In a bid to empower and keep girls in schools, leaders and technocrats in Apac District have decided to have a balanced female teacher ratio in primary schools.
During Tuesday’s council meeting, Mr Eling Geoffrey Owera, the Secretary for Education and Health stressed the need to employ new female teachers in all primary schools across the district.
Mr Eling who represents Chawente sub-county said the idea would aid in bridging the gap in the education of girl children as stipulated in the UN convention on girl child education and was backed up by the District Education Officer, Bily Okunyu.
Talking to TheUgandan, Mr Okunyu said that as education officials, they are also trying to minimise the cases of unprofessionalism amongst teachers. He insists that, female teacher shortages remain a major obstacle for districts to achieve the goal of universal primary education, with a quality education offering hope and the promise of a better standard of living, while also noting that there can be no quality education without competent and motivated teachers.
Mr Okunyu also added that the district would ensure that the female primary school teachers also benefit from the free sanitary pads distribution by government.
During his re-election campaigns early this year, president, Yoweri Museveni promised to provide free sanitary pads for girl pupils so as to keep them in schools.
When contacted about Apac District’s proposals, , Dr Tonny Mukasa Lusambu, the Assistant Commissioner in charge of Primary Education said the ministry would do its best to support them.
Apac District had 1668 primary school teachers in 114 government aided schools with a 1:14 school teacher ratio, where half of 1102 pupils are girls whose highest enrolment in lower classes.
According to Uganda’s own statistics, the average Ugandan is a 14-year-old girl, living in a rural area. She has a one in four chance of becoming pregnant during adolescence, is at high risk of being in an early marriage, and will likely drop out of school before reaching the secondary level.
Gender-based violence comes in many forms, including physical violence, rape and sexual assault, child and forced marriages, female genital mutilation, human trafficking, and the denial of resources and services.
Any act that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological, or economic harm to women is a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination.
