Janet Museveni halts transfer of secondary school teachers

The Minister of Education and Sports Janet Museveni has halted the transfer of secondary school teachers with immediate effect.

This was revealed by the ministry spokesperson, Dennis Mugimba, while addressing the media.

According to Mugimba, the minister’s decision is due to inconsistency in the transfer exercise marred by delays in getting the teachers on payroll, replacing the transferred teachers and in reporting to new schools they’ve been transferred to.

“The minister of education and sports received credible information that the way secondary schools teachers in government schools are transferred, was having (sic) many gaps.” Mugimba said.

Mugimba says it’s against this backdrop that the minister decided that the transfer exercise is halted for the time being until the loopholes have been fixed.

“She has instructed that as a ministry, we temporarily stop the transferring of secondary school teachers with immediate effect until an exercise which is going to be conducted by the Education Service Commission takes place” Mugimba said.

This exercise accordingly, will identify how long the teachers on payroll have actually been there and how many contract staff are in each school.

The validation exercise is expected to begin once secondary schools are reopened following a pronouncement by President Yoweri Museveni.

Meanwhile, Mugimba also revealed that the ministry has trained 54 national trainers to train local governments about the Standard Operating Procedures that should be observed in educational institutions of learning amid planned reopening of schools.

“We trained them about the issue of roles; who does what to ensure that our institutions of education are complying with these SOPs especially the role of headteacher or the head of institution that is the principal, vice chancellor in ensuring compliance with SOPs”