Schools in Mbarara municipality on Monday opened for the third term despite threats by teachers to stage a sit down strike demanding for better pay.
In Masaka municipality, however, pupils missed lessons on the opening day of third term as a result of the strike. Following a government warning to sack all teachers who refuse to report for the start of the term, several teachers in Masaka town opened their schools but did not teach.
Some of the affected schools are Hill Road Public School, St. Bruno Sazza, Kimannya and Kikungwe primary schools.
Others are Bwala Muslim Primary school, and Binyonyi primary school among others.
At Hill Road Public school, over 20 teachers including their head teacher, Charles Nsereko turned up but did not teach. When URN visited the school at around 9am, the teachers were standing at the verandah while pupils were playing in the compound.
Emmanuel Muloite, a teacher at Hill Road Primary school says the Masaka RDC, Bamusedde Bwambale and security agencies forced them to open the school but they would not teach. Muloite says although they opened the schools for fear of arrest, pupils have missed lessons because no teacher is willing to teach them.
Muloite explains that he cannot have the morale to teach other parents’ children yet his six children are still at home because he does not have money to raise fees.
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At St. Bruno Primary school at Sazza Headquarters and Kiwumbwe primary school in Masaka town, pupils who turned up were playing. Moses Musoke, one of the pupils who were playing in the compound told URN that the teachers refused to teach them science and English lessons because of the strike.
Moses Kawuma, the Deputy Head teacher at St. Bruno Primary school says 90% of the pupils missed lessons today due to the strike. Asumputa Nabukenya, an English and Swahili teacher at the school says unless government bows to teachers demands, she will not offer that quality teaching the pupils want.
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Mathias Mpuuga, the Masaka Municipality Member of Parliament visited several schools and pushed for the teacher’s strike. Speaking to URN after visiting Binyonyi and Hill Road Primary schools, Mpuuga said government should respond to the teachers’ plight immediately.
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In Mbarara Municipality, activities at Mbarara Municipal School started as early as 7am with a big number of teachers reporting filling roll call forms provided by government.
The school head teacher, Kananura Martin told URN reporter that most of his teachers had reported by 7.30am and he was expecting a few others to also to report for work.
In other schools like Uganda martyrs, there was total calm as children were in class waiting for their teachers who were busy preparing for the day’s lessons.
Mbarara municipal authorities dispatched a team of officials to various government schools to ascertain the situation as the third term begins.
The municipal educational officer, Silver Magara says this was intended to establish the number of teachers who reported and those who did not.
