Some head teachers in Bukomansimbi are protesting a move by the district education committee to demote them for poor performance.
On Thursday, Bukomansimbi district education committee demoted over ten primary school head teachers after their schools posted poor Primary Leaving Examination results that saw over 2000 pupils fail the national exams.
Some of the affected head teachers are Lucy Nabukenya from Butenga Muslim primary school, Thereza Nabiryo of Kyamabaale primary school, Hassan Kiganda of Bugomola Primary school and Lucy Nakajugo from Kiteredde Primary school.
Others are Kaaya Outhuman of Ntuuma Muslim primary school, Musa Kakande of Kayunga Muslim, Yasin Ssemamba of Kyakamunya, Nakato Annet from Buwenda, and Gordon Ssekibaala of Kyaabi primary school. All the affected schools are under universal secondary education.
Christine Mukiibi, the Bukomansimbi district Secretary for Education and Patrick Zziwa, the Education Officer say the head teachers were demoted because they breached their performance agreements they signed with the district.
Mukiibi explains that they have decided to demote at least ten head teachers who registered only failures in PLE to send a warning to 50 other head teachers who failed to get a single first grade.
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But the affected head teachers are protesting against the decision to demote them from head teachers to deputy head teachers saying it is unfair.
Yasin Ssensamba, the head teacher of Kyakamunya primary school which registered over 60 failures says he is not to blame for the pupils’ poor performance. He claims that he had just been posted to the school when pupils sat for their exams and he could not do much to make them pass. He explains that when he was transferred to the school, he found only about 4 teachers attending to more than 500 pupils.
Ssensamba attributes the failure to lack of teachers. He therefore says he will not accept the demotion letter saying even the district has contributed to the failure of the pupils because it failed to recruit more teachers.
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Lucy Nabukenya, the headmistress of Butenga Muslim primary school who is also affected after her school registered over 30 failures, says she has about 6 teachers who are no longer interested in teaching because of poor pay. She explains that even if they demote her, no head teacher will help uplift the standard of her school if the Government does not increase teachers’ salary.
Outhuman Kaaya of Ntuuma Muslim has also rejected the demotion letter saying parents are to blame for their children’s failure. He claims that majority of the pupils in his school do not have lunch at school because their parents declined to pay 2000shillings for food.
Kaaya also claims that the school also made an effort of asking the parents to at least give the school either a bunch of matooke every week or a sack of maize floor to feed the pupils at school, but they refused. He explains that as a result, majority of the children including those who sat for PLE last year spent an entire day without food yet a pupil cannot concentrate in class when they are hungry.
But Solomon Sonko, the Bukomansimbi CAO says if the affected head teachers risk being sacked with disgrace.
Muhammad Kateregga, the Bukomansimbi LC5 Chairman, however, dismissed some of the claims by the affected head teachers saying many of them do not deserve to head schools.
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