By Andrew Irumba
Ugandan Teachers across the country are lined up for a salary increment starting October 2019 after the Ministry of Public Service secured Shs 150 billion to honour an earlier government undertaking.
This was revealed by the Public Service minister, Hon. Wilson Muruli Mukasa, while appearing before the House Committee on Education and Sports on Tuesday, 3 September 2019 meeting to consider challenges facing salary discrepancies amongst the teachers.
The minister said, his ministry had scheduled to meet with the members of the Uganda National Teachers Association (UNATU) and other unions over the development on Friday, 6 September 2019.
“The meeting with the teachers and UNATU is to deliberate on ways to effect the salary enhancement which the unions have been demanding. UNATU has threatened industrial action claiming that government had failed to keep their side of the bargain,” said Muruli Mukasa
Muruli Mukasa added that an inter-ministerial committee had recommended a 12 percent budget cut across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies to raise funds for salary enhancements in the education sector.
“Parliament appropriated Shs45 billion for education increment in the Financial Year 2019/2020. With the budget cuts we have managed to get Shs105 billion making the total of Shs150 billion to sort the discrepancies of salaries across the board,” Muruli Mukasa said.
Commissioner for Human Resource in the Ministry of Education and Sports, Jane Mwesiga, informed the committee that the biggest problem the ministry was facing was the imbalance in the teacher, student ratio, and that some teachers were forging appointment, deployment and transfer letters.
“The teachers have genuine papers, but when they are transferred to upcountry schools they forge the letters and take themselves to schools in the nearby districts like Mpigi and Mbarara and that is the reason why some schools are over populated by teachers and others have none,” Mwesiga said.
