Nakaseke district boss who forced teachers to sit PLE also ordered to do them

Kampala, (UG):- The Minister of State for Primary Education, Hon Joyce Moriku Kaducu has ordered the Nakaseke District LC5 Chairperson, Mr Ignatius Kiwanuka Koomu to also sit for the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) which he subjected the 40 teachers in the district to undergo over the poor performance in last year’s national exams.

Early this week, social media went abuzz after reports emerged that the LC5 Boss had tricked the teachers into attending a meeting with the district officials at Nakaseke Technical Institute only to be given special PLE past papers depending on the subject, they teach in their respective schools as competence exams over poor PLE performance.

The exam which was sat on Wednesday, March 13, was administered by Mr Koomu himself who said he was acting in response to complaints raised by the district local government over the alarming failure rate in some of the schools in the area.

It had also been decided that the headteachers in the affected schools could be demoted to the position of deputy with another option of demotion to a primary six class teacher which Mr. Koomu found not enough to solve the problem of increasing failures in the district.

READ HERE: Over 40 teachers sit competence exams over poor PLE results

“This is not a punishment to the affected teachers. Through this exam, we shall be able to get to the root of the problem. We shall certainly get to the root cause of the failures in our schools,” Mr Koomu said on Wednesday.

Although his act was sarcastically welcomed by several commentators, government officials including the minister condemned the act saying that it was intended to demoralize the teachers.

Ms Kaducu added that Mr Koomu should sit the same exams instead of demoralizing the teachers and causing disrespect to these teachers.

A total of 4813 candidates sat for 2023 PLE in Nakaseke District, of which 276 candidates completely failed the national exams.