School heads demoted over poor PLE results

Two primary school head teachers in Kwania District have refused to hand over office after they were demoted to classroom teachers over alleged incompetence.

This year, Kwania District transferred 13 head teachers and 11 have already reported to their new workstations.

However, Mr John Peter Adupa,  the head teacher of Anwangi Primary School, and his counterpart, Mr James Otim, of Akwon Primary School have refused to hand over office.

The affected public officers claimed they had not been served with transfer letters.

Anwangi and Akwon Primary Schools are among the 10 primary schools that performed poorly in the 2023 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE).

At Anwangi Primary School, no candidate passed in Division One, with only two passing in Division Two of the 51 candidates registered for PLE in 2023.

Mr Adupa told the Daily Monitor on Saturday that his deputy has now been promoted to take over from him.

“This is the deputy who was sent for me to train to work in the future as a head teacher but now is replacing me and I am taken back to the office of the District Education Officer (DEO) for further instruction. I have not refused to hand over the office but I want the letter from the Chief Administrative Officer detailing what I have done wrong that can lead to demotion,” he said.

Mr Otim said that he is not shaken by this demotion since he is a “well-trained” and qualified head teacher.

“I don’t have any fear because there is nothing wrong I have done in the education department of Kwania District. I was not given enough time to prepare my candidates. So, I am requesting that they give me the worst school in the district so that I can change it,” he said.

Mr Andrew Omunu, the DEO, said the affected head teachers reported to his office and their issue was being handled.

“In that transfer, they were instructed to come to the DEO’s office and they were served and also told what to do. We have done that so that they can learn from others who are competent,” he said.   Mr Christopher Oguta, the Kwania principal human resource officer, said Mr Otim and Mr Adupa have been transferred following poor academic performance in their schools.

“We decided to take them to the classroom because we saw that their capacity was wanting. These are head teachers who could not manage the resources at their schools,” he said.

Numbers

In 2023, Kwania District registered 2,435 candidates and according to the PLE result released in January this year, 108 passed in Division One, 1,007 in Division Two, 572 in Division Three, 317 in Division Four, 406 failed and 25 candidates did not sit the exams.

Nearly one third of the pupils in the districts of Kibuku, Madi Okollo, Dokolo, Kween and Namisindwa are not eligible to move to senior secondary school after scoring Division U (Ungraded) in the 2023 PLE. Many other districts had more than 20 percent of the candidates in Division U.

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