By Gladys Fred Kole
Lakes State government has frozen the salaries of over 200 teachers who failed to participate in the teacher’s evaluation examination.
The examination is a screening process aimed at assessing the quality of teachers in government schools across the state and has been ongoing since 2023.
The move is seen as a necessary step to ensure that the quality of education in government schools is maintained at a high level and that students receive the best possible education.
Lakes State governor, Lt. Gen. Rin Tueny Mabor, said during the swearing-in of the SPLM county representatives last week that the quality of education in the state has to be improved.
“We are going to screen this ministry (the State Ministry of Education) properly,” said Lakes State governor, Lt. Gen. Rin Tueny Mabor, during the swearing-in of the SPLM county representatives last week.
“We have started with the teachers, and they tried to protest; they don’t want to be tested. They don’t want exams to be approved if they are teachers,” he added.
4,000 teachers are said to have been registered in the education ministry, but 200 declined to turn up for the screening examination in protest, prompting the government to call for drastic measures, leaving many with frozen salaries.
The second screening exercise was expected to source out another opportunity on Saturday, February 17, 2024, to rescreen those ready to sit for the examinations.
“We have teachers who can’t express themselves in both English and Arabic or in their written mother tongue,” said Governor Rin.
Lakes State, which missed a post in the top 10 best-performing students across the country in the recently released certificate of primary education examination, is said to have witnessed a great performance in the government schools that saw 3 pupils scoring 93.8%, coming from Yirol East and Yirol West.
According to the state minister for education, Hon. Nelson Makoi, the general CPE examination performance in the state has improved compared to the other years.
Nelson said that out of over 4,000 students who had registered for the National CPE Examination of 2023, over 98% had made it to the senior level.
“In general performance, Lakes State dropped slightly from position 5 to 7,” said the state education minister.
“The number of learners that passed this year is much better, and they achieved quality results,” he added.
Certificate of Primary Education examination results in Lakes State saw only Yirol East and Yirol West counties producing the three best pupils with great results, which Minister Nelson said needed to be increased with the screening of teachers that is set to end this year.
Teachers who failed to turn up for the screening exercise had two months left to take the examination or risk losing their jobs.