Busoga teachers cautioned against drunkenness

PIC: Pupils writing PLE examinations. Schools in Busoga region have been urged guard against absenteeism and drunkeness in order to reap highly in next years PLE examinations. (file picture)

EDUCATION

IGANGA - Headteachers and teachers from private and government primary schools in Busoga sub-region have been warned aginst indulging in drunkenness, absenteeism and other acts that would tarnish the image of their profession.

The warning was sounded by the district education officers and district inspector of schools, who were attending a five-day headteacher and deputy headteachers' refresher training organised under the Global Partnership Education (GPE) and funded by the World Bank through the education ministry.
 
The two trainings were conducted at Jinja Primary Teacher's College, where over 500 primary school headteachers and their deputies attended and another at Iganga Boys Boarding Primary School in Iganga district, where 600 attended.

James Kizito, the Namayingo district education officer (DEO), noted that in spite of the fact that a lot of had been said against drunkenness, some teachers in the remote areas had continued with the habit, warning that DEOs should not accommodate such negative practices.

"Busoga registered poor results in last year's Primary Leaving Examinations, so we should pull up our socks," Kizito said.

He added that absenteeism of teachers, taking long hours on assembly, late coming and loitering in school compounds without managing time and tasks, has continued to cause a decline in academic performance of most schools.

Kizito urged headteachers and their deputies to live up to their expectations by ensuring implementation of skills and knowledge learnt during the training in order for school children to perform well during examinations.

Henry Magomu, a former DEO in Namutumba district, who was also a facilitator at the training, said they trained headteachers and their deputies about teacher presence and time on task, after realising that most teachers in some schools spend time sitting in compounds of schools, waste time on Whatsup and taking longer hours while conducting physical education exercises.
  
"Some teachers hardly prepare for classes following the curriculum, they just scribble old notes which they used years ago and give them to pupils, which is wrong. The curriculum keeps changing and you must follow it so I urge you teachers to teach according to the curriculum," Magomu said.

He implored DEOs to take effective supervision and monitoring of their teachers and also discipline those who engage into drunkenness and absenteeism.

Godfrey Bwaita, a district Inspector of Schools (DIS) in Namutumba district expressed concern over lack of means of transport such as cars for DIS officials since there are many primary schools to inspect.

Bwaita said inadequate human resource and insufficient funds sent from the Government to boost the education sector are some of the factors that have led to poor performance in Busoga sub-region, adding that some remote schools go without being inspected because they are in hard-to-reach areas.

He implored Head teachers to always manage their time at school by arriving as early as 7:00am and leaving at 6:00pm during week days.