Schools donate to government as some teachers miss pay
Teachers from various schools convene to select senior one students recently. Some teachers, especially in private schools across the country, are crying out for relief food saying they had not been paid since the President closed all education institutions in March. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- Plight of teachers. Some teachers in private schools have not been paid salaries and lack food to feed their families.
- Ms Grace Namakula, the head teacher of Baptist High School, which is privately owned, said many private schools have not been able to pay their teachers because most parents had not paid school fees.
As heads of schools yesterday were donating money to government’s Covid-19 national taskforce, some teachers, especially in private schools across the country, were crying out for relief food saying they had not been paid since the President closed all education institutions in March to combat the pandemic.
A teacher at Baptist High School in Rubaga Division, Kampala, who preferred to remain anonymous, said they have not received their salaries for March and do not know whether they will receive the salaries for April and subsequent months.
He said they were last paid in February and have since run out of money to feed their families.
“Unlike the teachers in government schools, some of us have not seen our money during the lockdown. Our heads of schools have told us that they cannot pay us since the clients (students) were sent back home and majority of them had not paid school fees,” the teacher said.
A nursery school teacher in Kireka, Wakiso District, said he is left with nothing to feed his family because he was depending on salary.
“Since the lockdown, I have been waiting to benefit from the government food after I was told that I will not receive my March salary, but to date, the distribution team has not reached where I live,” he said.
Ms Grace Namakula, the head teacher of Baptist High School, which is privately owned, said many private schools have not been able to pay their teachers because most parents had not paid school fees.
“Truth be told, the lockdown is really biting hard because when the schools were closed, most of us were expecting money from parents on the visitation day,” Ms Namakula said.
The Ugandan National Teachers Union (Unatu) secretary general, Mr Filbert Baguma, said some teachers have approached the association for help.
He, however, said much as those teachers in private schools are not part of the association, Unatu is lobbying government to deliver food to them.
“We are also trying to advocate for them so that their institutions give them at least 50 per cent of their pay for survival as they wait for government food. Those schools still have food that was meant for students, let them distribute it to their teachers for now,” Mr Baguma said.
The chairperson of the Association of Secondary School Headteachers of Uganda, Mr Martine Obore, while handing over their donation of Shs23m to government yesterday, said leaders of the private schools association must make a resolution on the teachers’ plight.
“We sympathise with the teachers in disadvantaged private schools with less financial capacity to pay their teachers. The Federation of Non-state Education Institutions (FENEI) should come out and ask for help from the government so that those teachers are assisted,” Mr Obore said.
The secretary of FENEI, Mr Patrick Kaboyo, said most private schools who have not been able to pay their teachers are in talks with different banks to give loans to teachers and some schools to take them through this period.
