FICH Survey Reveals The Uphill Battle for Quality Education in Oyam District

Qualified teachers in Oyam District, northern Uganda, are struggling to equip learners with basic literacy and numeracy skills.
 
This issue is not attributed to the teachers’ incompetence, but rather a complex back-and-forth of factors.
 
For instance, nearly all the 109 Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools in Oyam are struggling to maintain a sufficient teacher-to-pupil ratio, which negatively impacts the quality of education.
 
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics reported a pupil-teacher ratio of 55:1 in primary schools in Uganda in 2019, significantly higher than the recommended global standard of 40:1.
 
Disturbingly, even when teachers are available, they often face inadequate resources, overcrowded classrooms, and limited opportunities for professional development.
 
This is according to the findings of a school-based baseline assessment commissioned by Foundation for Inclusive Community Help (FICH) in partnership with Uwezo Uganda. A total of 25 schools took part in this assessment, which was conducted between March and April 2025.

Nearly all the schools visited were found to be lacking basic amenities: well-constructed classrooms and desks, hindering teachers’ ability to deliver effective
lessons.
 
Mr Anthony Nam, the head teacher of Aloni Primary School, Iceme Sub-county in Oyam County North, says inadequate capacity building of teachers on their areas of weaknesses coupled with high teacher-pupil ratio has further worsened the situation.
 

“Like in my school, I have a total of 287 Primary Three pupils confined in one classroom. With 413 in P.4 who are learning in a church building,” says Mr Nam.
 
He adds: “As if that is not bad enough, the issue of domestic violence is affecting children’s learning. In my children, I have three children who are already residents in my home because of the issues of domestic violence. Two are in Primary Seven.”

Teachers’ Training Institution Speaks Out

Mr Patrick Okada Opito, the principal of Loro Core Primary Teachers’ College, highlights that the problem starts with the teachers they produce.
 
He says teachers are trained very well at Loro Core PTC, but when the teachers go out, they are influenced by those who are already in the field. 
 
“When these teachers come, we train them very well. Of course, as they go out, they go when they’re hot. Now when they reach those places (work stations), teachers there influence them through laziness,” he says.
 
Another category are those teachers who prefer to be seen by their supervisor – the head teacher – but doing nothing.
 
“Those ones are the ones called absent from within. They are absent, but it will take you time to know that they are absent because they don’t go to class. Then there are those ones who go to class just to occupy the class because the head teacher wants them to go to class. So, those are occupying teachers,” Mr Okada explains.
 
“Others pretend that they are preparing lessons and schemes of work, but they are preparing their own things. So that one, it is upon the head teacher to come and tighten the supervision, to ensure that he demands a scheme of work and a lesson plan.”

Chronic Teacher Absenteeism

At least 289 male teachers out of 480 (60.2 percent) were present on the day of the FICH-Uwezo survey visit in classes in Primary One to Primary Seven. And 155 of the female teachers out of 480 (32.3 per cent) were presented on the day of the survey across all the four districts: Alebtong, Arua, Kole and Oyam.
 
This implies that from a total of 444 out 480 teachers present, approximately 7.5 percent of them were absent on the survey day across all 31 schools surveyed.
 
To enable access to pre-school education, the findings reveal that a majority (23) of the schools surveyed had Early Childhood Development (ECD) facilities while eight had no such facilities attached to them.

Do Teachers Qualify for the Job?

Interestingly, most of the teachers surveyed were qualified, indicating that schools and districts are making an effort to recruit trained teaching staff. Only a few teachers (7 out of 480 or approximately 1%) were untrained.
 
Also, slightly more female teachers (48.4 percent) reported to have been exposed to gender pedagogy training compared to 45.7 percent male teachers.
 
Additionally, the findings reveal that more male teachers felt they were well- equipped to address gender-related issues in class than their female counterparts.

Management and Governance-related Issues

The school survey revealed that 29 schools have their Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) membership ranging from between seven (7) to 15. One school reported membership of up to 24 representatives, but two schools did not report having any PTA structure, hence no membership.

Recommendations

Relating to gender, the findings indicate that twice more males than females report incorporating gender-responsive teaching materials in lessons.
 

The researchers then recommend that such teachers could mentor or support other teachers in embracing gender-focused teaching approaches.
 
Despite numeracy and literacy learning outcomes being low, some enabling resources such as library services or facilities seem to be available in schools. These should be utilised effectively to support teaching and learning.

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