Science teacher shortage and the moonlighting culture: The pathology of the teacher labour market in Uganda

• A national sample of secondary schools shows the scarcity of science teachers.
• The scarcity of science teachers tends to increase with the size of the school.
• Employment of science teachers in more than one school is a strong trend nationally.
• Local evidence shows reduced teacher efficiency as a result of multiple employment.
• Relevant issues of governance and the role of the market are considered.

The Ugandan Government promotes the rapid expansion of secondary education and requires an emphasis on mathematics and science subjects at that level, but has a “market” approach to the recruitment of teachers. This study uses both national and local evidence to demonstrate that, not only are the teachers of these subjects too few for the policies to be effective, but many of them are employed in more than one school, and some in other work. This “moonlighting” trend, which contributes to problems of poor service, is seen as part of a questionable tendency to commercialise teaching. Policy changes and practical steps are suggested in order to regulate and reduce moonlighting.