Kyambogo University sacks 40 lecturers

Aug 14, 2008

FORTY-ONE Kyambogo University lecturers are likely to lose their jobs, the Education Service Commission has recommended.

By Conan Businge

FORTY-ONE Kyambogo University lecturers are likely to lose their jobs, the Education Service Commission has recommended.

In a validation report, the commission said 13 lecturers should be discontinued for lack of academic papers, 29 demoted, three returned to the education ministry and five retired due to old age.

However, “the recommendations may be upheld or rejected by the council depending on its final decision,” said university spokesman James Bulenzibuto.

“Council is not working at throwing people out of the system, but to just streamline its effectiveness.”

The council, the highest decision-making organ of the university, he said, had agreed on what to do and details would be given soon.

However, other sources said the council had not yet agreed on how to handle the recommendations.

“There are still disagreements among members of the council on the measures to be taken on the staff as per the recommendations,” said a top council member.

The recommendations followed a validation exercise ordered by the Cabinet to verify the academic qualifications of the staff and their pay following persistent strikes that have dogged the institution for years. The exercise was conducted from April 28 to May 8, this year.

The confusion started when the university was created by merging the former Institute of Teacher Education Kyambogo, the Kyambogo Polytechnic and the Uganda National Institute of Special Education.

The verification covered 445 lecturers out of a total of 488. Twenty-six lecturers were on study leave but the absence of 17 lecturers was not accounted for. A total of 32 lecturers were not verified because their academic papers were still being investigated.

The report said 344 lecturers should be retained, 23 redeployed within the university and 30 promoted.
It wants one lecturer disciplined for sexual harassment and two for double payment from two government institutions.

The commission said the university deviated from the regulations by appointing assistant lecturers and teaching assistants on permanent terms.
It noted that many appointment letters were silent on whether the holder was on probation or not.

In addition, most departments lacked senior lecturers and that only 11 of the 32 senior lecturers were qualified.
The report said the university did not have an associate professor or professor except for a visiting one.

The commission also noted inappropriate deployment of lecturers and allocation of staff to teach courses they are not qualified to handle. Many academics had not advanced their papers much, the report added.

“Most of them never had publications of any sort and had done no research or supervised post-graduate work.”

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