Work to improve our image –Mitala tells permanent secretaries

Work to  improve our image –Mitala tells Permanent secretaries

KALANGALA .The Head of Public Service Mr John Mitala has said his department has continued to get bad publicity and endless political criticism yet a lot has been done to deem the image of the institution.

Speaking at the opening of   a three-day-retreat of permanent secretaries at Ssese Islands Beach Hotel in Kalangala District last Thursday, Mr Mitala said government has undertaken a number of
reforms such as adopting ICT, establishment of systems such as Integrated Financial management System, decentralised payroll system, but due to negative public, they are still viewed as a corruption infested institution. 

“In such situation, everyone feels free to offer helpful and sometimes not-so-helpful advice about how to manage the public service. Each is an instant expert without the necessary background knowledge,” he said

The retreat was under the theme: “Creating the urgency for transformative leadership.”
He said the image of Public Service has partly failed to improve because some individuals join it with a sole aim of amassing quick wealth  by whatever means possible. He challenged the permanent secretaries to take up the challenge and work towards changing the institution’s image.

“The attitude of those being recruited into the public service is that there is quick money not knowing that on the whole, public service is not a place where that quick money is made.” He said

All permanent secretaries who included; Keith Muhakanizi (Secretary to
the treasury) James Mugume (Foreign Affairs) Kabagambe Kaliisa (Energy) Steven Kagoda (Internal Affairs) Rose Nassali (Education
Ministry) among others concurred with Mr Mitala ,saying  despite the steps taken by government to address the question of delays in salary payments, nothing has been done to improve many civil servants’ pay to boost their morale at work.

“A lot needs to be done about the pay of public servants if we are to continue attracting and retaining the best,” Mitala said.

He also said that there is need to harmonize  the salaries of civil servants and to remove the big disparities between the salary scales in the different government departments. “There is no justification why a driver in one government department earns much more than  a driver in another government department yet they are all drivers.” Mr Mitala added
He also emphasised the need for regular training opportunities for civil servants to avoid potential knowledge gaps.

Public service is one of the government departments that have in the last two years been shrouded in corruption scandals   after several staff were implicated in embezzling over than Shs300b meant for pensioners .According to Police investigations, the staff had reportedly created a racket which swindled the money using ‘ghosts’ (non-existent) claimants and bank accounts .Implicated staff are still on trial for alleged disappearance of the pension funds .

Teachers to serve five years in one school as govt moves to implement new policy

Teachers to serve   five years in one school

as govt moves to implement new policy

KAMPALA. The Ministry of Education has announced a new policy shift bars all teachers from serving in one school for more than five years.

According to the new policy, already communicated to the district chief accountant officers and education officers, any teacher who has been at one school for 10 years is  considered to have over stayed.

“In order to rationalise management of teachers deployment,…it is therefore directed that all serving teachers ,deputy head teachers and head teachers should have their placement posting reviewed every five years,” a circular issued by Education Permanent Secretary Rose Nassali reads in part .

Government usually transfer teachers to other schools but some decline to relocate where they are posted because the founding bodies like the Church and Uganda Muslim Education Association still want them to there.

To observe quality teaching and learning, Ms Nassali said appointments of school heads’ are also  going to be re-validated and re-designated starting this month, using a criteria yet to be announced by the education service commission.

According to the PS , the re-validation exercise is aimed  at ascertaining the current bulk of head teachers and their deputies who possess proper qualifications and their current performance levels .

“All head teachers and deputy head teachers of both primary and secondary schools are expected to be lead teachers ,” says a circular dated October 15.

“Head teachers of secondary schools are required to have a teaching load of six periods per week while their deputies teach a minimum of 12 periods per week,” Nassali adds in her circular .

On the other hand, all secondary school teachers are supposed to have a minimum teaching load of 24 periods irrespective of whether they are teaching in O’Level or A’Level. Ms Nassali said teachers without   minimum teaching loads will definitely be transferred to other schools. She said starting this December ,transfer of secondary school teachers and non teaching staff  shall only be effected after confirmation from the districts that there is enough funds to cater for their salaries .

Recently, the director basic  and secondary education Yusuf Nsubuga said by knowing the number of years a  teacher  has served and  qualification ,the ministry will be able to know those who have furthered their education and qualify for promotions.

Government has since 2010 been planning to introduce the teachers  scheme of service to enable classroom teachers who have served for long  and acquired higher qualification get promotions but the scheme has always been delayed due to limited resources .

Teachers who have invested in upgrading have always complained that their salaries are pegged to the levels at which they teach and not their qualifications.

This comes after government raised teachers pay with the least paid primary teacher now bagging Shs279,145 per month , up from the old salary of Shs227,240.  All Head teachers in Primary schools are now paid under the salary scale U4 lower (Shs799,323) ,but the entry point is Shs 611,984 ,while their deputies are under the scale U5 upper, earning Shs608,822.

Secondary   school head teachers are under U1E (Shs 1,690,688) and the entry point is  1, 624,934 while their deputies get Shs 1,291,880.

Giving uniform salary to teachers  was effected recently following the abolition of the school grading system where head teachers in 1^st grade schools like those in urban centres were earning higher pay than their counterparties in lower grade schools which are  mostly located  in villages .

Currently, Uganda has only 160,000 teachers on the government payroll of which 135,000 are in primary schools.

Lack of career advancement opportunities has been one of the major complaints among Ugandan teachers for several decades. The scheme of service was drafted in 2005 by the Education Service Commission but it currently being implemented only in primary schools. If it is fully implemented, even promotions in secondary schools   will depend on the number of years one has worked as well as their academic qualifications. 

At the secondary level, seniority will push one to the rank of Senior Education Assistant (SEA), and later to Principle Education Assistant (PEA). 

Grade Five teachers would be designated as Assistant Education Officers (AEO) while graduate teachers will be   Education Officers (EO), earning the same salary as a primary head teacher.  

Experience and a Master’s degree will push one to the rank of Senior Education Officer (SEO), then Principal Education Officer (PEO), putting one at the same salary scale as a deputy or head teacher. 

UACE exams kickoff with no major hitches

UACE exams kickoff with no major hitches

KAMPALA. The Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education examinations, which began yesterday, got off to a flying start across the country. 

By press, no school had reported any ugly incidents as all the candidates arrived in their respective schools on time.
However, there was a slight delay of between 10 to 20 minutes in the distribution of examination materials in some schools in Kampala, which was partly attributed to the menacing traffic jams in the city .

Mr Boniface Sserunkuma, a chief invigilator at St Peters SS, Nsambya, said absence of a female on the invigilating team delayed the start of the first paper as they couldn’t check female candidates.

“The slight delay was caused by a combination of unforeseen problems like not having a woman on our team –something that forced us to look for one who was not a supervisor to help us check the female candidates,” he said

In Mbale district, at least five candidates missed the first exams after they were reported to be sick.

 Mr Bernard Nakisa, the chief invigilator at Mbale SS said the candidates’ students did not show up for examinations because they were reportedly very ill.

“The reports from school indicate that the students are ill and  that is why they have not shown up but they were registered to sit for the examinations, “said Mr Nakisa.

Uganda Examinations Board executive secretary Matthew Bukenya said no cases of malpractices were reported on Day one.

“ Even in Ntoroko District where we expected floods to disturb our people ,the situation has been okay at the two examination centres we  have ,” he said

He allayed fears of invigilators and supervisors about their delayed allowances, saying the process has been finalized and all be paid by Friday .

At Nkoma SS, the Chief Invigilator, Mr William Okotel said the examinations started well without any anomalies and students reported in time and none of them absconded.

In Jinja ,a  power outage at  Lords Meade Vocational College interfered  candidates who  where doing their  Biology Practical  Paper  ,forcing management  to use a generate to sufficient light in the laboratory .

Reports across the districts of Mbale, Sironko, Manafwa, Bududa, Bulambuli, Tororo, Bukedea, Soroti, Kumi and Soroti revealed there were no major disruptions.

Early last month the Ministry of Education in a circular warned all school heads not to refuse candidates from siting exams on account of nonpayment of school fees provided they registered for the examinations .

A total of 108,359 candidates are sitting for the exams at 1,803 centres, down from 115,780 who sat the exams last year.

Candidates are today (Tuesday) writing their History Paper One, Two, Three   and Mathematics paper One and Two.

39 percent of schools in Kla, Wakiso operate illegally –Survey

39 percent of schools in Kla, Wakiso operate illegally  –Survey

KAMPALA. A new school survey in Kampala and Wakiso districts by Agile Learning Company (ALC) has revealed that total of 1567 schools; representing 39 percent of the existing schools are not captured in the Ministry of Education database.

This implies that such schools are operating illegally.

The ministry of education commissioned the ALC, a pre- eminent  provider of ICT solutions  to carry out the survey in July as part of the a pilot project to map all schools using global positioning system (GPS) technology embedded in smart phones. The project is being by the ministry to address the phenomenon of ghost schools, pupils and teachers.

According to the survey, out of the 1567 schools, 1,246 are in Wakiso(56 percent) while 321 in Kampala.

“ In Wakiso District ,results indicate that a total of 1,246(i.e 712 pre-primary ,439 primary and 95 secondary schools are operational but not yet captured in the EMIS database. Out of the 439 schools, 17 are government aided ,” the 71-page report reads in part.

Enumerators from ALC had anticipated to find 2,753  schools as captured in the existing Ministry of Education Information Management System database 2013 ,but were shocked to find an additional 1694 schools ,bringing the total number of educational institutions in both areas  to 4330 . Paradoxically, out of the official schools (2753) ,a total of 92 schools ,69 of which in Kampala, were not found on the ground .

“The exercise failed to obtain information from the district and local officials as to whether these schools were once in existence, closed or relocated.” adds the report

Of these (4330)  ,127 private schools refused to be mapped  administrators  were not available to provide the requisite data while others were closed.

The school mapping exercise also discovered inconstancies in the naming of schools, with some school names slightly different from those they submitted to government. Another 118 schools had changed their administrative locations –making it hard to be traced.

Mr Arnold Dhatumwa , the commissioner Education Planning and Policy Analysis said the problem has been exacerbated   by mushrooming private schools that want to operate  before fulfilling the necessary procedures  set by government .He said by revealing the survey findings, the ministry had done her part and it is now the local authorities in Kampala and Wakiso to play their part.

“Most of these  are private schools .They are really hostile, they don’t want to be monitored because they know they are giving a raw deal to the public,” he said ,adding “The onus is now on the authorities in Kampala and Wakiso to crack the whip and address this problem internally,” he said

Currently, there are at least 20,000 private schools across the country. Despite charging high fees, most parents prefer taking their children to private schools ostensibly because they offer high quality services as compared to government-aided schools.

Mr Asadu Kirabira, the in charge of Research at National Private Education Institutions Association blamed the existence of illegal schools on the bureaucracy involved in licensing and registration of private schools.

“No one wants to operate illegally but they are just forced by the prevailing circumstances, “he said by telephone yesterday

“One can apply for a license and takes a year or two to get it .What do you expect that person to do?” he asked

On schools that shunned the mapping exercise, Kirabira said government failed to involve them in the exercise yet they have a complete register of all private schools in the country and their locations.

In 2011,the Auditor General’s office unearthed about 500 non-existent schools which were being planted in the Ministry of Education’s data base and were receiving money ,causing losses to government .In Amuru District alone, it was discovered that  government was losing  at least Shs71.4million per term to 15,539 ghost UPE pupils .

Top Muslim youth leaders stripped of powers to run William street mosque

Top Muslim youth leaders stripped of powers to run

 William street mosque

KAMPALA .The leader of the Muslim Tabliq sect, Sheikh Yunus Kamoga has urged Muslims to remain united despite internal bickering that threatens to tear the top youth leadership apart.

Speaking after Juma prayers at Nakasero Mosque last Friday, Sheik Kamoga said all possible avenues are being explored to keep his leadership together.

“Despite our internal differences, we have we remain brothers and sisters and nothing should tear us apart,” he said  

Kamoga’s call came a day after four members of his executive were stripped of the powers to run William Street Mosque. These include; Sheik Swidiq Ndaula, Sheik Mustapha Bahiga, Hajj Najib Ssonko and Sheik Hassan Kirya .

The decision followed complaints from worshippers that the officials had dominated the affairs of the mosque for years yet they also sit on the national executive committee.

“A mosque is supposed to have its own management committee ,but surprisingly all the affairs have been run by members of the top executive committee .So ,this is unfair and we cannot move like that,” said Hajj Umar Ausi Kamoga ,the publicity secretary on the new mosque committee .

The worshippers also accuse their leaders of serving for nine years without their mandate and failing to give proper accountabilities of the money collected from the mosque.

Others elected on the mosque  committee include, Hajj Haruna Saazi Mabira ,chairperson ,Salim Kasujja(Secretary) ,Hajj Abdulhamid Kiganila ( Treasurer),  Abdul Hamid Salim and Hamiis Matovu( both in charge of Defence ) and Sheik Hassan Nyanzi and Yonus Kabenge( Imams)

But Sheik Kirya, who also doubles as the spokesperson of the Kibuli-based Muslim administration said the new team was illegally installed and insisting that the old management is the one supposed to run the mosque.

“ We know what transpired and in the spirit of  living in harmony, we   never wanted to cause unnecessary tension but our top management  is sitting on Monday(today) to resolve that matter,” he said by telephone on Saturday

The mosque, located on Plot 30 William Street  has been under contention since 2005 .The Muslim youths seized control of it the same year following reports that the administration of Mufti Shaban Mubajje at Old Kampala had sold it to city businessman  Hassan Basajjabalaba through   his firm, Haks Express Ltd who later sold it to another businessman Mr Drake  Lubega at $2milion .It houses at least 50 shops and a mosque.

Despite Muslims occupying it and collecting dues from shops, Lubaga still insists that it belongs to him and the property legally belongs to him and possesses   the title deed. There are unconfirmed reports that government has since compensated Lubega to enable the property  revert to the Muslims.

The Muslim Community has suffered a series of leadership wrangles since the 1960s with one faction fighting to produce the supreme leader .There have been several attempt by successive governments to unit them in vain.

When Idi Amin seized power in 1971, he compelled all the groups to merge under Uganda Muslim Supreme Council. He also took over responsibility of naming the Mufti which caused some unity but after his government collapsed, they split again . 

Unity was again achieved in 2000 when the groups came under Mubajje ,but his administration is also suffered the same   with a section of Muslims accusing him of  selling community land , and this  led to breakaway faction led by Sheikh Zubair Kayongo.

Private schools caught inflate enrollment numbers to defraud govt-Report

Private schools caught  inflate enrollment numbers to defraud govt-Report

KAMPALA. President Museveni’s proposal to scrap free education in partnering private schools is likely to get credence following evidence that some schools inflate enrollment figures to ostensibly defraud government of capitation money.

According to a spot check validation exercise done in selected schools by the Ministry of Education last Month, it was discovered that some school administrators simply mobilise youth in their vicinities to masquerade as students during head count, yet they are not registered students at the schools. The validation report faults school heads of failure to transparently maintain both admission records and daily attendance registers .

“There is a deliberate and fraudulent falsification of data in all schools visited, but the situation is worse in PPP schools with Sisiya High School emerging as the worst case scenario of all the schools sampled during this validation exercise,” a 29-page validation report reads in part.

In one of the sampled schools- Sisiyi High School in Bulambuli District, students confirmed that enrollment for the first and second term had never reached 100 yet authorities claim there were 482 students. Suppose the falsification of data has been ongoing for 3 years, it means government has lost Shs162.4m in only one school.

When the team entered classrooms, the report says they found that most desks were empty and school administrator claimed students had been sent home to collect feeding fees. “ So ,the team decided to request each student to name at least three full names of students they thought were absent and none of them could give an answer ….there was indeed no document to confirm officially that students had been sent away to collect fees,”

The report says, many private schools don’t want to submit any information regarding their operations and a few that comply do so after seeking clearance from their directors. It cites Sironko Parents where the head teacher had to first call the proprietor of the school who happen to be an MP.

The report comes months after Mr Museveni directed the Ministry of Education to scrap private schools from implementing free education ,insisting that government was simply ‘donating’ free money to school proprietors .Mr Museveni said the Shs53b spent on private schools annually can be used to construct 88 government schools annually in the 243 sub-counties.

The report also reveals that most private schools do not meet minimum criteria for participation in the implementing USE programme because they lack institutionalised governance and management structures.

“There is no transparency and accountability in the management of USE resources. Instead, the management of these schools appears to be revolving around the proprietors who are firmly micro managing these schools.” adds the report

According to the report, some local leaders admitted knowing what is going on in the schools, but failed to take corrective action for fear of reprisals from some proprietors who are said to be politically well connected.

The validation exercise was conducted in sample schools in Mbale, Bulambuli , and Sironko districts .Five schools were sampled in the three districts . A similar exercise has been done in Namayingo , Kampala,Wakiso  ,Kibale districts .This followed three data collection exercises across the country with all providing varying figures on both enrollment and attendance of students –something that puzzled government when disbursing capitation money for Second Term .For example, at St. Joseph BuyagaSS –Sironko, the school census showed that it has a population of 1,417 students ,but the head count and ministry of finance surveys revealed 1,027 and 800 students respectively .Nkooma Muslim SS, had no students during the annual school census, but the head count and ministry of finance reports  put enrollment at 2,859 and 343 respectively .  

All the schools sampled, none had accounted for the capitation money disbursed to them as required .For instance, Sisiyi High School has never accounted for government funds since 2008 while Sironko Parents has not done the same for the last three years.

- Mr Joseph Eilor, the assistant commissioner Education Planning and Policy Analysis said: “The president was spot on and such revelation is going to change the way we do our data collection and avoid relying on only source,”

In fact, whoever doubts our findings should ask investigating arms of government to investigate and I am sure they will certainly get shocked.”

Mr Ezra Mwambu , the proprietor  Sisiyi High School said: “Being a politician, I have opponents and it is those opponents who gave the ministry wrong information .The people they interviewed have never said anything good about the school and as a director ,I wasn’t interviewed ,”

-Each student in a private school implementing the scheme gets Shs47,000 per term while one in a government-aided school and BTVET institution  receives Shs41,000  and Shs 150,000 respectively on top of meeting all the operational expenses of the school. Parents, though, have to provide the students’ uniform, stationery and meals but very few meet their obligation.

-Currently, a total of 863 private secondary schools are in partnership with government out of 1,785 schools implementing the free education in the country.
Of the 806,992 beneficiaries under the Universal Secondary Education programme, a total of 300,000 are estimated to be in private schools.

Recommendations:

- A spot check validation exercise should be adopted as an efficiency strategy for ensuring that resources disbursed under capitation grants not abused through deliberate manipulation of date

-Sisiyi High School be urgently investigated on deliberate and fraudulent falsification of data to obtain capitation grants

-Beginning 2015/16, all PPP schools should be required to sign an MoU with Education ministry afresh.

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