Quite a lot is being made about the Shs 133bn in salary increments for teachers, recently approved by parliament in the new national budget. However, as MOSES TALEMWA found, not all teachers have warmed up to this news.
When she was first appointed in 2011, Education Minister Jessica Alupo found herself quickly on the ropes when a teachers’ strike erupted, before she could settle into office.
At the time, mostly primary and secondary school teachers were asking for a 100 per cent increment in pay, arguing that they had suffered for too long. Borrowing from her background in the military, where orders were followed from above, Alupo was initially unwilling to yield, vowing to fire anyone who insisted on the strike.
Later, after some consultations with government, then Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi and Alupo yielded, pledging to increase the salaries of teachers by 50 per cent, not the 100 per cent promised. However, the increment would be phased out over five years, as 10 per cent in FY2012/13, 15 per cent in FY2013/14 and then 25 per cent in 2014/15 to match the 50 per cent salary increment agreed upon.
With that, the teachers agreed to return to work, assured that the money would come. The state defaulted on the FY2013/14 payment, which was implemented the following year. Thus the recent increment in pay is a continuation of that process. The current increment means that the base teachers’ pay would rise from Shs 425,000 to Shs 460,000 per month after tax.
TOO LITTLE TOO LATE
The expectation would have been for teachers to be excited about the increment, in acknowledgement of an advocacy effort started in 2011. But that is not the case. According to Fred Mwesigye, the executive director of Forum for Education NGOs of Uganda, the increment is too little and too late.
“That so-called increment has been rendered virtually useless by inflationary pressures … the state should be ashamed to still be talking about such an increase in pay,” Mwesigye said.
His view is shared by the Uganda National Teachers’ Union secretary general, James Tweheyo.
“This increment will mean that the majority of teachers will continue to live in very demeaning circumstances; the government should consider a bigger increment than this one,” he said.
In her February 2016 statement explaining the current increment in pay for teachers, Alupo once again tied the increase to remittance of funds for the teachers’ Sacco.
“I want to inform you that Shs 2.7bn of the Shs 25bn given to you by President Museveni is now in your apex Sacco. The rest will be coming as it is our promise as NRM government to fulfill what we promise,” said Alupo.
However, the trade unionists would not be placated. One of them, Wilson Usher Owere, the chairman of National Organisation of Trade Unions (NOTU), the worker’s body, dubbed Alupo a ‘disaster’.
“Alupo is a disaster just and we don’t want her in that ministry,” he said.
But the permanent secretary, Dr Rose Nassali-Lukwago was keen to pull one back for the ministry.
“The ministry understands and sympathizes with the teachers over the salary increment that has been delayed ... All teachers and head teachers are, therefore, expected to report to their duty stations as expected of their profession,” she said, last month.
ANOTHER STRIKE THREAT
Before the new ministers were appointed to take over the education portfolio, last month, Tweheyo had spoken of another strike threat to at the end of the second term holidays.
“This time we mean business. We have been taken for granted for too long. Teachers are living in the worst conditions ever in the history of our country,” he said at the time.
Those who know him believe he is determined to drive the teachers towards another strike. With the appointment of the new ministers, Tweheyo has been silent about the strike threat, although he has not necessarily been enthusiastic about the pay increase.
“We are waiting to hear from the teachers to see what they say about it, but I don’t expect to hear anyone celebrating,” he said last week.
And he is not wrong. No one has come forward to praise the increment in pay. Patrick Kaboyo, executive director at the Coalition of Uganda Private School Teachers Association (COUPSTA), says the sector needs to get with the times.
“I think the ministry would be deluding itself if it thinks that the increment is going to please the teachers,” he said. “If I’m not mistaken, most will take the money when it comes, but it will not change how they think about the sector – namely that they are being exploited.”
SECTOR NEEDS RETHINK
However, Mwesigye and Kaboyo agree that there is a need to reconsider how the sector looks at teachers. According to Mwesigye, the education ministry needs to view teachers differently.
“They need to see teachers as the main drivers of success in the sector, not just as employees who can be dispensed with if they don’t agree with them; otherwise, the learning outcomes will remain the same,” Mwesigye said.
According to Kaboyo, the sector needs to find the funds to increase the pay of teachers to admirable levels.
“Instead of the Shs 460,000 that the base teacher is being told that they will get, they need to consider at least doubling that, then the sector will start to attract some of the best brains,” he said. “That way, you can hope to improve the learning environment and weed out a lot of masqueraders, who claim to be teachers.”
Tweheyo believes that the lot of teachers needs to be improved substantially to be meaningful. Otherwise, more will continue to leave the profession.
“Right now, the teachers are being told to be creative and look for alternative incomes to supplement their official pay, but that is how we are now seeing teachers starting out as part-time boda boda riders and finally leaving the sector,” he said.
For now, the teachers are waiting for their new ministers to take up office before they can decide how to respond. Mwesigye thinks the ministers currently have a golden opportunity on their hands. “If the [ministers] can seize the initiative and engage the teachers from the beginning, they could have success in their hands fairly quickly.”
mtalemwa@observer.ug