Irwenyo also revealed that the Gulu City Education Department still lacks qualified people to offer guidance and counseling services to handle such cases among teachers and learners.
Six
primary and secondary school teachers in Gulu City are battling mental illness. Richard Irwenyo, the Gulu City Education
Officer told URN in an interview that in June last year, his office registered
seven cases of teachers battling mental illness.
He says that two teachers were treated and recovered while the remaining
five and another one who has just been discovered are still undergoing treatment.
He explains that some of the teachers developed the mental illness due to health-related issues coupled with inadequate psychosocial
support and
social problems.
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Irwenyo also revealed that the Gulu City Education
Department still lacks qualified people to
offer guidance and counseling services to handle such cases
among teachers and learners.
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Evelyn Akello, the Headmistress of Lawiyadul
Primary School in Pece –Laroo Division in Gulu City revealed that her deputy is
battling mental illness and is receiving treatment
in the mental unit at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital.
She says that the absence
of the deputy headteacher as well as other classroom teachers has created a
staffing gap in the school.
Lamex Lambert Akena, the Worker’s representative in the Gulu
City council who
also doubles as the Gulu City Deputy Speaker, says the teachers resume teaching when they
are fully recovered.
Gulu
City has 1,300 teachers teaching in 128 public and private learning
institutions including primary and secondary schools.
Jesse Johnson James
Freelancer