Africa-Press – Uganda. With only 21 days left for schools to reopen after nearly two years, at least 8,878 teachers risk losing their jobs because of shunning Covid-19 vaccination.
Data from the ministry of Education shared with Sunday Monitor indicates that of the country’s 550,000 teachers, only 386,996 have received the first dose while another 154,126 are fully vaccinated.
This means 541,122 of the 550,000 teachers have some form of protection against the coronavirus disease, leaving out 8,878 teachers without any protection, even when they were prioritised at the onset of the mass vaccination campaign in March.
The ministry of Education has vowed not to allow any unvaccinated teacher into class when schools reopen next month, in a move to curb the spread of the pandemic.
Schools provide high risk grounds for Covid-19 infection and spread as they are crowded, and have limited infrastructure to enforce the standard preventative measures against the pandemic.
Mr Denis Mugimba, the spokesperson of the ministry, told Sunday Monitor yesterday that teachers and non-teaching staff in schools must decide whether they want to keep their jobs or stay unvaccinated but not both.
He said teachers and non-teaching staff who have received at least one dose will be allowed in school as they wait for their second dose.
“If any head teacher allows an unvaccinated teacher or staff into school, he or she will be held accountable for contravening the Covid-19 SOPs for reopening schools. There is a rewards and sanctions committee of the Ministry of Education and Sports, which handles administrative issues to do with reprimanding teachers who have broken the code of conduct,” he said.
He said earlier on Wednesday that staff in government institutions and receiving salaries from public funds cannot be allowed to remain away from their job simply because they don’t want to be vaccinated yet at the same time you continue to receive a salary.
This will likely worsen the effects of low teacher to learner ratio and lower the quality of education.
The ministry of Education recommends teacher to pupils ratio of 1:25. But data from the ministry indicates that the practical teacher to pupil ratio stands at 1:43. In some secondary schools, the teacher to learners ratio soars to 1:60, especially in schools in Wakiso District.
A 2019 report by researchers from the University of Kisubi, indicates that teachers in Wakiso said they feel committed, encouraged and able to follow up their learners when the numbers are manageable.
The research titled, ‘Teacher-Student Ratio on Classroom Practices in Universal Secondary Schools in Wakiso District-Uganda’, is published on the university website.
The move to block the 8,878 unvaccinated teachers will see some 381,751 learners go without being attended to by teachers, based on the national average of 1 teacher for every 43 learners.
But the Uganda National Teachers Union (Unatu) asked the ministry of Education to reconsider its directive of not paying unvaccinated teachers.
The Unatu secretary-general, Mr Filbert Baguma, told this newspaper’s sister radio, KFM, that it is too early for the ministry of Education to start punishing teachers who will not be vaccinated when schools reopen.
Mr Baguma said the ministry should go slow on the directive of blocking teachers and non-teaching staff that are not vaccinated.
“It is only wise that arrangement of vaccination continues so that when one reports and is not vaccinated, then they vaccinate you at school or at a nearby health facility. There are some places where information about vaccination didn’t reach. So when the teachers come back to school, they should be advised to go for vaccination at nearby centres,” he said.
Mr Baguma appealed to teachers who are not vaccinated to use the limited opportunity effectively, saying vaccination is central in shielding one from Covid-19 illness, hospitalisation, and death.
However, some teachers have vowed not resume work when schools reopen due to the unmatched frustrations the education sector suffered in the last one-and-half years of the Covid pandemic.
The government first closed schools in March 2020, days before Uganda registered its index Covid-19 case, and again during a second lockdown on June 18 this year in order to break a devastating second wave of the pandemic.
Late this year, tertiary institutions and universities were allowed to reopen gradually but pre-primary pupils have never stepped foot in class since the first closure in 2020 March.
Mr Hasadu Kirabira, the chairperson of the National Private Educational Institutions Association (NPEIA), said in an interview with this newspaper that they are ready to block unvaccinated teachers.
“We shall support the directive 100 percent. Time has been there, vaccines are there,” he said.
But Mr Badru Musoke, a teacher at Amity Secondary School in Kampala, told Sunday Monitor that the government should not implement the policy. “Some teachers were pregnant or they had conditions that prohibited them from taking Covid-19 vaccine,” he said.
But he said many teachers have since taken their first dose of the vaccine.
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