The Ministry of Education and Sport has reported an increasing practice of teacher forging transfer documents as a way of joining elite schools, where they believe they can earn more money from side businesses and a larger population of relatively rich parents.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Sports, Ms Kedrace Turyagyenda, said the ministry started receiving such cases last financial year and so far more than 20 cases have been registered.
‘There are some cases which are very funny. You are here in the city in Luzira, then someone cons you and you transfer yourself to Mengo. Of course, they think Mengo has a bigger population, it has more rich parents, then the PTA [Parents Teachers Association] money will be more,’ Ms Turyagenda said.
Appearing before Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) with officials from Education Publication Commission yesterday, she further attributed the temptation partly to teachers’ desire to move to urban areas, where they believe they will have enough time to do other jobs.
Ms Turyagyenda explained that the government posts teachers according to need, meaning teachers may initially be deployed to areas with severe shortages rather than to their preferred locations.
‘When we are posting teachers, we post them where they are most needed. So if we have 10 chemistry teachers who have been appointed and one school in Kisoro does not have a single chemistry teacher, we post them where the need is most seen,’ Ms Turyagyenda said.
She informed the members that the ministry has since summoned the suspected teachers before the Welfare and Discipline Committee to explain how they obtained the documents and cases were forwarded to the Education Service Commission for final action.
The officials had appeared before the committee chaired by Muwada Nkunyingi to answer queries like understaffing, delayed confirmation and promotion of teachers, among others, as raised in the Auditor General’s report of 2025.
According to Ms Turyagyenda, some teachers claimed they had received telephone calls from people purporting to be officials from the Ministry of Education and were told their appointments or transfers were ready.
She explained that the ministry conducts preliminary investigations, compiles the teachers’ responses, and forwards the cases to the Commission, which determines the appropriate punishment, including dismissal where warranted.
‘We have made it clear to the head teachers in the last selection exercise; we told them, please make sure that no teacher accepts any call. It’s a lie; they are cheating them; let them come to the ministry if they have an issue,’ Ms Turyagenda said.
In an interview with the Daily Monitor, Ms Turyagyenda said cases emerged prominently after the Public Service migrated its payroll system from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPS) to the Human Capital Management (HCM) system.
‘We started discovering them over the last few months, especially when the Public Service changed its payment system from the IPPS to HCM, because HCM has all the details of all the minutes that the Commission produced and everything. So, they would flag them as people who are not on the system. So we took an interest to find out who these are,’ she said.
Investigation progress
Ms Turyagyenda said the ministry is working with some of the teachers involved to trace the individuals who impersonate ministry officials and produce the forged documents. She added that suspects have provided telephone numbers used by the fraudsters.
Mr Asuman Lukwago, the Permanent Secretary of the Education Service Commission, confirmed that the Commission is also handling a growing number of forged transfer cases.
He added that those often interrogated by the Commission claimed they sought transfers from the ministry after experiencing poor working relationships with their head teachers, but the transfers were delayed.
‘Teachers are mature people, so if there is a delay in transferring you, it shouldn’t mean that you should go to any street to get a transfer.
They know the offices of the Ministry of Education and Sports, so getting a transfer on the street is not fair,’ Mr Lukwago said.
Meanwhile, legislators also questioned officials on issues of persistent staffing gaps in schools, warning that it affected the wider education sector.
In his response, the State Minister for Education and Sports, Mr Peter Ogwang, admitted the challenges facing the education sector, including staffing gaps, noting that the sector has 103,453 vacant positions, with only 188,118 filled of the required 291,571 positions.
He explained that the staffing rate stands at 65 percent and the vacancy rate at 35 percent, attributed to restrictions that were imposed on recruitment and largely due to the limited wage provisions.
‘The ministry in 2023 and 2025 requested Shs69 billion for recruitment of critical staff to support the implementation of the competence-based curriculum. This was not provided for,’ Mr Ogwang said.
He added that the ministry remains committed to addressing the staffing gap, but can only recruit when finances allow.
Proposed Shs7b headquarters
The Cosase members also questioned the Education Service Commission over its proposed Shs7 billion headquarters in Kampala, saying that a lot of money, as per their Bill of Quantities (BoQ was allocated to non-essential items.
Mr Gerald Nangoli, the MP of Elgon North County in Bulambuli District, questioned the Shs170 million budgeted for the contractor including Shs150 million for stores for construction materials, Shs150 million for contractor site offices and Shs70 million for sanitation works.
Some of the other costs are Shs85 million for workmen’s accommodation, Shs40 million for site administration and security, Shs355 million for maintenance of public and private roads, Shs35 million for rubbish removal and clearing, Shs100 million for factory acceptance tests and Shs200 million for project management.
However, Mr Lukwago told the committee that the Commission did not have the technical capacity to independently develop the Bill of Quantities and therefore relied on the Works ministry, which prepared the estimates.
Mr Nangoli advised the Commission to ask the Works ministry to review the costs. Mr Lukwago said with the guidance of the MPs, the Commission will engage with the Work ministry.
Staffing gaps
Mr Peter Ogwang, the State Minister for Education and Sports, says primary schools are best staffed, with a fill rate of 81 percent and a vacancy rate of 19 percent, secondary education remains significantly understaffed, with a fill rate of 46percent and a vacancy rate of 54 percent.
Tertiary institutions remain the most understaffed, with only 29 percent of the positions filled and a vacancy rate of 71 percent while public universities continue to face substantial staffing gaps, with a fill rate of 34 percent and a vacancy rate of 66 percent.