School bursars ask for salary increment

Bursars in government secondary schools across the country have asked government to give them salary increment like their teaching counterparts.

In September, government earmarked Shs150b for salary enhancement for all teachers in public schools (primary, secondary and colleges) and public universities across the country.
However, the bursars under their umbrella group, the Uganda National Bursars Association, have said their salaries were not enhanced despite having similar qualifications as teachers.

Addressing journalists yesterday at Kampala High School, the association general secretary, Mr Hussein Sekandi, said whereas science secondary teachers, with whom they share the salary scale of U5 earn Shs930,966 per month, the bursars are paid only Shs560,000.
This means that a bursar takes home Shs480,000 after tax, which Mr Sekandi said is too little to sustain their needs.

“Our not making noise should not be misinterpreted for comfort. When the government enhanced salaries of our colleagues, we thought they were going to automatically increase ours as well but to our dismay, nothing was given to us. This is demeaning,” he said.

“We request to be paid a salary scale at least equal to that of a U5 science teacher, though we feel we deserve more. Our demand is simple and workable, we are not asking the government to release more funds. Let us share the little it has already put on our table,” Mr Sekandi added.

He further said they have written to the Education and Public Service ministry about their plight but have not received any response. He called for immediate response from those responsible before they lay down their tools.
The permanent secretary in the ministry of Education, Mr Alex Kakooza, said they do not handle salary issues and referred us to the Finance and Public Service ministries.
The Finance ministry spokesperson, Mr Jim Mugunga, said the salaries of bursars and other non-teaching staff are supposed to be handled by the ministry of Education.
Nevertheless, he promised to liaise with the Education ministry about the matter.

Employed bursars
Mr Sekandi said at a moment, there are 1,065 government secondary schools and 64 tertiary institutions but the bursars are only 872. He said, therefore, government will not incur a lot of money to increase their pay.
He added that the role of the bursar is to pay teachers, draws budgets for schools, pay suppliers and act as the financial adviser of the school.

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