Mayuge grapples with teacher shortage

The district education officer, William Nadiope (pictured), has expressed concern over the few primary teachers in the area.

He says the shortage of teachers in Mayuge contributed greatly to the poor performance of pupils in last year's PLE.

The recently released results showed the district ranked among the worst performers.

"We have a gap of 525 teachers. We urgently need teachers to teach in primary schools," says Nadiope, adding the district currently has only 1680 teachers who teach in the 142 government-aided primary schools.

He says most schools, especially those in hard-to-reach areas, have an average of six teachers, with the most affected areas being Bukabooli, Kigandalo and Jaguzi.

Another problem is the lack of accommodation.

"Most schools don't have staff houses. Teachers walk long distances to go and teach and in most cases they reach school late."

To make matters worse, some of the available teachers are lax. Parents are also not interested in tracking their children's school progress.

Nadiope also directs blame on school heads for registering pupils for exams yet end up either failing or not showing up to sit the exams.

"Teachers' attendance has improved but serious teaching is still lacking."

So what's the way out of these problems?

Increased supervision and monitoring, according to Nadiope, who says that's exactly what they plan to do to improve the education standards in the district.

Laston Waako, a district councillor representing Wairasa sub-county, attributed the poor performance to both pupils and parents.

"Most pupils after registering for PLE they don't turn up until the final exams,"

He also blamed the poor performance on rising cases of child labour, early marriages, teenage pregnancies and absenteeism of both teachers and pupils from schools.