Government to eliminate ghost teachers through online recruitment

In order to improve on the efficiency of the application and recruitment process, the Education Service Commission (ESC) has developed an electronic recruitment system which will help in eliminating quack teachers from the system.

The system will fight against fraudsters, ghost teachers and conmen who solicit money from the applicants during the recruitment process.

Speaking during the launch of the system, the executive director NITA-U Dr. Hatwib Mugasa, stated that the platform will enhance the relationship between the government and teachers and also weed out quack practitioners.

"This solution is going to be connected to other government systems. It will also be connected to the school databases so that we have a one government solution. With a click of a button you are able to access the most relevant information of recruitment," said Mugasa.

Dr. Samuel Lubega, the chairperson of the commission said government loses Shs 7 billion annually because of existence of ghost teachers.

He said overall, ESC directly or indirectly takes care of about 70% of the public service of Uganda and this percentage constitutes a big number of staff especially during the recruitment process.

“Occasionally, when the commission advertises for about 3000 to 5000 vacancies, we receive about 40, 000  hard copy application forms in triplicate of hard copy applications," he said.

Lubega explained applications for jobs have always been delivered by individual teachers from all parts of the country and then the papers are followed up by their staff without any loss.

"We fully recognise the role of technology in the transformation of the recruitment function. The system allows flexibility in the time of submission of applications because an applicant can submit his/her application any time of the day," he said.