Moroto district is facing acute shortage of qualified primary school teachers. Stephen Ouma, Moroto Chief Administrative Officer says there are only 80 qualified primary school teachers serving in the 16 primary schools, 84 centers for the Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja –ABEK and 48 Early Childhood Development centers- ECD in the district.
He says that the qualified teachers are supported by 228 unqualified teachers, majority of who are primary seven, S1 and S2 drop outs. Ouma says the available teachers represent 32 percent which is below the national average of 65 percent.
//Cue in: “Out of the 308 teachers.”
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According to Ouma most teachers posted to Moroto district either run away of join the mushrooming number of NGO’s that are better paying. Ouma explains that the inadequate number of teachers has greatly affected the child enrolment in schools. Only 10,000 out of the 43, 000 estimated children in Karamoja are attending school. He says that as a result, the district is set to recruit 282 primary school teachers to feel the glaring gap in the teacher’s ceiling.
//Cue in: “Moroto district has been…..”
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He says the Ministry of Education and Sports has sent resources to support the district in filling the gap after several pleas by Moroto district. Ouma says that they will continue lobbying government to increase the number of teachers.
Paul Apul, Moroto District Education officer is optimistic that the recruitment will help improve on performance of children in primary education. He says that continued performance of pupils from Moroto is already worrying. Last year, only 24 out of the 437 pupils who registered for their Primary Leaving Examinations in Moroto passed in grade 1.
