Over 1,000 new teachers hired

Over 1,000 new teachers hired
Monday, 26th May, 2008

By Conan Businge

THE Education Service Commission has appointed 1,148 teachers for secondary schools in hard-to-reach areas and under the double-shift programme, Reports The New Vision.

The list was released yesterday, as the new school term opened. Teachers jammed the ministry’s corridors to check for their names. Interviews for candidates had been held between January and April this year.

“All these are fresh graduates,” said the commission’s undersecretary, Stanley Omonyi.

“We are still short-listing the Grade V teachers who went for upgrading and applied on completion of their courses.”

Officials at the education ministry explained that the newly-recruited teachers would be posted to private schools and not in any of the Government-aided schools.

In March this year, there were 17,155 secondary school teachers in service. They were

covering 920 government-aided secondary schools, of which about 700 are under Universal Secondary Education.

The total number of students in secondary schools, from S1 to S6, now stands at 451,000.

The new teachers will be sent to the districts of Kampala, Kalangala, Kayunga, Lyantonde, Masaka, Mityana, Mpigi, Mubende, Mukono, Nakaseke, Nakasongola, Rakai, Ssembabule, Wakiso, and Budaka.

Other districts covered by the new recruitment are Bududa, Bugiri, Busia, Butaleja, Iganga, Jinja, Kaliro, Kamuli and Kapchorwa.

In Kampala, 32 additional teachers were recruited in Kitebi SS, Luzira SS and Nateete Muslim. Of these, Luzira SS has a double-shift programme. In Mpigi, 14 schools got additional teachers.

Some of the newly recruited teachers will be offered appointments as education officers and assistant education officers.

The education ministry advised the applicants, who were not successful, to “wait and re-apply when the next recruitment starts.”

Lists of the newly-recruited teachers are also being displayed at the district headquarters, according to ministry officials.