Today, Uganda joins the rest of the world in celebrating teachers. Held annually on October 5, World Teachers’ Day, according to Unesco, ‘commemorates the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 International Labour Organisation/Unesco recommendation concerning the status of teachers, which sets benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers, and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions’.
Unfortunately, the day will be marked in Uganda when teachers have withdrawn their labour over salary disparities.
Teachers, mostly in secondary schools, are in the third week of their strike, which started on September 15. In July 2022, the government implemented a substantial pay rise for science teachers, increasing salaries by up to 300 percent.
Under the adjustment, graduate science teachers’ pay rose from Shs1.1m to Shs4m, and Grade V science teachers’ pay from Shs796,000 to Shs2.5 million. Currently, a graduate arts teacher earns a gross salary of Shs1,078,162 and takes home Shs841,931, while their science counterpart earns Shs4m gross and Shs2,858,000 net.
The minister of Public Service, Mr Muruli Mukasa, this week issued a stern warning to the striking teachers, declaring the industrial action illegal and directing teachers to resume work within one week. But labour unions have joined the Uganda National Teachers’ Union (Unatu) to reject the government’s seven-day ultimatum to end their strike, insisting that teachers will not return to classrooms until their demand for salary enhancement is addressed. But as we celebrate World Teachers’ Day, let us take time and reflect on all the challenges facing our teachers beyond their salaries. For long, teachers, especially in rural areas, have complained about poor working conditions.
Many of these schools are understaffed, have limited classrooms and accommodation, as well as limited textbooks and science apparatus.
Teachers also face limited professional development opportunities. We should stop treating the training of teachers as a one-time event, but rather a continuous process that must follow them through their careers if we want to transform our education system.
All these challenges have led to the demoralisation of teachers who play a key role in driving learning and innovation in schools and societies. It is our appeal, therefore, that all stakeholders, both from the government and private sectors, come together to tackle the challenges that teachers are facing today.
It is through addressing some of these bottlenecks and coming up with new policies that we shall transform our education sector to meet the demands of the 21st Century.