Fighting for the plight of the Ugandan teacher

As a catechist’s child, his childhood was steeped in Christian morals and values, which opened his eyes to the unfairness and injustice around him and he vowed to become a lawyer. When this childhood dream got derailed and Tweheyo became a teacher, he wholeheartedly embraced the profession that had chosen. He determined to make the best of it and there is no doubt that he has succeeded in achieving this goal.
For most of his career, Tweheyo has been very vocal about the plight of teachers. “Our remuneration shamefully was poor, irregular and uncertain. We had to do something to help ourselves and that is one of the biggest reasons Unatu was formed,” explains Tweheyo. He started out as an executive member representing secondary school education, was elected national vice chairperson in 2006 and in 2011, Tweheyo finally became the association’s chairperson, a position he still holds. For the past 13 years, Tweheyo through Unatu has fought the systems and the bureaucracy that threatened to devalue and undermine the teachers’ efforts, a struggle he believes he has won. “When the association started back in 2003, a primary school teacher was earning Shs80,000 while a secondary school teacher was earning Shs200,000. Today, they can boast of their Shs400,000 and Shs700,000 respectively, which comes on time,” Tweheyo reveals.
He recognises the government’s role in improving teachers’ remuneration but believes that the association instigated this positive change. With that hurdle out of the way, Tweheyo and the association have now turned their attention to other pressing welfare challenges in the system.

New engagement
“One of the biggest challenges in our system is that we have no streamlined way of promotion. The system provides that you move from a classroom teacher to a deputy head teacher and then head teacher and that’s it,” the teacher points out. The association thus wants to put in place a system where teachers can be promoted, their salaries increased but stay in the classroom.
Apart from his leadership role with the association, Tweheyo is a well known English language, Literature and General Paper teacher in the country. He has taught at Kinoni Girls School, Ntare School, Nyakayoojo Secondary School in Mbarara District and Kabalega Secondary School, where he also doubled as head teacher.
“My first posting was at Kinoni Girls School, a very underperforming school at the time with a major English and Mathematics problem. I convinced the headmaster to let me bring a friend who was a brilliant Mathematics teacher in an effort to boost the students’ grades. We were rewarded by two first grades - the first ever at the school. I remember us plant a tree in commemoration of the achievement,” Tweheyo recalls.
When Tweheyo found himself at Ntare School in 1994, it was much easier to replicate the winning formula leaning on this prior success. The school that year had only 36 first grades, which is extremely poor for a school of its stature. Once again mathematics and English were to blame for the poor grades. Tweheyo was appointed the head of department and he put together a team that restored the school back to its glory. “I remember receiving a bonus of Shs890,000 in 1998, for every distinction I got in English. This was an enormous amount of cash since my salary was just Shs240, 000,” the teacher reminiscences.

Short takes
His philosophy. I do not care what happens today because our tomorrow is determined by our resolution to live today and make tomorrow better.
His biggest fear. “I am very afraid of the laziness that has attacked our nation. Laziness is not just the inability to do work but also the inability to make decisions. To help this nation, we must teach our children that greatness can be achieved only through hard work, commitment and responsibility, not shortcuts,” advises the father of two girls and two boys.