Government is set to roll out biometric finger print readers to curb teacher absenteeism in schools all over the country.
This was revealed by Finance minister, Matia Kasaija while presenting the national budget of Shs 40.48 trillion for financial year 2019/2020 at the Serena hotel conference centre.
According to Kasaija, they will undertake several interventions as a measure to improve on education. He says teacher monitoring and inspection will be improved through rolling out biometric finger print readers to improve school teacher attendance and curb absenteeism.
Kasaija was speaking on the presentation of the Shs 3.4 trillion allocated to the education sector for financial year 2019/2020.
He said although teacher absenteeism was still a problem, a pilot in 20 district showed that absenteeism had reduced to 4% by 2019 from up to 15% in 2015 with the use of biometric finger print readers. He says the situation will improve with the complete roll out of the biometric finger printing system to track teachers attendance.
Kasaija says for the education sector, government will improve instructional practice especially in early grades, in the use of reading materials, enhance early grade numeracy and literacy among others.
The Finance minister also said the minimum standards on teacher numbers, instructional materials, and sanitary facilities across schools shall be established and enforced.
He said seed secondary schools under construction shall be operationalized. Kasaija says as it stands, 92% of all parishes in the country now have a government aided primary and secondary school, while all major regions in the countries have public Universities.
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