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Uganda: Why Teachers Are Abandoning the Profession
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The Monitor (Kampala)
OPINION
12 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Alex Okalebo
I would like to draw the attention of Ministry of Education and the government in general that while they boast of having enough teachers, they will in the near future wake up to find a shortage of these professionals in the country.
As many old teachers who "enjoyed" the benefits of profession in the past retire from service, the young generation of teachers today seem not to want being posted or transferred to rural schools.
They are more interested in urban areas which offers them the opportunity to enroll in various institutions for other courses or during holidays. They no longer fear losing their teaching jobs.
The government itself has never taken teachers as priority human resource, that's why the government takes long to increase teachers' salary and when it does, it's only by a small amount - which the government then publicises as a big deal.
The government's argument that the teachers' wage bill if increased would be very high and therefore cause inflation in the country is not convincing.
Some government officials have often said that if teachers salaries are increased, then teachers would take to living luxurious lifestyles - spending more time in bars (talk of drunken teachers), beaches, hotels etc and therefore they would not be available in classrooms to teach.
Besides, the methods used by the Ministry of Education in appointing, posting, transferring, and confirming teachers is also very frustrating. Their decision is often based on technical know-who, and takes a very long time to be effected.
Some officials in the Ministry of Education, for instance, still use the archaic method of dodging, scaring, barking at and intimidating teachers like they were children. This approach has resulted in many teachers especially those from the rural areas fearing to approach the ministry for any guidance, or assistance.
These days, teachers feel intimidated and disrespected by especially people who should listen to them. Worse still, some headteachers collude with Ministry of Education officials to frustrate teachers in various ways including transfers, pay raise and promotions.
In some schools these days, headteachers are rarely supervised and this leaves them assume too much powers - sometimes even determining the destiny of teachers in their schools. In such cases, teachers have live at the mercy of the school boss. In effect, this leads teachers to lose their self esteem.
Economically, teachers always survive on borrowing money because they do not have alternative sources of income apart from their meagre salaries. They can't operate business as this would deny them the time to teach.
They teach other peoples' children when their own can hardly go to good schools. Moreover, the only achievement a teacher can be proud of is to be able to educate their own children as well. Indeed, teaching is becoming a cage many teachers are struggling to abandon.
These days women who aspire to enjoy the luxuries of modern world economy do not hesitate to assure you that they can't marry a teacher because teachers are poor.
Some even make fun that if you want to die early then marry a teacher. For instance, they say that a teacher unlike other professionals, treats their patients with mere pain killers instead of giving them proper treatment because they cannot afford the costs involved.
Just imagine: the children taught in schools turn out to lead better lives after completing their courses than their former teachers. Unfortunately, even some of the children they taught shun or do not even greet their former teachers. What a shame!
And because of the frustrations and failures to advance their causes, teachers especially those in post-primary institutitions have chosen to quietly abandon the profession.
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To prove that this is happening these days, establish how many teachers leave their jobs annually, how many students apply to public universities for education course, especially now after the government scrapped the sponsorship of Arts courses.
Teachers who do not get teaching jobs join other careers/courses and get other jobs. The silent war to shun the teaching profession has just began and nobody knows who will stop it, how and when.
Mr Okalebo is teacher in Jinja
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