UPE is primarily meant for poor families

Mar 25, 2009

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni’s objection to schools not to charge monetary lunch fee for pupils under Universal Primary Education (UPE), and his promotion of patriotism among secondary school teachers has been causing controversy.

By Ofwono-Opondo

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni’s objection to schools not to charge monetary lunch fee for pupils under Universal Primary Education (UPE), and his promotion of patriotism among secondary school teachers has been causing controversy.

Firstly, UPE is primarily meant for poor families, and as such those able can take their children elsewhere while UPE is being improved.

Morris C. Komakec from Toronto, Canada wrote deliberate falsehood that teachers in government schools are the least paid, salary arrears are one year behind, and work under the worst conditions. Komakec stated that teachers do not need lectures from Museveni; instead it should be the reverse.

Komakec who fled to what he thought was an economic paradise in Canada can gloat and tell lies. However, The New Vision owes the public a duty to publish facts as Komakec’s letter contained obvious, if not deliberate, inaccuracies.

Most teachers live and work among ordinary Ugandans and, therefore, their ‘condition’ cannot be any worse. In fact many are seen as privileged. Incidentally teachers are the only employees who enjoy four months’ holiday annually while the rest have one month!

A government primary teacher earns at least sh200,000, a diploma holder sh337,035, and a graduate sh500,466 per month. Primary head teachers earn between sh232,570 and sh488,830, while those of government secondary schools earn sh899,831 to sh1,248,841, depending on seniority and school grade. Public sector salaries are paid by the month’s end unless Komakec proves otherwise.

On patriotism, Museveni does not claim monopoly and he learns daily from different people and his record is available for scrutiny. However, if all teachers were as patriotic as Komakec would want us to believe, then they would not divert resources, dodge lessons and fail to complete the syllabus, leading to poor performance.

When primary schools, including private elite ones in Kampala, performed poorly in the 2008 PLE, many critics claimed that the Government objections to schools to levy lunch fees was the main cause.

Museveni argued correctly that parents should pack lunch for their children because some schools could exploit lunch fees to create un-necessary barriers to free UPE as they are doing with expensive uniforms, books, tours and other items.

Uniform lunches, if provided at school, could be convenient, but the truth is once money is levied some parents will, under the pretext of ‘poverty,’ pull children out of school. They should not be given that excuse. Let them pack whatever clean food they can afford from home, in any case children eat the same food when they are at home.

Lunch and ‘low remuneration’ are just scapegoats by some parents, community leaders and teachers, and is arming those perpetuating inefficiencies and grand corruption in schools through deliberate absenteeism, abuse of office and misuse of public resources, which when combined lead to failure to properly administer the syllabus, inspect and monitor established standards.

The Government provides free education, water, immunisation and sanitary facilities, yet some local folks still defecate in bushes, and deny their children immunisation and education and should not be given more leeway! The Government still pays the highest salary at primary, secondary, tertiary and university levels in Uganda.

Teachers in the remotest village government primary school in Segere, Iyolwa sub-county, Tororo or Midigo in Yumbe earn sh200,000 monthly and if lucky have accommodation at school or commute from a village nearby.

It is not a very high pay but much better than in many well-to-do private schools in peri-urban districts like Mukono, Wakiso, Jinja, Mbarara and Masaka, which pay sh150,000 monthly at most.

In Mukono Town Council most private primary and secondary schools pay sh100,000.

No private schools offer the above salaries except a few around Kampala, and yet government teachers and their families have access to some other perks like free accommodation, water, electricity, medical, and transport while on transfer.

A 2007/08 research indicates that many teachers move from private to government schools primarily because of better pay. They also move because the conditions of service, career development, permanent, pensionable and respect are available in government schools and absent in private ones.

This scenario applies to government colleges and universities and that is why few dare resign but instead prefer to cheat government as they teach at private universities.
The writer is the deputy spokesperson of the National Resistance Movement

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