Teachers in southwestern Uganda are planning to drag government to the human rights commission for what they called continued harassment and intimidation.
Government at the beginning of the third term on Monday introduced roll calls for all teachers in government-aided schools with an aim of cracking down on errant staff. The action followed the threats by teachers under their umbrella body, Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) not to resume teaching unless their salaries are doubled.
The teachers from southwestern region say for the last two days they have been forcefully pushed to get to classes and teach under strict supervision by government agents.
Kabagambe Amos and Teddy Masha from Bushenyi and Mbarara districts respectively, say on Tuesday they were ordered to conduct lessons while government agents watched throughout the process. They say the act is against their will and love for the teaching profession.
Alex Kwikiriza, the western region UNATU chairman says they are ready to drag to go to human rights commission if government does not remove what he calls intimidating agents from schools.
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Kwikiriza condemned the selective victimization of teachers by resident district commissioners, who threaten teachers with dismissal if they continue expressing their grievances by staging a sit down strike.
The resident district commissioner Mbarara, Clement Kandole says they are aware of how teachers in most schools in the region just reported to work for fear of being sacked but are not conducting lessons.
Without mentioning specific schools, Kandole says he is watching teachers who are present at their respective schools but not teaching. He says RDCs will continue inspecting schools until teachers call off their industrial action.
