Police disperse teachers' meeting

Jun 14, 2012

Police in Kisoro on Tuesday dispersed a meeting of 110 teachers from schools in the Town council as they sat at the Saza ground pavilion to discuss the hard-to-reach allowance which they say should be spread to all teaching staff in the district.


By Attractor Kamahoro

Police in Kisoro on Tuesday dispersed  a meeting of 110 teachers from schools in the Town council as they sat at the Saza ground pavilion to discuss  the hard-to-reach allowance which they say should be spread to all teaching staff in the district.

District Police Commander, Bosco Otim said it was wrong for the teachers to assemble in a public place without permission from police. "I had to talk to them but I too would have broken the law if I had addressed them from the bush", Otim said at the district council hall where the teachers later converged and were later joined by district authorities.

Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Rita Byiringiro told the teachers that civil servants in town councils, municipalities and local government headquarters are by policy not entitled to hard-to-reach allowances.According to the teachers however, some of their colleagues  in the town council have been earning the allowances since 2010.

Byiringiro said such money was wrongfully accessed and would be stopped and deducted from their salaries. "This is not a district policy but a  national policy which we have to implement as it is', she said.

LC 5 Chairman Milton Bazanye said at the same meeting that there was a promise by the Public Service Ministry to enhance salaries according to each worker's salary scale. He said it would be a fairer way to remunerate workers.

"However as long as the hard-to-reach allowance is on, I am also of the view that the entire district be considered as hard to reach because some people walk over 20 kilometers daily to reach town council", he said.

The teachers were from Seseme primary school, Kisoro demonstration school, Kisoro hill Muslim school, Gisoro primary school and Seseme S.S.S.

Responding to the authorities various explanations, the teachers said they had heard nothing new. "We have heard all this before", said their leader Edson Iragaba who suggested that local government finds a way of raising the teachers' salaries from 250.000/- to 400.000/- as is the case with sub county teaching staff..

Hard-to-reach areas are those which have poor road networks, have poor accommodation and lack electricity and safe water.

The meeting was also attended by the town mayor, Sam Byibesho, the District Education Officer Francis Munyarubanza, the deputy Resident District Commission Gideon Aheebwa and members of the district service commission.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});