As I have been moving around, and observing the situations of Ugandan schools within all regions for a period of one and half months, interacting with teachers, students/pupils and parents in both primary, secondary,technical,vocational schools and universities and they are both facing problems or challenges in the similar ways(teachers, schools,students) and my findings are as follows..
PROBLEMS FACING TEACHERS IN UGANDAN SCHOOLS
1) Low salary payments and little paid to them doesn’t come in time and that is 110 dollars(270,000 Ugandan shillings) a month. Allowances, taxes and transport inclusive, which gives them no motivation to teach.
2) Lack of accommodation for teachers which makes them travel long distances to reach their places of work, whereby a teacher reaches to the school late and he/she is already tired and no morale to teach.
3) Big work load due to lack of teachers especially in hard to reach areas, e.g. mountainous regions,,islands and politically unstable regions.
4) Lack of enough teaching materials like reference books. The government has failed to provide text books to most schools in Uganda.
5) Lack of refresher courses, workshops and seminars especially for long serving teachers so that they can cope up with the new changes in the new curriculum, E.T.C.
PROBLEMS FACING SCHOOLS IN UGANDA
1) Lack of enough classroom buildings whereby teachers carry out their duties under the trees, whereby during rainy seasons and teachers have no jobs, students/pupils cannot attend classes.
2) Lack of enough teachers in some regions due to their Geographical location, e.g. politically unstable areas, mountainous and island regions.
3) Lack of qualified teachers who can meet the new changes in the new curriculum due to lack of workshops, refresher courses and seminars especially for long serving teachers.E.T.C.
PROBLEMS FACING STUDENTS/PUPILS IN UGANDAN SCHOOLS
1) Lack of scholastic materials such as uniforms, note books, pens, pencils, reference books e.t.c.
2)Lack of school fees due to poor family background, death of parents which makes most of them drop out of schools at an early age.
3) Lack of lunch at school which makes them not concentrate and pay attention during the lectures because they are hungry and thirsty.
4) Walking long distance for their schools whereby they reach schools late and tired, which turns into low learning abilities among them.
5) Hard government policies which are not easy to implement by teachers which makes most of good and highly qualified teachers abandon their duties hence changing their careers, E.T.C.
CHARLES KAKOOZA FISE SECRETARIAT (UGANDA)
28th Nov 2012
