are grant-aided, is when they will talk of their religion. These schools will be managed by foundation bodies. Now we cannot interrupt,” Dr Lukwago said.

The chairperson of the board of governors at St Peter’s Secondary School Mayungwe, Rev Frederick Matovu, said although Mr Kasule was a deputy head teacher, they could not allow him to be interviewed for the position when government took up the school.
“Mr Kasule was disqualified because he is not a Church of Uganda believer. He is a Catholic. At that time, there was no Anglican who could fit in that position as deputy head teacher. He was assisting, but if a school is church-founded, the head teacher or deputy should be of that faith. That is how he missed out,” Rev Matovu said.
Sources allege that Education ministry officials connived with the ESC to flout the guidelines to prioritise recruiting sitting teachers in the newly grant-aided schools.

The sources say the vice is rampant at the ministry during recruitment because some top management officials are reportedly bribed, yet teachers who have been volunteering in private schools do not have money for bribing.

“They received money. That is why the investigation will not take off. They will do everything to clear their way because they know they are all implicated. If these teachers had money to go to court or proceed to the IGG, they would win because they have been serving,,” the source says.
For more than two months, Mr Alex Kakooza, the ministry’s permanent secretary, declined to respond to Daily Monitor’s queries about the controversial recruitment.
When this newspaper put the issues to Ms Jane Mwesiga, the ministry’s human resource commissioner, she referred us back to the ESC for the answers. “Please get in touch with the ESC, the appointing authority,” she responded.
Dr Lukwago said Mr Alfred Kyaka, an assistant commissioner at the ministry, had given letters to some teachers, which they presented to the Commission for consideration. He referred Daily Monitor back to the ministry for explanation.

Mr Kyaka said his letters were only nine out of the more than 32 which were being questioned and wondered why only his name was being cited.
Besides, he added that the ESC is an independent body which cannot be ordered to act.
He said the grounds on which the human resource department was withholding the appointment letters for the teachers were not justified.
For instance, he said there is no law which stops teachers from part-timing. He added that the ministry tried to outlaw part-timing in 2009, but the decision was challenged by the ministry’s political leadership at the time, who testified that they also were using part-time teachers from government-aided schools to work in their private schools.
In addition, while still a practising teacher before joining the ministry in 2000, Mr Kyaka said he had worked in three schools concurrently, dedicating at least a day to each.
Ms Mwesiga’s office had requested for a meeting with ESC to forge away forward over the issues. Instead, the meeting was attended by the accused officer, Mr Kyaka, representing the ministry, which some ministry sources, who declined to be named, said was wrong.
Mr Kyaka said he attended to defend himself.

“They are covering up their mess. When the commission is recruiting for grant-aided schools, they are not doing promotional interviews. What submission was done to justify this? The schools they are granting aid have been private schools,” the source said.
But Dr Lukwago defended the commission’s action, saying the teachers were promoted on secondment.
The meeting later agreed that the ministry releases the letters to the affected teachers and directed the ministry to formulate guidelines that would aid them in future recruitment of other teachers. Sources said the ministry has so far released some appointment letters but is still withholding others without giving reasons.

“We agreed that we generate guidelines that don’t stop on only identifying a school but also give clarification on who should be a sitting teacher. I have been here for 20 years. There is intrigue. The mandate to recruit lies with ESC,” Mr Kyaka said.

Other issues
Other issues the ministry raises include six staff who were reportedly earning two salaries, contrary to the law. One was paid by the board of governors, and another by government.

"Two staff appointed on accelerated promotion to the position of head teacher had earlier been appointed on probation effective July 1, 2018, under the schools that were grant-aided in Financial Year 2018/2019. None of them had completed the requirements for confirmation in service and, therefore, the ministry had not recommended them for confirmation," the letter notes.

The ministry letter further highlights how two deputy head teachers who were appointed on promotion to the position of head teacher had only served 18 months as deputy head teachers and had not been confirmed on the job.
There were two staff who were appointed without authentic teacher registration certificates, and another had earlier been deleted from the payroll during the ESC validation exercise because he had a forged appointment document.

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