Govt lists 17 grounds to validate teachers

The Education Service Commission (ESC) yesterday started validating credentials of tutors and secondary school teachers across the country after nearly a year-long delay due to Covid-19 disruptions.

Education Minister Janet Museveni, who is also the First Lady, initially directed the validation to be conducted in April 2021, but a pandemic-induced nationwide lockdown imposed on June 18 forced bureaucrats to shelve the plan.
With the economy and schools fully reopening on January 10, the first in nearly two years, Education Service Commission officials said time to weed out imposters is ripe.

The validation as well covers non-teaching staff and the exercise started yesterday in Buganda until March 4 when it will be rolled out to other regions before the June end date.

Overall, credentials of up to 30,000 teachers, tutors and non-teaching staff will be authenticated.

In order to be validated, one must present up to 17 documents, including a national Identity Card and originals of academic transcripts.

Mr Asuman Lukwago, the ESC secretary, said teachers without national IDs should present police letters and evidence that they are trying to replace them.

Other requirements are copies of original appointment, posting and confirmation letters as well as all academic documents from Uganda Certificate of Education.

Mr Lukwago said teachers should have all the listed requirements to be able to score the 100 percent mark, or at least 90 percent, to be eligible for validation.

He stressed that teachers with incomplete documentation will be investigated and, if found with forged documents, their services will be terminated before prosecution.

“If a teacher is found with genuine documents, but without a confirmation letter, we shall help him or her to get one. But if he or she has fake documents, we shall deal with him or her,” he added.

During a visit yesterday to some of the schools where validation was ongoing, this publication found some teachers unprepared.

For instance, a number of teachers at City High School in Kampala did not have original copies of their academic documents while some did not have confirmation letters and national IDs.

These were given hours to produce the missing documents, or be turned over for investigations.

Some teachers had to bolt from the validation room and sprint home to get their national and school IDs as did those who did not have their academic certificates.

Officials tasked teachers to surrender photocopies of all the 17 requirements, duly signed by the head teacher of the employer school, after providing proof of the original copies.

“We have an electronic data management system at the [Education Service Commission] headquarters where we are going to verify the authenticity of all these documents one by one,” said Ms Sophia Natongo, the Commission undersecretary.

Some teachers, speaking on condition of anonymity, complained that documents required for validation are too many.

Mr Alex Mugarula Kyoma, a teacher at Kololo High School, said the exercise was a bit inconvenient, but they have no option but to oblige.

Meanwhile, Kololo High School deputy head teacher, Ms Rose Nassuna, said they have been overwhelmed with the post-lockdown enrolment which has outstripped staffing.

“At the moment, we have 3,800 students managed by only 86 teachers. We need a total of 120 staff to handle all our students,” she said.

Measures
Validation requirements
• Letter of first appointment
•  Letter of confirmation
• Letter of current appointment
• Current payslip
• Posting/transfer letters to current stations
• Registration certificate
• Uganda Certificate of Education
• Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education
• Diploma certificate
•  Diploma transcript
• Bachelor’s degree certificate
• Bachelor’s degree transcript
• Master’s degree certificate
• Master’s degree transcript
• National ID
• School ID
• Station of salary payment