MATERNITY LEAVE
Mar 31, 2009
JOSEPHINE Amoding had hoped to take her 60-day maternity leave, but that would mean a whole term without teaching.
FEMALE TEACHERS GRAPPLE WITH THE COST OF GETTING THEIR RIGHT
By MOSES ODONGO
JOSEPHINE Amoding had hoped to take her 60-day maternity leave, but that would mean a whole term without teaching.
At Parents’ Secondary School in Kumi district, where she worked, she was asked to return a month earlier because she was delaying the syllabus.
But Amoding was still in a lot of pain and could not teach. “I was angry. Although I had worked for four years at the school, I had no appointment letter and was fired verbally,†Amoding says.
John Okiror, the proprietor of the school, has no regrets whatsoever. He says female teachers who take maternity leave cause students to fail.
“Imagine, if a teacher delivers in February and goes on leave for three months, she would return at the end of the term or when the students are doing exams. What would her contribution be?†Okiror asks.
For Roy Mulangira, last year was a pregnancy boom at his school. “What else could describe four members of staff getting pregnant at the same time?
It is okay when one teacher takes maternity leave,†says Mulangira, who owns two primary schools in Nateete, Kampala. “But four is just too much.â€
Mulangira says he grappled to fill the vacancies. “We were lucky that the school is small. There are about 500 pupils, 30 teachers and teaching assistants. But a bigger school would have been under-staffed, making it expensive to get more teachers,†he says.
In 2007, the Parliament passed a bill that increased maternity leave from 45 to 60 days. While the corporate women are enjoying the benefits, pressure is mounting on their teaching counterparts.
Women who had hoped to take off a few months or, in some cases, a few years of unpaid leave — to raise their children, are heading back to the classroom sooner than they expected, lest they be replaced.
The proprietor of Sunrise High School, Calvin Kaneirugambi, argues that amidst inadequate specialised teachers, schools are constrained to hire new staff to stand in for the teachers on leave.
“Many have one teacher per subject and if she were to take two months off, the students would be affected. If your school is private, you can replace her; but if it isn’t, the students would not be able to study that subject for a term,†Kaneirugambi says.
Some teachers say their workload increases as a result of maternity leave. Paul, 45, supports maternity leave, but feels cheated when forced to cover a teacher’s curriculum without a pay rise.
The effect of a teacher’s absence on pupils’ performances is also enormous.
Continuity and strong personal relationships can be disrupted by leave, however good the substitute may be, experts say.
Yet maternity leave advocates say if a woman has not fully recovered after giving birth, she cannot carry out her duties effectively, which also impacts on the performance of her students.
“A woman who has given birth has emotional and psychological feelings attached to her baby, which could affect her concentration in class,†says Kalanzi Sewanyala, a senior lecturer at School of Education, Makerere University.
He says the imagination of a child crying is enough to disorganise whatever the teacher has to say, hence it is more fruitful if they get their full rest.
According to health workers, a woman who has given birth recovers fully after 98 days.
Depending on the age and the number of times one has given birth, mothers who do not get enough rest and proper diet may even take up to 120 days to recover mentally and physically, according to Dr. Hanan Odeke of S&S Clinic in Wandegeya, Kampala.
Human rights activists also say the proprietors of private schools should not maximise profits at the cost of humanity.
“Let them imagine their mothers abandoning breastfeeding them just to make money. It is a basic human right for a child and the law guarantees it,†says David Batema, the deputy registrar of the High Court.
Fagil Mandy, an education consultant, says the law has helped streamline the working conditions of women in Uganda.
“School owners are selfish. These are mothers who are not seeking 60 days to enjoy themselves, but fulfil the call of nature,†he says.
Working women, Mandy says, have been exploited for long. “Whoever denies female teachers maternity leave should first imagine his wife abandoning their child for work,†he adds.
Most female teachers who have conceived in the last three years have had a lot to sacrifice.
For Doreen, returning to her position as a primary school teacher would not keep her family afloat. After maternity leave, she has decided to become a part-time teacher in different schools in Kampala. She now works seven days a week.
“I had no option. When pupils fail your paper, the headteachers reprimand you; they do not want to consider that you missed a term without teaching.â€
For some, hope for motherhood has been put on hold. Melissa 30, has seen her colleagues grapple with marking books and waking up early to conduct morning prep. She does not see herself conceiving while still in the profession.
Meanwhile, men whose spouses are teachers, shoulder more of the parenting load. “You have to find means of rushing her home to breastfeed the baby, or take the baby to breastfeed at the school,†one man confesses.
By MOSES ODONGO
JOSEPHINE Amoding had hoped to take her 60-day maternity leave, but that would mean a whole term without teaching.
At Parents’ Secondary School in Kumi district, where she worked, she was asked to return a month earlier because she was delaying the syllabus.
But Amoding was still in a lot of pain and could not teach. “I was angry. Although I had worked for four years at the school, I had no appointment letter and was fired verbally,†Amoding says.
John Okiror, the proprietor of the school, has no regrets whatsoever. He says female teachers who take maternity leave cause students to fail.
“Imagine, if a teacher delivers in February and goes on leave for three months, she would return at the end of the term or when the students are doing exams. What would her contribution be?†Okiror asks.
For Roy Mulangira, last year was a pregnancy boom at his school. “What else could describe four members of staff getting pregnant at the same time?
It is okay when one teacher takes maternity leave,†says Mulangira, who owns two primary schools in Nateete, Kampala. “But four is just too much.â€
Mulangira says he grappled to fill the vacancies. “We were lucky that the school is small. There are about 500 pupils, 30 teachers and teaching assistants. But a bigger school would have been under-staffed, making it expensive to get more teachers,†he says.
In 2007, the Parliament passed a bill that increased maternity leave from 45 to 60 days. While the corporate women are enjoying the benefits, pressure is mounting on their teaching counterparts.
Women who had hoped to take off a few months or, in some cases, a few years of unpaid leave — to raise their children, are heading back to the classroom sooner than they expected, lest they be replaced.
The proprietor of Sunrise High School, Calvin Kaneirugambi, argues that amidst inadequate specialised teachers, schools are constrained to hire new staff to stand in for the teachers on leave.
“Many have one teacher per subject and if she were to take two months off, the students would be affected. If your school is private, you can replace her; but if it isn’t, the students would not be able to study that subject for a term,†Kaneirugambi says.
Some teachers say their workload increases as a result of maternity leave. Paul, 45, supports maternity leave, but feels cheated when forced to cover a teacher’s curriculum without a pay rise.
The effect of a teacher’s absence on pupils’ performances is also enormous.
Continuity and strong personal relationships can be disrupted by leave, however good the substitute may be, experts say.
Yet maternity leave advocates say if a woman has not fully recovered after giving birth, she cannot carry out her duties effectively, which also impacts on the performance of her students.
“A woman who has given birth has emotional and psychological feelings attached to her baby, which could affect her concentration in class,†says Kalanzi Sewanyala, a senior lecturer at School of Education, Makerere University.
He says the imagination of a child crying is enough to disorganise whatever the teacher has to say, hence it is more fruitful if they get their full rest.
According to health workers, a woman who has given birth recovers fully after 98 days.
Depending on the age and the number of times one has given birth, mothers who do not get enough rest and proper diet may even take up to 120 days to recover mentally and physically, according to Dr. Hanan Odeke of S&S Clinic in Wandegeya, Kampala.
Human rights activists also say the proprietors of private schools should not maximise profits at the cost of humanity.
“Let them imagine their mothers abandoning breastfeeding them just to make money. It is a basic human right for a child and the law guarantees it,†says David Batema, the deputy registrar of the High Court.
Fagil Mandy, an education consultant, says the law has helped streamline the working conditions of women in Uganda.
“School owners are selfish. These are mothers who are not seeking 60 days to enjoy themselves, but fulfil the call of nature,†he says.
Working women, Mandy says, have been exploited for long. “Whoever denies female teachers maternity leave should first imagine his wife abandoning their child for work,†he adds.
Most female teachers who have conceived in the last three years have had a lot to sacrifice.
For Doreen, returning to her position as a primary school teacher would not keep her family afloat. After maternity leave, she has decided to become a part-time teacher in different schools in Kampala. She now works seven days a week.
“I had no option. When pupils fail your paper, the headteachers reprimand you; they do not want to consider that you missed a term without teaching.â€
For some, hope for motherhood has been put on hold. Melissa 30, has seen her colleagues grapple with marking books and waking up early to conduct morning prep. She does not see herself conceiving while still in the profession.
Meanwhile, men whose spouses are teachers, shoulder more of the parenting load. “You have to find means of rushing her home to breastfeed the baby, or take the baby to breastfeed at the school,†one man confesses.