Secondary school teachers across the country have been left disillusioned after President Yoweri Museveni told their leaders under the Uganda National Teachers’ Union (Unatu) that their salaries will not be increased in the current financial year.
In the company of his wife and education minister Janet Kataaha Kainembabazi Museveni, the president met Unatu leaders in their regional clusters at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds in Kampala to try and convince the union’s leaders to call off the strike and return to class.
The strike has dragged on for 20 days now, having started on June 15, just hours after Matia Kasaija, the minister of finance announced a salary increment for science teachers and several groups of the so-called scientists in the public service.
The July 04 meeting was the second between Gen Museveni and Unatu leaders, with the first one which was held a few days after the commencement of the industrial action yielding no fruits.
There have also been some engagements between Unatu and Vice President Jessica Alupo as well as officials from the Ministry of Public Service led by Minister Wilson Muruli Mukasa and Permanent Secretary Catherine Bitarakwate Musingwiire.
In the meeting at the Kololo Ceremonial Grounds, Museveni did not tell Unatu leaders anything significantly new from he told them when he met them at State House last month. It is also the same script that VP Alupo, PS Bitarakwate and Minister Muruli-Mukasa have been reading from: that scientists, including science teachers, are key in national development and that their services are immediately needed and therefore a priority to government.
By publication time, Unatu’s next course of action was not clearly known but just on July 03, the union resolved to continue with their industrial action until such a time when government has increased their salaries to close the gap between what they are paid and what science teachers will be paid starting July 2022.
Meanwhile, there is more trouble in the president’s paradise as CAOs and other local government employees want Museveni to pay each of them as high as Shs15m starting this month or else they start their strike this very week. (Read Story HERE).
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