As the third term is set to start on Monday next week, John Chrysostom Muyingo, the Minister of State for Higher Education has rubbished reports that arts teachers are dodging classes after being disappointed with a botched strike over salaries.
Despite calling off the strike, after meeting the president recently, media reports have indicated that the majority of arts teachers in schools have chosen to dodge learners.
They do this by reducing the number of hours of teaching which is affecting the learners’ performance.
While speaking to journalists during the Teacher Changemaker Development Program (TCMDP) National workshop at Kololo SS on Tuesday, Hon Muyingo said that these are lies that are meant to distort the teachers’ minds.
“Our friends in media should stop putting out negative lies to the public, the government is not aware of any arts teacher who is not teaching because of salary issues, they are all in classes these ones at Kololo SS can testify,” he said
He noted that government has the goodwill of enhancing all teachers’ salaries but is constrained by the low resource envelope.
“We are going to enhance all teachers’ salaries. I want to let you know that arts teachers are happy,” he said
The workshop brought together a number of headteachers from different schools, DEOs, among others was organized by a partnership between the Ministry of Education & Sports-Secondary Department, the Association of Secondary School Headteachers of Uganda (ASSHU), and STIR Education.
It is aimed at equipping headteachers who will later guide teachers and give learners evidence-based education.
Muyingo said that the provision of giving learners research-based education is in line with the new curriculum which supports government efforts of skilling Ugandans.
Speaking at the event Modern Kalema the Country Director of SIR Education said that they believe that the only way to change the education system is to improve both what is taught and how it is taught.
“We believe that the purpose of education is the creation of a holistic learner with the requisite skills, knowledge, values, and attitudes to survive and thrive in the world after school,” he said adding,
“The teacher, being the person that interacts with the learners on a daily basis is therefore very key in the achievement of this grand plan for education. However, you cannot give what you don’t have. We, therefore, endeavor to empower the teacher with the requisite skills, knowledge, values, and attitudes that they use to change their classroom practice and hence pass on 21″ century skills to the learner,”
