When President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni and his government took the controversial decision to increase salaries of secondary school science teachers, there was too much debate on how this would affect teaching and learning since their counterparts teaching humanities and having similar qualifications would be left demoralized.
Almost a year since the decision was made and implemented, the debate continues and so do the silent grumbles and murmurs of those left behind. On the surface of it all, government has continuously reported that learning is going on normally despite the effects of its discriminatory salary enhancement that has been opposed by the Uganda National Teachers’ Union (Unatu), Parliament of Uganda and civil society organizations.
If secondary school arts teachers and those in primary schools still had any hopes of salary increment in the next financial year (FY2023-2024), then it is high time they gave up on that hope. The recently passed budget for the next financial year does not include any allocations for them.
In fact, from the very start of the budgeting process, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury (PSST) Ramathan Ggoobi made it clear that salary increment plans would be shelved. (See Details Here).
Now, in her report to the nation on the performance of the education sector in the past one year as part of the NRM Manifesto Week, Janet Museveni, the Ugandan first lady and education minister, talked of her husband’s government’s to progressively enhancing salaries and improving other living conditions, particularly staff accommodation for teachers.
She noted that in the 2021-2022 financial year and the current financial year, Government of Uganda prioritized salary enhancement for science teaching staff in tertiary Institutions and Secondary Schools. Science teachers earn many times higher than their arts colleagues. (See Full Salary Structure and Stories on this controversial salary increment Here, There and Over There).
As she gave a sector update, Janet Museveni repeated the so-called government commitment to enhancing all teachers’ salaries but was not clear on when the increment would be offered.
The closer she got to answering this burning question was her saying that enhancement would be given as and when the economy improves. And even then, the increment would be in effected in phases.
“As the economy improves, the Government of Uganda has a phased plan to enhance the salaries of all its employees that have not been enhanced so far,” she emphasized.
It is not clear when the economy, that is reeling from the effects of the Covid19 pandemic, will recover to afford all teachers and government employees a pay raise in a nation where the cost of living is rising by day and the salary disparities among workers with the same qualifications so wide.
Months ago, a top Museveni minister hinted on a salaries review commission while Public Service Ministry Permanent Secretary Catherine Bitarakwate Musingwire said that the next salary increment that will see arts teachers earning Shs4m per month might happen in 2026. (See Details Here).
In her report, Janet Museveni listed other achievements, including the drafting of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) policy and the plan to train nearly 2,000 ECD teachers and offering them diploma qualifications.
As an achievement, the education minister also talked of how the Education Service Commission (ESC), where her sister-in-law Violet Kajuburi is a member, recruited thousands of teachers.
But what Janet Museveni did not tell Ugandans are the shocking allegations that suspected Education Service Commission officials sold some of these government payroll jobs for as low as Shs2m each. (See Details Here).
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