Africa-Press – Uganda. Government has transferred 651 teachers from Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions to different secondary schools across the country.
The Education and Sports ministry says the move aims to enhance practical learning in TVETs and address staffing shortages in secondary schools, particularly in rural areas.
Multiple sources from the ministry yesterday said the decision will see teachers from 146 government TVETs redeployed to different secondary schools.
Mr Dennis Mugimba, the ministry spokesperson, said the affected teachers were teaching only theoretical subjects yet the government is reorganising the sector to ensure that learners study purely practical lessons.
“These were secondary teachers who were trained in education but had no practical skill that is required in TVETs. Every teacher of TVET must have a diploma in practical skill,” he said.
The ministry on February 2 directed all the affected teachers to pick their transfer forms from its headquarters on Embassy House on Parliament Avenue in Kampala.
The transfer comes at a time when the government is implementing the 2019 TVET policy, which was enacted to increase the quality of education in both public and private TVETs.
As part of implementing the policy, the government is integrating, and training TVET lecturers, tutors, instructors and trainers within the system and subjecting them to minimum competence-based qualifications.
Upon completion of the reorganisation, teachers of eight non-practical subjects, including Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, English, Entrepreneurship, History, and Business Studies, were rendered redundant, thus prompting the ministry to redeploy them to secondary schools with staffing gaps, especially those in rural areas.
Mr John Muyingo, the State Minister for Higher Education, told that all the eight subjects would continue to be offered in the TVETs but not in old theoretical format.
“We are reviewing what is being taught, so that the curriculum fits the needs of the job market. There are new developments in the TVET sector as people now go to those institutions with good English unlike before. So it is unnecessary to have someone who has qualified in only English, which can be taught by any instructor,” he said.
Mr Muyingo said: “We are a poor country, why should I concentrate all the resources in one small area when a school in Kotido doesn’t have a Physics or Mathematics teacher and yet there are those who are in TVET who I can send out there?”
Concerns
However, the secretary general of the Uganda National Teachers Union (Unatu), Mr Filbert Bates Baguma, said deploying TVET teachers in schools without first training them wouldn’t yield good results.
“Much as the government is not obliged to consult us when making such transfers, it is paramount to always inform us and the teachers because one cannot just wake up and transfer TVET teachers to secondary when we are implementing the new lower secondary curriculum, which needs some prior training,” he said.
“These teachers need retooling because the learning rate of secondary school students is not the same as that of the TVETs and we shall end up having problems in the performance of students,” he said.
But Mr Mugimba countered the claims. “A teacher is a teacher, these are secondary school teachers who have been teaching these things in TVETs and what they are doing now is just changing locations. They know what to do and will fit in perfectly.”
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