Govt to validate teachers afresh

The government is to undertake fresh validation of teachers across the country following reports that many have been recruited fraudulently and accessed payroll.

Prof Samuel Abimelech, the chairman of the Education Service Commission, yesterday said they were shocked to find that they had no records in their files of some teachers posted to work in Teso Sub-region.

He said at least five of them forged appointment letters while several were without knowledge of the commission.

“It is shocking that some of the teachers who are appointed illegally are quickly accessing the payroll [and faster] than the teachers that the commission is hiring. We tried to check minutes that led to their appointment, but they are not in our data system,” Prof Abimelech said.

It is against this background that he said the commission will start validating appointment letters of all teachers to weed out the fake ones.

Prof Abimelech said the country-wide exercise kicks off in July and will run until September.
The revelations came on a day after Prof Abimelech led his team for a meeting at Parliament with MPs on the House Education Committee to defend the Education Service Commission’s FY2021/2022 budget.
He told journalists after their meeting that the commission will today start interviewing prospective deputy head teachers and the exercise will last for two weeks.

Prof Abimelech added that the commission will begin the interviews for teachers who want to get on government payroll.

Mr Mohammed Kassim Kaaya, an Education Service commissioner, said in-service classroom teachers are the ones to be interviewed and promoted to deputy head teacher position.

He said the commission will promote 1,400 secondary education officers (graduate teachers), currently earning diploma-holder salaries, and recruit 2,300 new teachers with diplomas.

This brings the total number of teachers and deputy head teachers to be recruited and promoted to 3,700.
“The Ministry of Education advertised these slots last year in March before the Covid-19 outbreak. We could thus not continue with their interviews because there was total lockdown of all the learning institutions,” Mr Kaaya said.

About 40,000 applied for the available 2,700 slots. Mr Kaaya said the interviews for the 3,700 teachers will start next week.

Other  issues
Uganda Business and Technical Examination Board (UBTEB) yesterday asked Prof Abimelech to approve their Shs33b budget for construction of their assessment centre in Kyambogo, a Kampala outskirt.
The UBTEB executive secretary, Mr Onesmus Oyesigye, said they acquired one acre of land in Kyambogo from the Ministry of Education to build their centre. The project is to comprise offices, hostels for examiners, printing and conference rooms.

The committee yesterday also met officials from the Uganda National Examination Board, who were led by the director of finance, Mr Moses Okello, over their budget.
Mr Okello said the board will in 2021/2022 financial year need Shs15.7b to conduct the national examinations.

“As opposed to the exams, we are currently conducting where we got a supplementary [budget] of Shs15.7b, we shall also need the same money next financial year because we shall also be conducting those exams under the current circumstances [of pandemic],” he said.

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