Teachers Urged To Persist In Their On Going Strike, Learners Negatively Affected

Teopista Birungi Mayanja, an advocate for education and founder of the Uganda National Teachers Union-UNATU, has urged the current union leadership to persist in their fight for teacher’s salary increase. UNATU-affiliated teachers announced an indefinite strike a fortnight ago in protest of the government's decision to raise the pay of certain teachers in violation of past agreements that guaranteed equality and harmonization of salaries for all teachers.

The Ministry of Public Service Uganda has told teachers that their strike is illegal and they have no right to close a public school! All Government employed teachers have been advised to go back to work by this Friday or else they will be regarded as having resigned! Those unhappy with the decision have been advised to seek legal redress in the Courts of law! Uganda government triples salaries for sciences teachers leading to a strike by arts teachers. "A primary school teacher currently earns Ush568,000 (KShs17,847) per month, while a diploma holder and graduate teacher at secondary school take home Ush745,000 (KShs 23,408) and Ush1.1 million (KShs34,563), respectively. After the new budget allocation, science teachers will earn Ush3 million (KShs 94,262) for diploma holders and Ush4 million (KShs 125,682) for graduate teachers." Sources: The EastAfrican; Currency conversion added. Tuhiire Bless P. 7 Candidate at Kazinga P/S is likely to dropout from school due to teachers Strike. Bless says, she was to be in senior one but the two years of Covid19 forced her to redo p7. The teachers strike has affected them seriously as our reporters found no teachers at this school. More pressure is being mounted on government as different stakeholders issue statements on the teachers' industrial action.