1,200 teachers graduate but government says no jobs

Kampala- Makerere University churned out 1,291 graduate teachers during its 66th graduation yesterday but the ministry of Education said there is no money to employ them despite grappling with understaffing in some schools.

These, in addition to 3,064 graduates from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences who received their awards yesterday, will join a growing list of qualified Ugandans who cannot find jobs either in government or the private sector.

Mr Benson Kule, the commissioner in charge of secondary education in the Education ministry, yesterday told Daily Monitor there is no provision for recruitment in the Budget except to replace those who have retired, absconded or died.

“There is still a ceiling on recruiting teachers. What we recruit is a small number on replacement basis. We were only given permission to replace those who died, absconded from duty and retired,” Mr Kule said.

Mr Daniel Nkaada, the commissioner in charge of primary education, said the last time the ministry did a survey, they needed to recruit more 6,000 teachers but this has not been possible because of a limited wage bill.
“There are districts which are doing poorly. We have Kitgum, for example, whose pupil- teacher ratio is at 1:70 instead of one teacher to 40 pupils. This is not good because it affects the learners performance,” Mr Nkaada said.
About 21,000 secondary school teachers are on government payroll against 130,000 primary teachers.

pahimbisibwe@ug.nationmedia.com

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