Dark day for teachers
Jun 19, 2005
IMAGINE teaching other people’s children when yours are seated at home? That was one of the questions Kampala primary school teachers asked in their petition to the Government over poor pay.
By John Eremu
IMAGINE teaching other people’s children when yours are seated at home? That was one of the questions Kampala primary school teachers asked in their petition to the Government over poor pay.
Finance minister Dr. Ezra Suruma in the budget speech shattered the teachers’ hope of earning at least sh200,000 as promised by President Yoweri Museveni last year. Suruma instead announced a sh10,000 increment on their current salary of sh130,000.
John Situma, the deputy secretary general of the Uganda National Teachers’ Union (UNATU)described the increment as a mockery to the teaching profession and an abuse of the President’s pledge. In protest, Kampala primary school teachers took to the streets to air their displeasure.
While a promise is a debt, the teachers will have to wait for another year or so. In the meantime, how does a typical Kampala teacher survive on sh140,000 a month.
In their petition to the Speaker of Parliament, Edward Sekandi, the teachers said they dwell in slums where a single room costs at least sh50,000. The lucky ones pad to the schools while some spend up to sh44,000 on transport a month. Spending on average sh2,000 a day for meals, the new salary is definitely inadequate.
“Although we stay at school from 8:00am to 5:00 pm, government has not bothered to cater for our lunch. It is advanced that we are paid a consolidated sum of sh130,000. In this event, we are forced to starve all day long, for five days a week yet we have to teach and produce results,†they argued.
“We are unable to send our children to school as we cannot afford to pay secondary and tertiary school fees. Imagine we teach while our children are seated at home,†said the June 15, petition signed by the chairperson, Irene Mawanda and Joseph Ssewungu, the head of the UNATU salaries committee.
But a typical teacher’s day does not actually begin from 8:00am to 5:00pm. At night, they have to prepare lesson plans or schemes of work as well as mark pupils’ assignment not forgetting the large classes.
To survive, the teachers take on paid weekend and holiday coaching or establish other businesses. Those in businesses do not have time to prepare lesson plans or mark homework. “What we do is to make the pupils mark their own work,†said one of the teachers.
Up country teachers tend to their gardens first before going for classes. On market days, most pupils go without lessons. While the education sector has taken the lion’s share of the budget, sh633.4b or 16% of the projected budgetary expenditure, analysts believe failure to address the plight of the 125,000 primary school teachers will dent quality in Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools. In this sense, the real losers in this episode are the pupils as a result of the likely low morale among the teachers.
“The teachers’ expectations were already high,†said a senior civil servant who is also a parent. “Failure to meet their expectations is likely to dampen their spirits until such a time when their expectations are met. The President shouldn’t have been specific about the figure,†added the official.
Mukasa Lusambu, the chairperson Uganda primary school headteachers association said the move will complicate their supervisory role and quality was likely to suffer.
“There is something like a silent strike already among teachers because the standards in UPE schools leaves a lot to be desired,†Lusambu said but dissociated headteachers from the strike.
Situma agrees with Lusambu that it is impossible to expect good performance from a demoralised workforce.
“Those offering little pay to the teachers are against the success of education in this country. They are against UPE and the EFA (Education For All) goals,†he said.
A headteacher of a prominent UPE school in Kampala said a critical analysis of the budget makes the sh10,000 increment useless. “The increase in Value Added Tax from 17 to 18% means paying more for water and electricity and taxi fares. PTA (Parents and Teachers’ Association) fees used to cater for these, but teachers now have to pay for the utilities out of their salaries,†he said.
The teachers dismissed arguments that higher pay does not necessarily lead to quality output. “That is just talk of those who don’t want to pay. They are just trying to justify the situation. Why is it that private schools who pay their teachers higher salaries perform better? Where are the Shimonis, the Nakaseros and the Buganda Road of those days when PTA was in existence?,†said a headteacher.
Francis Lubanga, the Permanent Secretary in education ministry said salaries were a responsibility of the Public Service.
Efforts to get a comment from public service were fruitless. But Lubanga said any salary increment was now taken in line with the pay reform.
Museveni appealed to the teachers to be patient because there were so many demands on the resource envelope.
Ends
IMAGINE teaching other people’s children when yours are seated at home? That was one of the questions Kampala primary school teachers asked in their petition to the Government over poor pay.
Finance minister Dr. Ezra Suruma in the budget speech shattered the teachers’ hope of earning at least sh200,000 as promised by President Yoweri Museveni last year. Suruma instead announced a sh10,000 increment on their current salary of sh130,000.
John Situma, the deputy secretary general of the Uganda National Teachers’ Union (UNATU)described the increment as a mockery to the teaching profession and an abuse of the President’s pledge. In protest, Kampala primary school teachers took to the streets to air their displeasure.
While a promise is a debt, the teachers will have to wait for another year or so. In the meantime, how does a typical Kampala teacher survive on sh140,000 a month.
In their petition to the Speaker of Parliament, Edward Sekandi, the teachers said they dwell in slums where a single room costs at least sh50,000. The lucky ones pad to the schools while some spend up to sh44,000 on transport a month. Spending on average sh2,000 a day for meals, the new salary is definitely inadequate.
“Although we stay at school from 8:00am to 5:00 pm, government has not bothered to cater for our lunch. It is advanced that we are paid a consolidated sum of sh130,000. In this event, we are forced to starve all day long, for five days a week yet we have to teach and produce results,†they argued.
“We are unable to send our children to school as we cannot afford to pay secondary and tertiary school fees. Imagine we teach while our children are seated at home,†said the June 15, petition signed by the chairperson, Irene Mawanda and Joseph Ssewungu, the head of the UNATU salaries committee.
But a typical teacher’s day does not actually begin from 8:00am to 5:00pm. At night, they have to prepare lesson plans or schemes of work as well as mark pupils’ assignment not forgetting the large classes.
To survive, the teachers take on paid weekend and holiday coaching or establish other businesses. Those in businesses do not have time to prepare lesson plans or mark homework. “What we do is to make the pupils mark their own work,†said one of the teachers.
Up country teachers tend to their gardens first before going for classes. On market days, most pupils go without lessons. While the education sector has taken the lion’s share of the budget, sh633.4b or 16% of the projected budgetary expenditure, analysts believe failure to address the plight of the 125,000 primary school teachers will dent quality in Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools. In this sense, the real losers in this episode are the pupils as a result of the likely low morale among the teachers.
“The teachers’ expectations were already high,†said a senior civil servant who is also a parent. “Failure to meet their expectations is likely to dampen their spirits until such a time when their expectations are met. The President shouldn’t have been specific about the figure,†added the official.
Mukasa Lusambu, the chairperson Uganda primary school headteachers association said the move will complicate their supervisory role and quality was likely to suffer.
“There is something like a silent strike already among teachers because the standards in UPE schools leaves a lot to be desired,†Lusambu said but dissociated headteachers from the strike.
Situma agrees with Lusambu that it is impossible to expect good performance from a demoralised workforce.
“Those offering little pay to the teachers are against the success of education in this country. They are against UPE and the EFA (Education For All) goals,†he said.
A headteacher of a prominent UPE school in Kampala said a critical analysis of the budget makes the sh10,000 increment useless. “The increase in Value Added Tax from 17 to 18% means paying more for water and electricity and taxi fares. PTA (Parents and Teachers’ Association) fees used to cater for these, but teachers now have to pay for the utilities out of their salaries,†he said.
The teachers dismissed arguments that higher pay does not necessarily lead to quality output. “That is just talk of those who don’t want to pay. They are just trying to justify the situation. Why is it that private schools who pay their teachers higher salaries perform better? Where are the Shimonis, the Nakaseros and the Buganda Road of those days when PTA was in existence?,†said a headteacher.
Francis Lubanga, the Permanent Secretary in education ministry said salaries were a responsibility of the Public Service.
Efforts to get a comment from public service were fruitless. But Lubanga said any salary increment was now taken in line with the pay reform.
Museveni appealed to the teachers to be patient because there were so many demands on the resource envelope.
Ends