Kampala — DISTRICT service commissions have failed to recruit the required 3,000 registered primary school teachers, the education ministry permanent secretary has said.

Addressing participants at the education sector review workshop in Kampala last week, Felix Lubanga said there was a shortage of qualified teachers in primary schools because the districts were slow in recruiting them.

He said the situation is worsened when teachers desert the profession. Lubanga said although the ministry conducts annual recruitment of teachers, there was still high demand to attain the required teacher-pupil ratio of 1:45 at the district level.

The current ratio of 57 pupils per teacher is expected to get even worse as universal primary education intakes increase.

According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the number of primary school teachers reduced by 18,000 between 2006 and 2007.

The Education and Sports Annual Performance report (ESSAPR) also shows that there was a reduction in teaching staff on the payroll from 1,773 in July 2007 to 1,436 by June 2008.

An additional 2.3 million children attended primary schools countrywide in 1997, nearly doubling the enrollment to 5.7 million. In 2004, nearly 7.4 million children were in primary schools.

The ESSAPR shows that the enrolment in primary schools rose by 2.4% from 7.4 million pupils in the financial year 2006-07, to 7.5 million last year.

"It is time we employed more qualified teachers," Lubanga said.