Education Ministry targets bogus teachers

Hundreds of Ugandan teachers have had their names removed from the government payroll as part of an exercise to identify fraudulent qualifications. A validation exercise by the Education Ministry found that more than 500 teachers in government-sponsored secondary schools in western and eastern Uganda had forged documents. The Monitor reports that the authorities are currently vetting the qualification certificates and other documents of an estimated 30 000 teachers in secondary schools across the country. The Ministry then plans to investigate the 150 000 primary school teachers where the problem is also rampant. ‘Affected teachers are advised to relieve themselves of their duties before the law catches up with them,’ school commissioner Sam Kuloba is quoted in the report as saying.