Investigate private primary schools!
Aug 23, 2007
EDITOR—I wish to thank the Ministry of Education for its tireless efforts to ensure high standards of education. Enrolment in schools has increased and there is access to education without discrimination.
EDITOR—I wish to thank the Ministry of Education for its tireless efforts to ensure high standards of education. Enrolment in schools has increased and there is access to education without discrimination.
I would also like to thank the ministry for their efforts to ensure the welfare of the teachers is improved although there still remains a lot to be done.
Teachers are faced with many challenges that greatly undermine their commitment to deliver to their expected capabilities. The ministry knows some of these challenges especially in private primary schools.
These schools seem to operate without the supervision of the government. As a teacher in a private primary school, I have observed a number of illegal and abusive practices in these schools. For example, it is a very common practice for private primary schools to recruit but not give appointment letters!
There are cases where teachers teach in a school for five years or more without an appointment letter. This makes it impossible to form an association to fight for one’s rights in case of non-payment and other forms of abuse. It also makes it difficult to upgrade as there is nothing to show your working experience.
It goes without saying that in such a situation there is no job security as one can be dismissed and have no avenue for redress. One cannot be assured of regular pay and the teacher is left at the mercy of the school managers.
Most private primary schools pay miserable salaries. There are cases of teachers earning as little as sh70,000 a month! No wonder teaching is one of the poorest professions in Uganda today. To make matters worse, this miserable salary is usually paid late and in installments. In most cases, it does not cover holidays, meaning that you are just paid for eight months in a year.
There is gross exploitation of teachers in private primary schools. In most cases, teachers start working as early as 6:00am, go through the normal classroom lessons and later go for evening preparations from 7:00pm up to 9:00pm.
There are no allowances for all those extra hours of work. All the books have to be marked, assessment done and all the relevant issues pertaining to the school programme attended to as well. This makes working a nightmare.
Teachers in most private schools endure a lot of oppression which the Ministry of Education and the IGG need to start investigating.
Name withheld
I would also like to thank the ministry for their efforts to ensure the welfare of the teachers is improved although there still remains a lot to be done.
Teachers are faced with many challenges that greatly undermine their commitment to deliver to their expected capabilities. The ministry knows some of these challenges especially in private primary schools.
These schools seem to operate without the supervision of the government. As a teacher in a private primary school, I have observed a number of illegal and abusive practices in these schools. For example, it is a very common practice for private primary schools to recruit but not give appointment letters!
There are cases where teachers teach in a school for five years or more without an appointment letter. This makes it impossible to form an association to fight for one’s rights in case of non-payment and other forms of abuse. It also makes it difficult to upgrade as there is nothing to show your working experience.
It goes without saying that in such a situation there is no job security as one can be dismissed and have no avenue for redress. One cannot be assured of regular pay and the teacher is left at the mercy of the school managers.
Most private primary schools pay miserable salaries. There are cases of teachers earning as little as sh70,000 a month! No wonder teaching is one of the poorest professions in Uganda today. To make matters worse, this miserable salary is usually paid late and in installments. In most cases, it does not cover holidays, meaning that you are just paid for eight months in a year.
There is gross exploitation of teachers in private primary schools. In most cases, teachers start working as early as 6:00am, go through the normal classroom lessons and later go for evening preparations from 7:00pm up to 9:00pm.
There are no allowances for all those extra hours of work. All the books have to be marked, assessment done and all the relevant issues pertaining to the school programme attended to as well. This makes working a nightmare.
Teachers in most private schools endure a lot of oppression which the Ministry of Education and the IGG need to start investigating.
Name withheld