| dc.description.abstract | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
During the months of April-May 2002, the Department of Secondary Education conducted 9 regional workshops that were intended to consult stakeholders on key issues related to the teaching loads and curriculum package for all secondary schools in the country. The outcome of this process would guide the Ministry to ultimately determine for each secondary school staff establishment ceilings and curriculum package.
The venues for these workshops included Ntungamo, Kabale, Kabarole, Lira, Arua, Soroti, Jinja, Mukono and Masaka. The list of participating districts and that of resource persons is attached as Annex 1.
The key note address by, or in some instances, presented on behalf of the Commissioner Secondary Education highlighted, in a provoking manner, the underlying issues. A position paper on the curriculum menu highlighting what constitutes the core curriculum, options and prudence in managing staff ceilings in light of budgetary constraints was, together with the former, used as the working documents that informed the discussions. Various forms of the Maximum Participatory Approach (MAP) including group and plenary discussions were used and some of the observations/recommendations include the following:
Issues in the Key Note Address
(a) The process of determining the staff establishment ceilings for secondary schools should take into account, school specific needs: co-curricular and other outside of class activities undertaken by teachers e.g. marking, lesson preparation, guidance and counselling sessions etc; and the UPE bulge which is moving towards the secondary education sub-sector and the implications thereof.
(b) Head teachers, teachers and other practitioners/stakeholders in secondary education need to be sensitised fully on the proposed curriculum and the criteria for determining staff establishment ceilings.
(c) The appointment of teachers is based on availability of vacancies on the staff establishment and budgetary provision.
(d) Teachers at times resist transfer because payment of PTA allowances varies from school to school. It is, therefore, imperative for Government to come up with a concrete policy on the issue of payment of PTA allowances to teachers.
(e) There is also need for an accurate database on teachers at the Ministries of Education and Sports, Public Service, Finance, Planning and Economic Development as well as on the payroll.
Issues on the Curriculum Menu
(a) There is need for a uniform core curriculum for all schools (Government and privately owned) and enforcement of set standards by the Education Standards Agency (ESA).
(b) The teaching load for the secondary school teacher (supported by 75% of the reports from the Workshops) is:
24 periods per week per teacher of 'O' Level;
20 periods per week per teacher of both 'O' and 'A' Level; and
18 periods per week per teacher of 'A' level;
6 periods per week per Head teacher; and
6 per week per Deputy Head teacher (one workshop preferred 12).
(c) The decision regarding choice of optional subjects should be taken by the school bearing in mind its capacity to provide these and the enrolment, (50% of the workshop recommendations put the optimum number at not less than 20 students per option subject while the other 50% put it at 10-20 students).
(d) Cost efficiency measures that may be considered include integration of related subjects (e.g. History/Political Education, Woodwork/Technical Drawing, Islamics Drawing, Islamics and Christian Religious Education, Physics and Chemistry into Physical Science etc). There could also be a merger of institutions in the same proximity but with low enrolments.
(e) Core subjects recommended vary from 7-9. The additional ones are Agriculture, Religious Education, Entrepreneur Skills and/or Physical Education, in that order of priority.
(f) Implementation of the new rationalised curriculum for secondary schools should form the basis for implementation of the new staff establishment ceilings.
(g) There should be provision of a reserve teacher in each school that can be quickly mobilised and deployed in circumstances where the substantive ones are away on maternity or study leave or are terminally ill like in the case of HIV/AIDS.
General Recommendations
(a) Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has continuously failed to release examination results on time. It may be prudent to revert to old arrangement of having the Senior Five classes begin in May every year.
(b) Teachers need easier access to the Education Service Commission (ESC) when processing appointments, confirmation and study leave requests. These services should be decentralised to District Service Commissions (i.e. District Education Service Commissions)
(c) The practice of teachers part-timing in private schools should be discouraged and stamped out completely. | en_US |
