49 teachers on the government payroll in Bukomansimbi district did not return to their duty stations when schools reopened after two years.
Out of these; 38 were government primary teachers while eleven were staff in the different secondary schools in the area. They are part of the 918 primary teachers and 186 secondary teachers on the government payroll in Bukomansimbi district.
Patrick Zziwa, the Bukomansimbi District Education Officer in his sectoral performance report notes that the missing teachers completely failed to report back to their respective duty stations until the term ended.
He says the headteachers tried their efforts to call back all their staff prior to schools reopening in January this year, but still, these did not show up, a direct indication that they were no longer interested in the jobs and most likely quit the profession.
He explains that while some of the teachers joined other income-generating activities in the area, they also have reports of others who left greener pastures in foreign countries.
According to Zziwa, the missing teachers did not leave behind any formal communication about their whereabouts. He adds that the district is working on modalities for replacing them before the beginning of the next school term to ensure that the teaching is not interfered with.
On the other hand, the status report also indicates that a total of eleven private schools did not reopen after the Covid-19 lockdown as a result of financial stress by their proprietors.
Zziwa indicates that, unlike the teachers’ gap that can easily be filled, the closed schools created a serious negative effect on the education service delivery in the district, especially in areas that are not close to government schools.
“We have reports of children that are walking very long distances to get to school because the closest schools closed down due to financial challenges, and I do not know whether these will ever reopen” he noted.
Joseph Luwaga Kitayimbwa, the Secretary of the association of Private Schools Proprietors in Bukomansimbi district says that some of the closed schools were taken by money lenders.
He explains that the covid-19 lockdown affected their sources of income as a result, the closed primary schools had their properties confiscated by money lenders.
According to Kitayimbwa, many of the private school proprietors were counting on the government’s promised financial support.
“We cried out to the government for support prior to the schools reopening, but the much-needed financial support did not come to rescue us,’ he indicted.
One of the private schools that failed to reopen is Mother Care Infant School in Bulenge trading, whose proprietor lost three acres piece of land to a credit institution over the failure to repay a loan of 6 million shillings.