Save our schools from punitive transfers

Transfers are a normal practice in all organisations and should be encouraged for the growth and sustainability of any organisation. However, this has always been abused in most of our schools. For the purpose of this article and discussion, my focus will be on secondary schools.

I am happy that the Ministry of Education unlike other ministries is having new faces right way from the permanent secretary. I will, therefore, use this opportunity to warn them against doing what their predecessors have been doing. 

Abusing the promotion, posting and transfer of teachers. These processes are abused for one reason or another. Some people are, for example, have accelerated promotions because of their connections with religious bodies or members of Education Service Commission.

There is evidence that most of the transfers in these schools are not on merit. Many teachers "buy" their promotions and eventual transfer or posting to particular schools. This is unfortunately a public secret. Many good teachers without "connections" will never be promoted or if they are eventually promoted will never serve in "good schools".  There is evidence that members of the school foundation bodies or people on Education Service Commission are often compromised with money and other gifts during interviews and eventual posting of head teachers or their deputies. Many teachers head schools that they would not have headed, if due process was to undertaken.  Such teachers do not have their loyalty to the schools or communities, where they are serving but rather the people from whom they bought the school.

 There is a school in Butambala district, which once had a population of about 2,000 students and once the leadership changed to appease a powerful head teacher in one Masaka secondary schools, whose young brother was to manage the school despite having had wanting managerial schools. The school currently has total population of less than 500 students and once heard education ministry official defending their insistence on keeping the head teacher in that school. The community school is now dead and it will take a miracle to resurrect it. The foundation body in such a case would not help for conflict of interest.  SSeke Secondary School was equally destroyed because of greed. The school which had more than 1,500 students has handful currently. It is common knowledge that you cannot get a good posting, if you have not or unwilling to grease your way. The public awaits who will replace Hajjat Aisha Lubega at Nabisunsa!

I request the people concerned in the Ministry of education or officials in the Inspectorate of Government to institute a probe into the transfer and management of many of the Universal Secondary Education schools. Investigate the wealth of these people after all we know the income of most of these people.

In the quest to appease their "god fathers" these head teachers exorbitantly charge the students. I have not known, for example, why government school should charge more money than equally good private schools.

The writer is a lecturer at the International University of East Africa