Ministry clarifies on staff ceiling

By Gilbert Kadilo THE Ministry of Education and Sports is set to embark on a countrywide programme to streamline staffing in secondary schools, writes Gilbert Kadilo. According to Mr. John Agaba, the Assistant Commissioner for secondary education, the programme that should have taken effect this term but was deferred, will require each teacher to teach 26 periods a week. Headteachers and their deputies will have six and 12 periods respectively. "The chief objective of the new guidelines is to ensure that the teachers available in secondary schools are properly utilised to achieve efficiency and make access to secondary education easier," Agaba said. The document which was circulated to all headteachers on December 20 last year, has, however, been received with anxiety and suspicion by teachers, many of who view it as a government strategy to retrench them. Several of them who spoke on condition of anonymity, argued that the deference of the exercise was politically motivated owing to the March 7 presidential elections. However, Agaba disagrees. He explained that Government did not have intentions of retrenching teachers. But more teachers will be recruited since 94 new schools had been absorbed by Government. He said the exercise was meant to decongest urban areas of teachers and ensure schools met their staffing needs. "There are schools that are overstaffed and others that are understaffed. We therefore hope to redeploy excess teachers to areas of greater need," he explained. Agaba, however, observed that teachers who failed to report to their new stations within three months of posting, would automatically lose their posts. The commissioner also refuted the argument that the exercise was deferred because of the up-coming presidential elections. He explained that the exercise was only delayed because schools had failed to submit their returns on their staffing requirements on time. "Of the over 700 grant aided secondary schools, only 250 were able to submit their returns by January 30 2001 which was the initial date for submission, he said. Ends