Nursing tutors not paid for five months

Masaka- Teaching staff at Masaka School of Comprehensive Nursing have asked the Ministry of Education to speed up the process of paying their outstanding salary arrears.

The staff claim that management has not prioritised the issue, which has demotivated them, forcing some to abscond from duty. According to Ms Kekulina Namusindo, the school’s deputy principal, management has since petitioned Ministry of Education to address the matter.

“We have already asked our line ministry to speed up the process of paying their [staff salary] arrears to enable them execute their duties smoothly. We also demanded that they [Ministry of Education] add more staff members on government payroll because this is one of the challenges affecting service delivery,” Ms Namusindo said on Saturday.

According to Ms Namusindo, the school has 12 tutors and only four are on government payroll. Other eight are paid by the school council.

She revealed that tutors on government payroll are demanding salary arrears for five months amounting to Shs13.2 million, something that has affected their individual performances.

One female tutor who preferred anonymity, said her two daughters, one in Primary Four and another in Primary Six, did not to get their third term reports after failing to pay fees.

“There was hope that we will be paid by end of October but this did not happen. We are struggling to make ends meet and if we were not running small businesses, we would not be fulfilling key necessities of our families,” she said.

District leadership speaks out
However, Mr Emmanuel Gakyaro, the Masaka deputy town clerk, said the issue had been resolved.

“We owe arrears of three tutors [juniors] out of four we pay. They have not received their salaries since July but it was not our fault because their names were not included on our payroll. However, that issue has been resolved and they are going to receive all their arrears before the end of this month,” he said.

Tutors (beginners) on government payroll receive Shs880,000 per month, while senior tutors bag Shs950,000.

Other challenges affecting the school, according to Ms Kekulina, include limited space especially in laboratories where practical lessons are conducted, which she said inconveniences students especially during their final exams as they are forced to do them in shifts.

Last Friday, the Ministry of Education Permanent Secretary, Mr Alex Kakooza, visited the school as part of his ongoing supervision of nursing schools in the country.

He said the ministry is harnessing efforts to equip all nursing institutions with practical materials.

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