The Uganda government is expected to recruit up to 10,000 teachers in primary schools in order to make up for massive teacher shortages. Assistant commissioner for primary education Tony Mukasa-Lusambu stated during the district education officers and stakeholders’ workshop at Speke Resort Munyonyo that recruitment efforts would begin this February in all districts.
At the workshop, Lusambu declared that every Primary Seven school must have a minimum of seven teachers, a head teacher inclusive. There ought also to be a pupil-teacher ratio of no greater than 53 pupils to every teacher. Although the average pupil to teacher ratio in Uganda has improved to about 50 to one, it is not uncommon to see primary school classes of eighty pupils led by a single teacher.
Would-be teachers will apply to a district service commission, which will maintain a shortlist of teachers for interviews and appointments. The commission will keep a back-up of teachers on standby, in case an instructor passes away, quits, is terminated, etc.
Results on the Primary Leaving Exams (PLE) indicate that urban schools performed better than rural ones. The gap in performance is likely to due to a shortage of teachers and absent pupils.
The pupil to teacher ratio in secondary schools are much lower (about nineteen to one), but that may be due to the fact that so few Ugandan children even attend secondary schools in the first place: little more than twenty percent.
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