Government to regulate salaries of private school teachers

The life of a private school teacher is like that of a nomad. They move from school to school in search of part-time teaching stints. A typical private school teacher will moonlight in more than one school to make ends meet.

Most private school owners also prefer hiring part-time teachers with no contractual terms to avoid the financial obligations that come with paying full-time staff. Those who are taken up as staff are usually exploited and paid peanuts.  

Most of them are paid without contract terms and salaries are determined at the discretion of the school owner. However, this is set to end once government approves and passes the proposed National Policy on Private Provision of Education in Uganda.

Under the proposed policy, the education ministry will regulate salaries of teachers in private schools, authorities have revealed. The proposed policy requires that all private school teachers must sign contracts and clear terms of payment, and other benefits with the employers.

In addition, all private education institutions will be required to have a salary scale similar to that run by the government for their employees.

According to proposals, a teacher will have a minimum entry point for salary that every school owner must adhere to. "The proposed policy is good in that it favours both the school owner and the teachers," a source at the education ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

He said private school teachers are being mistreated and that some go several months without pay and  cannot claim their benefits.

In addition, the source said some private schools charge higher school fees, but they pay their teachers peanuts. "We have had cases where private schools fail to pay teachers, yet they continue to collect fees. As the regulators of education in the country, this will not happen once we have this proposed policy in place," the source said.

According to the source, the ministry has, on several occasions, issued circulars, employment guidelines and demanded for teachers' contracts, but these are never followed. Once the policy is approved, teachers' contracts will be part of the requirements for the renewal of private schools licences.

"We need a well-designed salary scale for teachers in private schools. Our teachers are cheated, but with the policy in place, we will address all these challenges. We need a salary structure for those in private schools similar to that of government," the source added.



WHAT TEACHERS EARN

Under the public service salary structure, teachers' salaries vary according to level of experience, rank, the subjects they teach (science or non-science). However, all teachers, right from primary level, have an entry point for which any enrolled teacher can be paid.

For instance, at primary level, the entry point for an education assistant (Grade Three teacher) under the U7 salary structure is sh449,000. The next level in primary are senior education assistants, whose entry point is sh605,000 per month.

Under secondary, the entry point for the assistant education officer, nonscience, is sh745,000, whereas their science counterparts earn sh795,000.

In addition, the entry point of an education officer, non-science, is sh960,000, whereas their science counterparts earn sh1.1m. These levels are followed by senior education officers, whose entry point is sh1.2m for non-science and sh1.49m for science teachers. All the categories are classroom teachers.

Once this salary scale is adopted by private schools, the source said it will reduce on the income inequalities between teachers in private schools and those in government-aided schools.

PRIVATE PROMOTIONS

As part of the proposals for the policy, private academic institutions will be required to have a structure for appraisal and promotion of teachers.

Just like in the public service system, private schools will be required to promote their teachers and translate it into other benefits, such as salary enhancement.

"There are private school teachers who have been earning sh300,000 for the last how many years and yet the school continues to increase fees and enrolment. With the proposed policy, we want private school teachers to have periodic salary enhancements," the source added.

MINISTRY EXPLANATION

In an interview with the Sunday Vision , Hajji Ismail Mulindwa, the director basic and secondary education at the ministry, said the proposed policy will address a number of issues affecting private education provision in the country.

"We want to regulate how our teachers are paid in private schools. We also want them to comply with government programmes and standards," he said.

According to the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) of the proposed policy, which the New Vision has obtained, the policy is intended to enhance advancement in the core principles and values of private provision of education, promote social and financial accountability standards.

The policy is also intended to establish an effective system of regulating the operations of private schools and institutions, defining the relationship between private schools, state and other key stakeholders.

Once formalized, the RIA says the policy will promote effective privatepublic partnerships in the provision of education at all levels plus safety and security of private schools' environment.

WHAT STAKEHOLDERS SAY

All the teachers and school owners that Sunday Vision interviewed backed the idea of signing contracts with clear terms. However, they disagreed on the proposed salary structure. Much as the private school teachers were in support of the requirement to have a salary structure, school owners noted that it should be upon the teachers and school management to negotiate the pay.

"We need a salary structure. We are cheated by private schools. You work for long and there is no salary enhancement at all," a secondary teacher in one of the private city schools said.

A teacher at a private primary school said, "It is worse at primary and nursery schools. At times we are not paid and there is nowhere you can report because you do not have a contract with the school. We applaud the ministry on the proposed policy."

Joseph Kiggundu, the chairperson of the Uganda National Association of Private Schools and Institutions, said, "We cannot have the same salary structure because we pay according to how much we earn."

"There are private schools charging below sh300,000 as school fees, and there are those charging sh2m. With this disparity, we cannot have a salary structure. What we need are contracts clearly giving the terms of employment," he said.

Hasadu Kirabira, a proprietor of schools in the country and member of the National Private Educational Institutions Association (NPEIA), said, "It is okay to have these contracts, but it will be hard to implement the salary structure."

RATIONALE OF THE POLICY

The Education and Sports Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) 2017/20182019/2020 provided for the development of a national policy for regulating private provision of education in the country as a strategic intervention number 18 under strategic objective three.

In her guidance on the formulation of the ESSP 2021-2025, the First Lady and Minister for Education and Sports, Mrs Janet Museveni, recommended prioritisation of development of a policy to regulate private provision of education.

The proposed policy, therefore, is envisaged to address the emerging challenges and articulate a strategic direction and effective regulatory mechanism for private provision of education.

Contribution of private education: The education ministry acknowledges the fact that the liberalisation of education has had significant achievements in terms of private sector participation in provision of education.

Currently, the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) says, pre-primary education in Uganda is entirely under private provision and the responsibility of government at this level is to provide curriculum guidelines, train teachers, licence and regulate standards.

For instance, at primary level the ministry says about 39% of the schools are privately-owned and these enrol about 21% of the learners.

"The private schools share of primary education enrolment has been growing at an average of 1% per annum over the last ten years," the RIA says.

At the secondary level, there are more privately-owned secondary schools than government-aided ones. According to the 2016 education ministry fact sheet, over 66% of the secondary schools in the country are private and these have been enrolling on average 51% of students at that level.