Parliament has promised to help improve the welfare of teachers and students just minutes after receiving a petition from a team of activists.
The petition was later tabled in Parliament by Rosemary Seninde, the Wakiso woman MP and it was sent to the Education Committee.
Speaking from his own experience, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah says that while still in school he was faced by many challenges that ranged from bulling by other pupils, food scarcity and the long distances he had to make to school early in the morning. The speaker says he had to walk seven miles to attend school but was grateful that his parents did not fail to pay school fees.
Cue in: “In the months……
Cue out:…….situation.”//
He urged the teachers to wait for action from parliament.
Activists from Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC), Uganda Muslim Education Association (UMEA), Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) and Forum of Educational NGOs today presented a petition to parliament on the second day of the teachers’ strike. The petitioners led by Reverend Father Silvestre Rwomukubwe demanded for reforms in the education sector.
UNATU announced a two-day sit down strike to compel government to increase teachers’ salaries by 100 percent. Government, however, says it can afford 15 percent pay rise.
The major concerns to the activists include capitation grants per child. They argue that the amount is too little to cater for the pupils and want parliament to increase the amount from the current 10,000 to 22,000 shillings per child per year in Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools.
The activists also want government to construct additional classrooms, recruit more teachers to match the number of pupils and increase the basic teacher’s salary from 273,000 to 546,000 shillings. The current teacher-pupil ratio stands at 1:83 with places like Arua with 1:114. This is against the recommended 1:55 ratio.
Rev. Rwomukubwe, the executive director of UJCC, wants parliament to amend the Education (Pre-Primary, Primary and Post-Primary) Act and ask parents and guardians to make a mandatory financial contribution towards the provision of lunch for all children at school.
They are also seeking Parliament’s intervention to ensure the Ministry of Public Service urgently operationalises the negotiation, consultative and dispute settlement machinery to ensure collective bargaining by workers. Government has instead taken over the role to increase or refuse to increase the salaries of teachers.
On their way to deliver the petition, teachers unveiled their latest move to push government into giving them an immediate 100% increase on their salary.
The teachers donned t-shirts with two 20,000 shilling notes printed on them with a question: ‘For Teachers?’ in reference to the 15 percent salary increment proposed in the 2012/2013 budget. The figure translates to 40,000 shillings. The teachers also held placards showing the different areas they had come from to deliver the petition.
Daniel Ahimbisibwe, a teacher at Kabale model primary school in Kabale District, says the move was meant to show government that the 15 percent salary increment is too little to even fill the space on a t-shirt.
The move by teachers comes a day after the minister of education Jessica Alupo announced that government had forgiven the teachers who had gone on strike on Monday which the UNATU secretary general, Teopista Birungi, says was also a mock move by government.
